"hollywood liberals"--it's just a remake [View All]

[sophie996]

... of the late '40s-'50s attacks on Communists and Communist sympathizers in Hollywood. HUAC, Joe McCarthy, the blacklist. If this all seems new to you, visit
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/blacklist.html

Today, for Communist, substitute environmentalist, anti-war, Bush opposition.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6856481/site/newsweek/
Oscar Confidential:
“After last year, how do you all feel about using your celebrity for political purposes?
DICAPRIO: There's this stigma that's put upon actors that we aren't allowed to be citizens as well—that somehow we're detached from everyday life. It's annoying to me. I went out in support of John Kerry, and my objective—I'm an environmentalist—was to attract young people to listen about an issue that wasn't being talked about, really.
There was a lot of talk afterward about voter backlash against "Hollywood liberals."
DICAPRIO: It's as if we're not allowed to have a voice because of some public persona, some label that's been put upon us.
SWANK: It's interesting to me that people care about our opinions when they buy the Enquirer, but when they disagree with us, it's "actors should step down."
FOXX: Why not use your leverage for the good of things, because leverage is used for the evil of things all the time. Stand up.
SWANK: They can say whatever they want about us. Just as long as they don't start blacklisting. What?
FOXX: Nothing. I just knee-jerked when you said "black" list.”
Hollywood was generally very helpful in World War II propaganda. Stars traveled to entertain the troops and sell war bonds, and the studios tailored their product to fit:
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/st/~ksoroka/hollywood1.html
(an excerpt)
Office of War Information

For the benefit of both your studio and the Office of War Information it would be advisable to establish a routine procedure whereby our Hollywood office would recieve copies of studio treatments or synopses of all stories which you contemplate producing and of the finished scripts. This will enable us to make suggestions as to the war content of motion pictures at a stage when it is easy and inexpensive to make any changes which might be recommended.
-Lowell Mellett (FDR presidential liaison to media) to studio heads, December 9, 1942 (4)

Do we have such a government agency today? If so, it must be a secret—and it's just one of the ways our current “conflict” differs from an honest war supported by the public.