Journal Journal: The next Right-wing target: Hollywood.
I remember when the news media was liberal. No more. Fox News is the most Right wing, but the others are no longer left-leaning. They lean to the Right, some more than others. Just because you still hear the phrase the liberal media does not make it true. It's a lie. (Read Al Franken's book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. If you think this book is just a leftist smear job, stop reading now. None of what follows is for you.)
What happened? It was a coup. It took a while, but it was successful. The people with the money (e.g., Rupert Murdock and NewsCorp), with Borg-like consistency, converted one news organization after another, until there was nothing Left.
Michael Moore's newest movie, Fahrenheit 9/11, got me thinkin'. What's next for the Right wing crusaders? Movies. As it was before with news, movies are still mostly left leaning. I can't think of a single (mainstream) movie that expounded Right wing ideas. Moore's latest is a good example of left leaning Hollywood.
I'm sure the take-over of the movie business is being planned Right now. When it happens, movies like Moore's will not find a distributor. Movies that have an obvious or not-so-obvious Right-wing agenda will easily find distributors.
It will happen. Why? Because the money says so. Big business wants it that way. Why? Because businesses want
- fewer government regulations (the Bush record), and
- fewer taxes.
Businesses, as well as people, tend toward self interest. Yes, there are charitable people and businesses. They are in the minority. Businesses, by definition, worship the bottom line. Their board of directors must hold the stock price of the company in as all important, otherwise they will be personally accountable to the shareholders.
The Democrats, whether you believe they act on it or not, are on the side of the little guy. The Republicans are on the side of the corporation (they would say they're on the side of capitalism).
I've lost some of you because you think I'm a communist or anti-capitalist. I think capitalism is the best system ever created, but checks and balances are needed. Decimating environmental protections, for example, is exactly the wrong thing to do. It allows companies to choose between the profit and doing the right thing. Sometimes, they will go for profit.
If you still don't agree then think on this: Enron was possible because of the removal of government regulations. The removal of these regulation allowed the greed inherent in many people to run rampant. The result was that many people got hurt. Many a retirement nest-egg was completely wiped out. Many people make a lot of money they had no right to make. It was not an honest buck for honest hard work. It was fraud. It was only possible because the government was not watching.
There is a state in which capitalism can exist where the needs of the people and the needs of corporations are balanced. This state is called fairness. In that state, capitalism is humane and good. Everything that we all want it to be. When out of balance it can be very bad.
What you see in Iraq is evidence of imbalance. Bush and his family through their companies (Harken Energy) have close ties to Saudi oil. Dick Cheney ran Halliburton. Their allegiances are to the corporation more than they are to the people. This imbalance drove Bush to lie force the US into the war.
We are out of balance.
Movies will be the next tool of the Right to push it even further out of balance. Beware.
