Hollywood, the place where witchhunts against nonconservatives were legendary dating back to the McCarthy Days and Ronald Reagan's Stalinist witchhunt against anyone he deemed liberal as head of the Screen Actors Guild, has been portrayed by right wing conservatives as a bastion of liberal bias.
The conservative strategy behind this propaganda campaign is twofold. First, if some TV show or movie makes a "liberal" point, the conservative talking point of "Liberal Hollywood" is designed to subconsciously tell that person to ignore these facts or ideas by triggering the interior mental barrier of the Liberal Hollywood soundbite. Second, the conservative strategy is to play the elitist v. everyday person card notwithstanding that it's the philosophy of conservatism which ameliorates the elites and is deleterious to the common needs of the everyday person.
But what if people learned that there were hundreds of conservative entertainers in Hollywood. What if people learned that most of the executives behind the scenes in Hollywood were conservatives? What if people learned that many movies and TV shows deliberately perpetuate conservative talking points and conservative lies? In short, what if phrases like Hollywood Conservative Elites became part of the popular culture?
I do not deny that there are many people in Hollywood that have political views ranging from left wing to socialist to progressive to liberal. But for conservatives to claim that there are few conservatives in Hollywood is flat out dishonesty. Look at these names. (And please feel free to give me dozens of names that I'm missing from this partial list.)
Danny Aiello, Kim Alexis, Jason Apuzzo, Denise Austin, Alan Autry, Stephen Baldwin, Bob Barker, Peter Bart, Orson Bean, Catherine Bell, Lisa Hartman Black, Sonny Bono, Pat Boone, Ernest Borgnine, Julie Bowen, Bruce Boxleitner, Lara Flynn Boyle, Morgan Brittany, Jerry, Bruckheimer, Delta Burke, Kirk Cameron, Drew Carey, Dixie Carter, Nell Carter, James Caviezel, Lionel Chetwynd, Carol Higgins Clark, Tom Clancy, Dabney Coleman Harry Connick Jr, Robert Conrad, Tony Danza, Robert Davi, Doris Day, Bo Derek, Shannon Doherty, Jerry Doyle, Fred Dryer, Robert Duvall, Leslie Easterbrook, Clint Eastwood, Buddy Ebsen, Joe Eszterhas, Chad Everett, Jamie Farr, Glenn Ford, John Ford, Jeff Foxworthy, Clark Gable, John Gavin, Crystal Gayle, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mel Gibson, Melissa Gilbert, Clarence Gilyard, Kelsey Grammer, Fred Grandy, Sammy Hagar, George Hamilton, Jack Hanna, Angie Harmon, Patricia Heaton, Charlton Heston, Hugh Hewitt, Catherine Hicks, Paris Hilton, Hal Holbrook, Bob Hope, Dennis Hopper, Susan Howard, John Hoyt, Howard Hughes, Kevin James, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Yaphet Kotto, Jay Leno, Heather Locklear, George Lucas, Norm MacDonald, Jackie Mason, Reba McEntire, Ted McGinley, Bernard McGuirk, Gerald McRaney, Dennis Miller, Robert Mitchum, Julianne Morris, Ricardo Montalban, Paul Morrissey, Wendy Moten, Rupert Murdoch, Govidini Murty, Jim Nabors, Wayne Newton, Chuck Norris, Cyrus Nowratseh, Ted Nugent, John O'Hurley, Gary Oldman, Ken Osmond, Marie Osmond, Fess Parker, Jameson Parker, Joe Pesci, Burt Prelutsky, Laura Prepon, John Ratzenberger, Nancy Davis Reagan, Ronald Wilson Reagan (666), Della Reese, Leni Reifenstahl, Jane Russell, Kurt Russell, Jeri Ryan, Pat Sajak, Rick Schroeder, Arnold Schwarzaneggar, Ryan Seabrook, Tom Selleck, Ron Silver, Gary Sinise, Tony Sirico, Jaclyn Smith, Kevin Sorbo, Paul Sorvino, Brittney Spears, Robert Stack, Nancy Stafford, Sylvester Stallone, John Stamos, Ben Stein, Connie Stevens, Jimmy Stewart, Joel Surnow, Fred Thompson, Janine Turner, Dick Van Patten, Vince Vaughn, Jon Voight, Sam Waterston, John Wayne, Patrick Wayne, Ann Wedgeworth, Lisa Whelchel, Cindy Williams, Bruce Willis, James Woods
First, there are many people from Hollywood who express opinions on political issues and all are entitled to do so. But when a liberal entertainer expresses a viewpoint, conservatives tend to automatically label that viewpoint as invalid solely because the person is an entertainer. Yet here's a list of over 130 Hollywood conservatives past and present. Thus the phrases "Hollywood conservatives," "Hollywood conservative elitists," "Limousine Conservatives," or "Hollywood's bias against liberals" need to be part of the conversation if merely to rebut the ridiculous right wing talking points and cancel them out.
Second, I do not deny that there are some producers in Hollywood who range from left wing to liberal. But there are also producers in Hollywood who are conservative to right wing. And it is these producers, not the people on the set, who determine content.
Third, what constitutes bias in a TV or movie show? In the wacky world of conservatives, bias is often defined as information or knowledge that they don't want people to know. I would define bias as something much more concrete than that. Then there's the obvious point that many shows and many characters have no bias whatsoever and are just there to entertain us regardless of our political point of view.
Fourth, is it possible that Hollywood underrepresents progressive and liberal viewpoints? While there is no exact measurement or exact science to completely determine the extent of this possible underrepresentation, the problem needs to be analyzed in terms of percentages compared to society at large. How often are minorites on the screen and in what roles? Are most characters men or women? What percentage of characters are Jewish, atheist, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, agnostic, Christian, etc...? How are they portrayed? How many characters are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transexual? How many characters are married, single, single with kids, etc...? How many characters are completely neutral?
Then what about the content? How many shows respect the Bill of Rights and how many shows subtly trash the notions of free speech, a right to privacy, reasonable protection from illegal searches and seizures, due process, and the right not to get the crap beat out of you while in police custody? How many shows promote progressive family values of love, tolerance, free thought, egalitarian decision making, openness, developing the independent whole child, and firm but fair non violent discipline? How many shows promote conservative family values of repression, intolerance, vicarious living through children, strict father, unloving nonsense? How many characters on TV have had an abortion? How many characters on TV openly advocate the use of contraception? The list of questions are endless but when we see bigotry, excessive use of violence, sexism, racism, James Dobson style parenting techniques, etc... we should not hesitate to call this Hollywood Conservatism.
Ideally, the marketplace should decide what shows make it and what shows don't. Some of the best shows often have political undertones because there's a marketplace for educational, enlightening shows. The best sitcom of all time in my view was "All In The Family" which was very political but very educational. And its ratings justified its presence on TV. The same holds true for shows that have conservative perspectives such as "24." I find the bias disgusting but the bottom line is that ratings should determine what makes it on TV, not DFQ's personal opinions.
Conservatives often profess that they believe in capitalism and the free market. If that be the case, then they should have no problem with any TV show that generates huge ratings from a liberal perspective. Furthermore, they should have no problem with any person from Hollywood expressing an opinion just as I have no problem with Fred Thompson having a right to speak. But I doubt that most conservatives have this intellectual integrity.
There are many people in Hollywood who are liberal centrists, left of center progressives, socialists, or left wing. But there are also many people in Hollywood who are right wing nuts. Moreover, there are many movies and TV shows emanating from Hollywood which have conservative biases.
UPDATE: I apologize for the errors in including Gregory Peck, Roseanne, and Tom Berenger. I've also added a few other names I've found. It's from a combination of sources, most notably campaign contributions,