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The New Hollywood Blacklist

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Hollywood folks often boast about their tolerance and liberality. Maybe they should look up those words.

Our national myth-makers especially like to go over the horrors of the McCarthy “Blacklist” period, when the power of government nudged studio owners to blacklist writers and actors and directors who were (or were associated with) Communists.

Almost no one likes blacklists. Indeed, the McCarthy period censorship did much to harm the anti-communist movement.

But don’t look for such subtleties of judgment from Hollywood today. After all, there is a working blacklist right now.

This time, though, there’s no pressure from Congress or regular Americans for this form of censorship. Hollywood players serve as their own censors, maintaining their blacklist by shunning those they don’t agree with politically.

Take the case of J. Neil Schulman. He was an up-and-coming writer in the ’80s. The people at L.A. Law really liked his proposals. But he had the gall to write an op-ed they didn’t approve of, favoring the right to gun ownership, so the L.A. Law folks dropped him like a hot potato, and spread the word. “Too right-wing,” they said.

Dan Gifford tells the tale on Big Hollywood. It’s an interesting story. You can see why the new blacklist is more effective than the old: It’s tacit, hush-hush. There are no hearings, interviews, what-have-you. But the effect is pretty much the same as the McCarthy Era blacklist: Chilling.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

5 replies on “The New Hollywood Blacklist”

McCarthy had nothing to do with hollywood. His investigation was about commies in government. Which by the way proved to be true. It was the House un-American Activities Commitee this got Hollywood commies blacklisted.

On the other hand: it’s their business, and they can blacklist if they so desire. We the public can choose whether to support the garbage the Hollywood elite crowd chooses to foist upon us. That is the beauty of a free market.

Interesting responses. I tend to feel that there should be a way to get around Hollywood’s ideal ban and I think the internet is doing it. We can speak our ideas right or left with a variety of ideals and values and no one can stop it. Here in the US we can still be free and I a greatful for it.

Can’t Be Conservative in Hollywood…

It used to be that you could not be a communist in Hollywood because of Joe McCarthy; and they still criticize anybody who wants to “blacklist” anybody there—except themselves. Today it is “verboten” to have ANY views that do….

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