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Limbaugh's "Discovery" That Hollywood Is "Shutting Out the Right":
Just Another One of His Lies
by Steve Young
June 24, 2006–HOLLYWOOD (apj.us)–For years, one of the myths perpetrated by the Lords of Loud of the Right is that if you have conservative values or skew right, you have no chance in Hollywood.
This past week, in a forum sponsored by the Heritage Foundation–perhaps the Rightest of the Right think tanks, with Clarence Thomas and Rush Limbaugh in attendance–Joel Surnow and Bob Cochran, the executive producers of "24," one of today's most successful television shows, were asked by Limbaugh if they were snubbed by Hollywood liberals for producing a "pro-America" show.
The answer was "No," and Surnow–who has shown up at his share of conservative events–acknowledged the show's audience includes those of all political persuasions, including Barbra Streisand and Donald Rumsfeld.
Limbaugh immediately called for all talk show hosts and conservative pundits to discontinue throwing around fraudulent suggestions that without leaning left you're deadwood in Hollywood.
(Quickie Test: Guess which previous sentence was untrue.)
I have never bought into the Right's "Republican equals Hollywood shutout" claims anymore than I believe seventeen-year-old mustard gas is why we went into Iraq.
Now, if Rush, Sean and Bill-O would have slammed Hollywood for bias against the over-forty writer or any film script that had my name on it, then I might be tuned into FOX News more often for my information.
The main speaker at the Heritage Foundation forum was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. He spoke of the differences between Fox's "24" and the actual counterterrorism work.
In the just-concluded fifth season of "24," President Charles Logan (played by Gregory Itzin, who was on the panel) approved supplying a Russian madman planning attacks in the Los Angeles area with nerve gas. In real life, it was President Reagan who authorized Rumsfeld to shake hands with and supply an Iraqi madman with WMD.
In "24" Logan had his predecessor killed. In real politics, you don't want to make a martyr out of someone your supporters can continue to pummel with much more venom if alive. It's very tacky to demean the dead.
In "24" the President was not really in charge as much as a dark, maniacal figure who fed him diabolical instructions from some hidden bunker. That's the only similarity.
Chertoff made sure not to mention that extra-super-duper agent Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland) might have handled Katrina better than he or Michael Brown did–especially when there's a good chance that Kiefer himself could have done a better job.
But it would seem that Chertoff, President Bush or, for that matter, anyone who may want to create something special, might want to take a tip from some of the show's writers.
When I interviewed the "24" producers for the WGA's "Written By" magazine, I was told that when stuck, their creative tactic was to ask, "what could never happen," and that's exactly what would happen.* It's not a guarantee that everything would work out better that way, but other than being Simon Cowell, "staying the course" hasn't worked all that well lately.
*It tended ruin my appreciation of the show. Not that I figured out events ahead of time. In fact, I was wrong most of the time–but I would keep stopping TIVO to tell my wife my latest inept calculation anyway. She just loved that.
Steve Young is a Senior Fellow at the Extreme Far Centrist Foundation' Political Husbandry Conservation Centre and Stereo Repair. In his spare time, he is also an author, comedy writer, columnist, LA talk show host and author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful."(What? You STILL haven't bought it? Then visit http://www.greatfailure.com/) and the forthcoming "15 Minutes". You can also check out the satirical side of Steve every Sunday in the LA Daily News.
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