Hollywood and Mainstream Media

Do you ever get SO frustrated with today's celebrities that you literally turn off the television--or bypass seeing a movie, just because someone plays a leading role? I do. Far too often. In fact, I sometimes battle with not going to see a blockbuster simply because I do not agree with the actors' personal beliefs.

Some (ok, most) of my friends tell me I'm ridiculous, but am I? These people tell us what we should do with our lives, how we should treat people, what we should give away, who we should vote for--though they don't follow their own advice (well except who to vote for). They lecture us from their million dollar homes. What makes them an expert in today's world? The fact that they made millions of dollars by pretending to be somebody else?!? I'm tired of listening to someone who has no idea what it is like to be an "average Joe" tell me what I should do in my home or how I should live my life.

I came across a speech that Pat Sajak gave in 2002. He took the thoughts and points I make on a daily basis and said them so eloquently that I felt I must share with blog land. Here's the full speech.

"...Former CBS News-man Bernard Goldberg has written a best- selling book called Bias, in which he maintains that the real problem with the media is not a bias based on liberal vs. conservative or Republican vs. Democrat. It is a bias based on the sameness of worldview caused by social, intellectual, educational and professional inbreeding. These are folks who travel in the same circles, go to the same parties, talk to the same people, compare their ideas to people with the same ideas, and develop a standard view on issues that makes any deviation from them seem somehow marginal, or even weird...

...At a dinner party in Los Angeles recently, our hostess was about to say some grudgingly kind words about President Bush and the way he was handling the War on Terror. She prefaced her remarks by saying, "Now I know everyone at this table voted for Al Gore, but ..." Well, she knew no such thing. She just presumed it. It's what "right-thinking" people did. This "false reality" is a phenomenon that permeates media circles.

It's the phenomenon that caused Pauline Kael, former film critic for The New Yorker, to remark after Richard Nixon's election sweep in 1972, "I can't believe it! I don't know a single person who voted for him." This was a man who won in 49 out of 50 states, and she didn't know one person who voted for him. And I don't think she was dealing in hyperbole. She simply had never met those people. She couldn't believe they really existed...

... It's the phenomenon that explains Hollywood's disdain for Big Business. You read about it in the newsmagazines and see it in the movies. Big Business is bad. The people who run these businesses are heartless, often criminal, brutes. There is no regard for the little guy. Thousands are laid off while the greedy business executives reap windfall profits. Never mind that some of the biggest and least-competitive businesses are in entertainment. They merge, they lay off thousands, while stock options accrue to the top executives. Top talent at networks and in movies get tens — even hundreds — of millions while so many of their co-workers, the little people they care so much about, lose their jobs. They simply don't see the contradiction. They are above it..."

I especially like the Big Business "evil" monster. I keep intending to do a piece on Michael Moore's new movie: "Capitalism: A Love Story." I think Jay Leno summed it up best last week when he said in more or less words--yes Michael. Capitalism is sooooo evil. It's so evil that all that profit you're making from the movie tickets and all the profits you are making off the items being sold along side the release of your movie is only ok, what, if it lines YOUR pockets???