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Politainment

34 comments on Politainment

Politainment

: First, go read the Bill Clinton report, below. I hate it when something that took a lot of work scrolls off the screen. Isn’t it pathetic to plug and link to your own post? Yes, it is. Anyway…. Here’s one more thought that came out of what Clinton said…

The right was clever, no brilliant, to bypass the news — which they felt was stacked against them — to use other media and even entertainment to sell their political cause. Now the left is fighting back and so it’s interesting to look at the scorecard:

: Radio — still owned by the right, of course. Is Air America an inroad? Not if it doesn’t survive past the election. But Clinton said its getting audience last night and, of course, Al Franken says so.

: Books — shifting. Clinton said that during his presidency, most political books were from the right and they filled the best-seller list. Now the left is gaining with Franken, Moore, Clinton, and Clinton. There are still loads of conservatives selling well — start with O’Reilly. But now it’s a battleground. Only thing is, the audience for books themselves is tiny. The hidden agenda (besides earning advances) is going on book tours and getting publicity on TV, I think.

: Movies — owned by the left. Well, of course, they’re a product of left-wing Hollywood, aren’t they? There’s Fahrenheit 9/11, The Hunting of the President, The Day After Tomorrow in theaters now. What am I missing on the right? Who was the last big right-wing star after John Wayne?

: Music — always been the left. But I don’t think that’s effective today; it’s no longer and has not been in ages a medium of lyrics and the rebellion these days is often generic: anger at the Man rather than this Man or that Man.

: TV — outside of the news (let’s not get into that), isn’t TV rather apolitical? Oh, sure, there’s your random anti-Reagan miniseries and the message snuck in here and there. But I think this will be the next frontier of political entertainment. See Al Gore’s new network. It won’t be as overtly political as Air America, they say, but it will have a world view, of course. And I’ll be you’ll see some efforts to create the Norman Lear or the anti-Lear in politically hued sitcoms and dramas.

What do you see?

34 responses to “Politainment”

  1. Michael Zimmer Avatar
    Michael Zimmer

    Nice reflection. Its also important to consider the ideological positions of many movies and television product from Hollywood. Is it really so leftist? Sine that famous meeting between administration officials and Hollywood producers asking their help to “sell” the war, etc, consider the amount of uber-patriotic movies that have been released recently: The Alamo, the one about the 1980 American hockey team, just to name a few. (Could you imagine pitching such films if it wasn’t for the push for Patriotism in cultural production?)
    With television, we’ve seen a similar onslaught of shows related to the government’s effort to fight terrorism: Threat Matrix, The Grid, etc. Certainly, some of this is just Hollywood tapping into current interest in such topics, but its not unrealistic to think its also part of a larger campaign to educate citizens about the who what where why how of our war against terrorism.
    Grey propaganda? Perhaps that’s going a bit too far. But despite the claims that Hollywood has an adversarial relationship with the Bush administration, in truth the mainstream cultural products generally follow Washington’s ideologies.

  2. Foppa21 Avatar
    Foppa21

    Maybe not really part of the media, but what about the art world? I would say that the arts are dominated by the left. Art has become a way to shock the burgeoise instead of a way to uplift the human sprit.
    How much the poorer are we as a culture when we no longer have artists capable of producing anything more than a jar of pee with a cross in it? What happened to the artists who used powerful art to reinforce what society holds dear instead of tearing it down. Where are the Michelangelos, El Grecos and JS Bachs of the world?

  3. shark Avatar
    shark

    Isn’t TV apolitical?
    Not as much as it used to be. Some of the more popular shows are mixing in increasingly overt anti-Bush messages……..ER and the Law and Order stable, to name a couple.

  4. Finlay Avatar
    Finlay

    Micheal,
    I have a lot of trouble with your premise that Hollywood is in anyway actively promoting any sort of propaganda for the administration. Do you recall that Sum of All Fears had to change the terrorists from Arabs to Neo-Nazis? Seems like if there was some hidden Hollywood agenda that would not have happened.
    Obviously Hollywood is way to the left of mainstream America, however they are still in the business of making money, so it makes sense in aftermath of 9/11 Hollywood would respond to the public’s increased desire to be patriotic.
    If Hollywood is in the administrations pocket, why haven’t we seen more movies about American soldiers kicking Arab ass? I mean how long after Dec 7, 1941 was Hollywood cranking out war movies?

  5. Ray Avatar
    Ray

    It always seems to come down to commercial viability at some point. Making a form of entertainment that is politically out of touch with your standard consumer and having said consumer not feel “connected” is not the best way to make a buck. So the left has the problem of sounding far too preachy if it gets that political in making it’s case.
    Another problem I see for the left making it’s pitch via entertainment is, what exactly is that pitch these days? Personally it seems every time I listen to a left wing message lately it’s all doom and gloom and hate and anger. If the right was able to sell their message via entertainment, it helped that the message was uplifting, rags-to-riches, USA is the best kind of thing.
    Saying how evil Republicans are in general and Bush is in particular is just going to turn people off from listening. People watch/consume entertainment to escape from the trails of daily life, to enjoy themselves, to have a fun moment. Hearing how bad and wrong things are is not part of the program.
    So, an uplifting lefty message without turning the right wing into evil incarnate might work. But I haven’t seen it lately.

  6. Hipocrite Avatar
    Hipocrite

    How soon we forget the Passion of the Mel.

  7. theron Avatar
    theron

    O’Reilly is not a conservative. He is an independent – just ask him.

  8. HH Avatar
    HH

    Lying in Ponds has examined O’Reilly’s columns and he’s straight down the middle in his criticisms, onlyy leans slightly right.
    You’re far too generous on TV. The only television not controlled by the left is Fox News, various religious channels, Joe Scarborough, Dennis Miller and a couple of programs like King of the Hill and South Park, and even those don’t lean solidly right, they’re more libertarian. The combined audience for these shows is a fraction of a fraction. The rest is solid left (MTV anyone? The Daily Show? The Movie Awards were an ad for Kerry and they scrapped their inaugural ball the moment a Republican came into office)… the truly apolitical is hard to find.
    Al Franken has been writing books for many years, same with Molly Ivins, James Carville, etc. The idea that the right has ever “dominated” books is a total myth. Rush Limbaugh was all alone there and he hasn’t written a book in about a decade. They only dominated for about six months to a year (when No Spin Zone, Bias, Slander and Let Freedom Ring came out… even then, Stupid White Men got more mainstream exposure) and it’s been the left in control of the book market ever since with the occasional Coulter or Hannity book breaking through.
    With radio, you’re ignoring NPR and radio news.
    And of course you’re totally forgetting newspapers and magazines. The news mags and papers which call themselves objective lean solidly left. The Washington Times, New York Post, Boston Herald, Weekly Standard, National Review and American Spectator basically cover it for the right.

  9. Finlay Avatar
    Finlay

    Hypocrite,
    Passion of the Christ is a perfect example of Hollywood’s left leaning sensibilities. Remembr that Gibson financed the movie out of his own pocket and completely bypassed the studio execs. Also, who whined the most about the supposed anti-semitism of the film? Anyway, curiously the hyperventialtion on the left about Krstalnacht in the streets of Peoria proved to be a little exagerrated.
    The Passion proved is that there is a huge audience out there for films that celebrate and honor the faith of the majority of Americans. Will Hollywood listen?

  10. scott orrell Avatar
    scott orrell

    What do I see?
    I see that I want it all to stop.
    We are now concentrating on the quantity of our voices rather than the quality of the message therein. It doesn’t take that many damn voices to make an argument. But it does take a hell of alot to successfully beat our brains into submission.
    I fear that we are becoming a nation full of propaganda, and worse, we are happily subjecting ourselves to it. I also fear that we are at the beginning of a long (very long)road to tribalism. American tribalism.

  11. unilever Avatar
    unilever

    What am I missing on the right? Who was the last big right-wing star after John Wayne?
    Um, you’re kidding, right?
    You’re missing quite a lot, Jeff. Just think on it a while and more names will occur. Here’s a starter list.
    – Arnold (The Governator) Schwatzenegger
    – Clint Eastwood
    – Charlton Heston (he’s post-Wayne)
    – Sylvester (Rambo) Stallone
    – Mel Gibson (remember The Patriot?)
    – Chuck Norris (B-list, but very active)
    – And pretty much any other traditional action movie star who uses the “my gun will solve all my problems” approach.

  12. HH Avatar
    HH

    Schwarzenegger is a stretch, he’s as moderate as it gets. Eastwood is a libertarian. I’ll give you Heston and Gibson.

  13. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    Books and Book tours were for people who wrote and peddled books. Now it’s a chat circuit with slight shrift given the publication itself. The merger/morphing of celebrity/politician/entertainer into something that fills airtime is new. News and infotainment following the trend/merger is new. The lack of any real facts or edge to the events of the day is disappointing. Course, any edge brngs with it a loss of access.
    The internet’s rise as an alternative to TV for entertainment is a reaction to the “make-you-look” media playing for eyeballs. “blogs” are also a reaction to the arise of infotainment. If an entertainer or clebrity can be on a par with a politician or knowledgeable functionary then anyone with access to a computer can be relevant, entertaining, and offer a rawer and/or more niave perspective .
    Watching the media lose their relevancy is an interesting experience. Searching for perspective and context is more active and less passive.
    Writing books for people who do not read newspapers and only watch TV is an interesting gambit. Jim Wright showed there was money in books. Even when you print em yourself

  14. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    to add to unilever’s post, Tom Selleck, Kelsey Grammar are also right leaning actors.
    Music tilts left with the exception of country, which is decidely to the right (remember the reception the Dixie Chicks got after ripping Bush?)
    Another category for the scorecard is the universities:
    WAAAAYYYYY to the left! Not just liberal, but leftist in many cases.

  15. HH Avatar
    HH

    Grammer was a conservative on a show filled with lefties (cocreator David Lee is almost left of Michael Moore). Will be interesting to see if any point of view comes out of his Fox sketch show. He also produces Girlfriends on UPN, which is, er, “progressive” to say the least, a la Sex & the City.
    I also forgot PBS, which is finally adding the Alan Colmes of the right, Tucker Carlson, to its lineup to “balance” the hours of Tavis Smiley and Bill Moyers (Charlie Rose is no right winger either).

  16. Steve in Houston Avatar
    Steve in Houston

    There’s a third layer here – the commentariat. That is, the professional reviewing class. I’d have to put them generally in the left. Certainly their underlying assumptions skew left. The very few self-proclaimed rightist reviewers – I’m thinking for example of Michael Medved – are widely riducled as uneducated and unsophisticated rubes. Or potential jackbooted censors. Both, actually.
    Here’s an illustration from your old stomping grounds, Jeff. A couple of months ago, the Entertainment Weekly Music section lede was about contemporary protest songs. As I interpreted it, the starting assumptions were:
    1) It is the general duty of musicians to protest
    2) It is necessary for that protest to be directed at all war – no exception, no exploration of the risks of not fighting. Boiled down: War bad.
    3) Said protest is limited to criticism of the current power structure
    4) Protest about matters outside this scope (e.g., against Saddam’s atrocities; against the UN’s reticence in solving problems like Sudanese genocide; against al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations and tactics) are at best irrelevant; at worst they could dilute the core message that all problems in the world are traceable to the United States and in particular George Bush
    5) The late ’60s/early ’70s were a Golden Age in which there was a perfect intersection of artistic integrity and political purity that dominated the airwaves of a reborn America (The Carpenters notwithstanding, of course); and this Golden Age can never be reproduced
    6) Any potential approval of US actions is not so much wrong as it is inexplicable.
    So, within that prism, the EC critic (David Browne, I believe) did a survey of the protest music being released and played at this time. I can’t recall offhand whether there was any discussion of the handful of country music songs expressing approval of America, but if there was, I’m pretty sure they were considered simplistic and jingoistic, and juxtaposed with the inhuman suppression of the Dixie Chicks.
    The underlying assumptions, of course, are contemptuous of “Flyover Country” (itself a contemptuous term) and pretty freaking irritating.
    Not so much for me to cancel my subscription, of course. EW is my crack, and I’m completely OK with that.

  17. Robert McClelland Avatar
    Robert McClelland

    I’m surprised you left blogs off the list.

  18. syn Avatar
    syn

    Pretty much have turned off and tuned out current entertainment.
    Love listening to Ray Charles sing “America the Beautiful”. Best rendition of the song ever.

  19. Gabriel Chapman Avatar
    Gabriel Chapman

    I see a media out of touch with the vast majority of American citizens. I see movies with little to no entertainment value the same rehashed shit over and over and it leaves the theatre just as fast as it came, I see a new attack book by some half assed pundit/reporter/oped columnist every week with nothing new to say, and only one theme “Bush is Evil”, I see Air America as a total failure overhyped and under produced by people with little to no radio expericnce, poor hosting decisions (except Franken even though hes not quite in his element), and I see short attention span theatre as the local news.
    What I really see is that I’m not missing anything by ignoring the entertainment cabal.

  20. shark Avatar
    shark

    Lets take this time to note the Hollywood/DNC connection is stronger than ever. Especially with the DNC reaching a deal to distribute copies of Moores new liefest….

  21. Michael Zimmer Avatar
    Michael Zimmer

    Are Hollywood and other major sources of our nation’s cultural content really as leftist as many of these comments seem to believe? I have a hard time believing it. These are large, multi-national corporations with very rich (white? male?) executives & directors ultimately calling the shots. Do you really think the Park Avenue & Rodeo Drive people who run Disney, GE/NBC, Viacom, Time Warner, News Corp, Bertelsmann, Vivendi or Sony really are leftists, or would they rather have lower capital gains tax, reduced tax on dividends, longer copyright terms, etc…..

  22. Richard Bennett Avatar
    Richard Bennett

    Television is left-wing on lifestyle, and they’ve been using sitcoms to try and modify America’s values for quite some time. Many, if not most, sitcom writers are gay men or feminist women, so naturally what they see as “normal” is skewed in relation to the American norm (remember “Designing Women?”). Hence the decline in sitcom viewership and the greater interest in reality shows that don’t have a lifestyle bias.
    Even when the networks try and do a show to just make money, the values of the producers get in middle of the mission and screw things up. Witness the controversy about the heterophobia on “Last Comic Standing”, where a very funny straight man was rejected by producers in favor of a gay man over the objections of the audience and a panel of celebrity judges who weren’t really judges in the final analysis.

  23. John Fleck Avatar
    John Fleck

    “Music — always been the left.” Don’t make the mistake of missing the enormous popularity of country music in the vast red middle of this nation. That’s tantamount to missing a considerably larger truth about what’s happening out here in flyover land.

  24. Leslie Avatar
    Leslie

    TV is apolitical? How soon we forget The West Wing. And that Whoopi Goldberg show which featured outright Bush bashing. There was even a show called That’s My Bush on Comedy Central although I honestly have no clue what went on there.
    And if All in the Family wasn’t political, I’ll eat my mousepad.

  25. triticale Avatar
    triticale

    First of all, just to clarify things, ownership, as used here is philosophical/market share rather than financial. I am quite certain that Milwaukee is not the only city where the same corporation owns the liberal daily newspaper and a radio station with conservative talk shows often directly critical of the paper.
    As for books, overtly political books from Ann Coulter and Michael Moore, or Victor David Hansen, Larry Elder or whoever are not the real indicator. Take a look at the loyal readership numbers for the Mack Bolan books, Harlequin romances (from the same publisher; warriors, first responders and entrepeneurs tend to be the lead characters) military science fiction and techno-thrillers, as compared to the readership numbers for Literature. Jacksonian fiction is what the flyover population actually wants.

  26. fat kid Avatar
    fat kid

    Jeff,
    Conservative Punk – check it. Interesting, considering how dominating Fat Wreck Chords’ Big Mike has been in getting conservative punk bands blacklisted from venues. Also interesting b/c this is more or less the *LEAST* likely form of music I’d have expected to encounter “right wing” viewpoints.

  27. Michael Zimmer Avatar
    Michael Zimmer

    Television is left-wing on lifestyle, and they’ve been using sitcoms to try and modify America’s values for quite some time.
    Well, sort of. Recently, TV does have more single parents, gays etc, but only portrayed in ways that the mainstream can handle. Notice that “Will & Grace” never has two men actually living together – you don’t even really see men dating or kissing. The household is still a man & a woman. And, of course, the “gay” men are stereotypical – they are clean, fit, fashionable, wealthy. There is never any mention of AIDS, never any mention of discrimination or other hurdles that many gay men continue to face daily. The lifestyles might lean left, but the messages and portrayals still swing mainstream. Its a bourgeois view of (what they want) gayness to be.
    Many, if not most, sitcom writers are gay men or feminist women…
    Where on earth do you get this from?!? Care to share any support to this claim?

  28. HH Avatar
    HH

    Franken’s claims are basically horseshit as the Natl. Debate and a writer for Mediaweek have found… He spins a lot for having a “Zero Spin Zone.”
    http://www.thenationaldebate.com/

  29. HH Avatar
    HH

    That’s My Bush was a big misfire on the part of libertarians Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Good enough for a five minute sketch, maybe. Deadly as a series.

  30. Anon Avatar
    Anon

    Not really into the blogging thing yet, found this thru a random link…and so no email…
    Please consider that any opinion attacking Democrats and Liberals, at this point is just a waste. It is piling on. There’s enough of that out “here” already. A plethura.
    In 1972, aprx 55% of USA media was owned by the right wing/ Republican side of things. By 1982 about 85% of USA media was owned by the right. (Source SF Chron 1982, 10 year anniverery of Watergate article).
    According to the Columbia School of Journalism 2002, 98% of all USA media is owned by 5 mega conglomerates, 4 of which were held to be Conservative/Republican biased by their majority owners, CEO’s. The 5th was Disney.
    I could go on. The fact that the left gets a few movies out there etc., doesn’t obviate the reality, that in places like the SF Bay area, there are 5 talk radio stations 4.5 of which are bash liberals all the time formats.
    As far as this idea that most sitcom writers are gay or feminists??? How many have you polled?
    I’ve been in many many many production offices, and you can’t generalize that way. I am sure I have been in more production offices than you have. You are just making lazy assumptions.
    The bottom line is that the USA doesn’t need any more liberal bashing voices, that’s almost all their is any more.
    Thank Reagan for teaching half a nation to hate the other half.

  31. TC-LeatherPenguin Avatar
    TC-LeatherPenguin

    Anon: “Not really into this blogging thing yet.”
    Yeah, well you sure seem to have gotten your
    Talking Points Memo!

  32. sbw Avatar
    sbw

    The gravity of the Right and the Left — their ability to overtake top of mind awareness in the rest of us — diminishes according to one’s willingness not to play the game.
    Who needs the dogmatic epithets of politicians, the media, or the blogs that echo the cant. My interest is in the process by which specific issues are addressed, the lucidity with which they engage in civil discussion about those issues, and the degree to which they embrace new insight from wherever it may come.
    Along that line, as politician-type examples, John Ashcroft and Tom Daschle are two of the most dangerous animals I know. I have learned not to trust their judgment or their explanations. They’ve lost their gravity with me.
    Perhaps we can get a lot less Right and Left, if we reduce their gravitational effect in our own thoughts and blogs.

  33. Robert S. Avatar
    Robert S.

    “Who was the last big right-wing star after John Wayne?”
    Er, ever heard of those too shrinking violets, Charlton Heston and Mel Gibson?
    (Chuck Norris was a semi-big right-wing star at one time, too. I know, “big” is a relative thing when you’re talking about right-wing stars, to be sure.)
    I know, I’m repeating stuff from above, but if you’re gonna generalize, we might as well respond with some obvious answers.

  34. Ptolemy Avatar
    Ptolemy

    Robert, you had to go back and dig up Chuck Norris and Charlton Heston? No doubt you bring up the Crusades everytime terrorism is brought up as well.