Warner Todd Huston
2010: the entertainment industry's PC year in review
By Warner Todd Huston
For the entertainment industry's practitioners of political correctness, 2010 was another banner year. Even as conservatives have made deserved headway in La La Land and other areas of the industry, there still aren't enough conservatives to bring much needed patriotism, logic, and common sense to the scene. Sadly, the industry is still filled with those slavishly dedicated to anti-American tropes, left-wing blather, and self-hatred. From comic books, to music, to radio, TV and movies, PCism still runs rampant.
Without further ado, here are just a few examples of PCism from 2010 in music, TV, movies, and publishing. Certainly there are many more and these are not necessarily a "top ten," but these examples do serve to show that PCism is not dead despite the Tea Party uprising, the growth of the conservative new media, and the resulting Republican tsunami from the midterm elections.
(In no particular order...)
Movies and Actors
Who could forget the film Machette, starring Danny Trejo and directed by Robert Rodriguez? This one was a sort of pastiche of 1970s exploitation movies with a Mexican twist. The film was replete with White sherifs ruthlessly murdering pregnant Mexican immigrants, American businessmen working to keep Mexicans down, overpowering racism against Mexicans by white Americans and it all seemed intended to inflame militant Mexican nationalism and to goad illegal immigrants in America to put all the blame on white America. The creators claimed it was supposed to be just good, over-the-top fun but in the climate of racial tensions in America today it was as funny as a militant Mexican flavored attempt to start a race war.
2010 also didn't signal the end of more failed Iraq War movies, unfortunately. There was box office bomb "Green Zone," with Matt Damon. This one portrayed the U.S. army as involved in illicit and murderous coverups, naturally. There was the flop "Fair Game," with Sean Penn, a film that retold all the lies about the non-outing of Valerie Plame during the Bush administration. We also had the quixotic "The Men Who Stare at Goats," starring George Clooney, a bomb of a film that made the U.S. look like a ship of fools. They all had two things in common. One, the U.S. was evil/wrong/at fault and two the films failed to make a dime.
We had plenty of lunacy from the Actor's peanut gallery in 2010, too. Caryn Elaine Johnson, better known as Whoopi Goldberg, regaled us with her uninformed take on recent American history by declaring that all the terrorists from "a few years ago" were white folks and she just couldn't understand why everyone was always focusing on Muslim-sponsored terror. That same week Angelina Jolie told the media that she wouldn't celebrate Thanksgiving because it is nothing but "happy murder the natives day" as far as she was concerned. Then there is yet another anti-American rant from Roger Ebert who claimed that Americans are racists and far too stupid to understand why the Ground Zero Mosque is a great idea. For good measure Ebert added that Sarah Palin is too stupid to write her own material. And not to be left behind as the crazy train left the station, Sean Penn once again gushed enthusiastic about his buddy, dictator and communist Hugo Chavez saying that he thought reporters that dissed his pal Hugo should be thrown in jail.
As an aside, actress Maria Conchita Alonso had just about enough of idiot Penn's support of dictator Chavez and wrote an open letter ripping the half-wit actor a new one. Good for her.
Lastly in the movies section, there was movie mogul Aaron Sorkin who had his PC sensibilities so enraged by Sarah Palin's TV show that he took to the far left-wing site HuffingtonPost.com to call her any number of names. Apparently he was upset that Palin was a hunter. Yes, this is the same Aaron Sorkin that was arrested for cocaine use in 1991. So, Sorkin is all upset that someone would dare shoot a caribou but he doesn't mind at all that drug dealers are murdering humans everyday so that he can get high. Nice guy.
Television
As always there is plenty of PC nonsense to choose from on Television but a few instances stand out.
An episode of the now canceled CBS series "Medium," starring Patricia Arquette, gave us a Sheriff Joe Arpaio-like character that was not anything like the real Sheriff Joe. Instead of a tough-as-nails, patriotic crime fighter like the real sheriff in Arizona, "Medium" made its Arizona sheriff a child rapist and murderer. Nice, eh?
Not to be outdone, the normally patriotic series "NCIS," starring Mark Harmon, also a CBS series, portrayed a group of terrorists trying to set off a dirty bomb. Were these terrorists an al Qaeda cell, a radical Islamic sect, or even a Pakistani or Somali immigrant? Nope. The episode titled "Dead Air," features a cabal of white suburbanites sick of the U.S. government and trying to explode a dirty bomb to bring the government down. This episode also featured the characters intimating that radio talk shows are all run by "smart-aleck" hosts that are not big on "intelligent conversation." The white suburbanites called themselves an army of "MAH," or Military At Home. In an era when Islamic terror is killing people all across the world, "NCIS" gave us American, white, suburbanite terrorists. One wonders if Whoopi Goldberg wrote this episode for them?
Of course, this is not to mention all the nonsense that goes on over at ABCs The View (like when the girls childishly walked off the set over an appearance of Fox News host Bill O'Reilly), or more Rosie O'Donnell blather, or the foolishness that infects MSNBC on a daily basis — does MSNBC even qualify as TV? If I were to focus on those venues we'd not have room for anything else.
Comic Books
Let's start with the PC move to add a gay character to the venerable Archie Comics series. This is certainly the ultimate in political correctness. After generations of fantasy teen love now we have an Archie Comics that sees the need to lower the whole series to prurient interests.
Marvel Comics took at least one turn towards PCism in 2010, too. In Captain America issue #602 we met a new super villain. What powered this new villain that was about to destroy America? Tea, it seems. That's right in issue #602 Captain America proclaimed the Tea Party an enemy to America. Imagine, Captain America afraid of Americans!
DC Comics also got into the PC game this year when on a trip to Europe, Batman helped sponsor a Muslim superhero in France. With all the troubles that radical Islam is causing Europe — but most especially France — DC Comics thought it was a great idea to create a Muslim superhero by glossing over all the reality of the clash of cultures and making a Muslim the "French savior." PCism big time that.
Music
What could be a better example of PCism run amuck than the recent campaign of "Lady Gaga" to turn the armed forces pink? Gaga... I hesitate to even write the absurd moniker... was a vocal opponent of the Clinton era policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) and spent a lot of energy and wind working to get the U.S. Senate to repeal the policy. As it happens, during the lame duck session, DADT was indeed repealed. Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid was so excited he took to Twitter to give the thumbs up to Lady Ga... ugh, I mean Miss. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.
In a sort of case of anti-PCism we turn to long-time practitioner of PCism, Madonna. After spending an entire career selling sex to teens and claiming that her fans have a right to express their sexuality especially if that expression mimics Madonna's lascivious wardrobe, Madonna found that her own daughter's wardrobe should be less revealing. In fact, Madonna insisted that her own daughter's wardrobe be downright conservative.
Finally, MTV went for PC gold with its choice of Man of the Year for 2010 and so MTV incongruously picked Kanye West as man of the year. Kanye didn't do much music this year but he did make an ass out of himself half a dozen times. After his mistreatment of singer Taylor Swift at an awards show in 2009, Kanye gave a long-in-coming but half-hearted apology in 2010. Then he immediately attacked her for not coming to his support. Even President Obama called West a "jackass" for his behavior. He also absurdly accused Matt Lauer of "Today" for an ambush interview that never really happened. And he topped off his jackassery by practically getting booed off a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade float he was singing from because of his behavior. This kind of man deserves a man of the year award? The big question that dogged him all year was whether or not he was drunk his behavior was so idiotic.
Well, there were certainly many hundreds of other examples, but these examples certainly show that the entertainment industry's PCism is still in full bloom. Makes you wince thinking that they have a whole new year to fill up with such nonsense, doesn't it?
(Originally posted at BigHollywood.com)
© Warner Todd Huston
December 31, 2010
For the entertainment industry's practitioners of political correctness, 2010 was another banner year. Even as conservatives have made deserved headway in La La Land and other areas of the industry, there still aren't enough conservatives to bring much needed patriotism, logic, and common sense to the scene. Sadly, the industry is still filled with those slavishly dedicated to anti-American tropes, left-wing blather, and self-hatred. From comic books, to music, to radio, TV and movies, PCism still runs rampant.
Without further ado, here are just a few examples of PCism from 2010 in music, TV, movies, and publishing. Certainly there are many more and these are not necessarily a "top ten," but these examples do serve to show that PCism is not dead despite the Tea Party uprising, the growth of the conservative new media, and the resulting Republican tsunami from the midterm elections.
(In no particular order...)
Movies and Actors
Who could forget the film Machette, starring Danny Trejo and directed by Robert Rodriguez? This one was a sort of pastiche of 1970s exploitation movies with a Mexican twist. The film was replete with White sherifs ruthlessly murdering pregnant Mexican immigrants, American businessmen working to keep Mexicans down, overpowering racism against Mexicans by white Americans and it all seemed intended to inflame militant Mexican nationalism and to goad illegal immigrants in America to put all the blame on white America. The creators claimed it was supposed to be just good, over-the-top fun but in the climate of racial tensions in America today it was as funny as a militant Mexican flavored attempt to start a race war.
2010 also didn't signal the end of more failed Iraq War movies, unfortunately. There was box office bomb "Green Zone," with Matt Damon. This one portrayed the U.S. army as involved in illicit and murderous coverups, naturally. There was the flop "Fair Game," with Sean Penn, a film that retold all the lies about the non-outing of Valerie Plame during the Bush administration. We also had the quixotic "The Men Who Stare at Goats," starring George Clooney, a bomb of a film that made the U.S. look like a ship of fools. They all had two things in common. One, the U.S. was evil/wrong/at fault and two the films failed to make a dime.
We had plenty of lunacy from the Actor's peanut gallery in 2010, too. Caryn Elaine Johnson, better known as Whoopi Goldberg, regaled us with her uninformed take on recent American history by declaring that all the terrorists from "a few years ago" were white folks and she just couldn't understand why everyone was always focusing on Muslim-sponsored terror. That same week Angelina Jolie told the media that she wouldn't celebrate Thanksgiving because it is nothing but "happy murder the natives day" as far as she was concerned. Then there is yet another anti-American rant from Roger Ebert who claimed that Americans are racists and far too stupid to understand why the Ground Zero Mosque is a great idea. For good measure Ebert added that Sarah Palin is too stupid to write her own material. And not to be left behind as the crazy train left the station, Sean Penn once again gushed enthusiastic about his buddy, dictator and communist Hugo Chavez saying that he thought reporters that dissed his pal Hugo should be thrown in jail.
As an aside, actress Maria Conchita Alonso had just about enough of idiot Penn's support of dictator Chavez and wrote an open letter ripping the half-wit actor a new one. Good for her.
Lastly in the movies section, there was movie mogul Aaron Sorkin who had his PC sensibilities so enraged by Sarah Palin's TV show that he took to the far left-wing site HuffingtonPost.com to call her any number of names. Apparently he was upset that Palin was a hunter. Yes, this is the same Aaron Sorkin that was arrested for cocaine use in 1991. So, Sorkin is all upset that someone would dare shoot a caribou but he doesn't mind at all that drug dealers are murdering humans everyday so that he can get high. Nice guy.
Television
As always there is plenty of PC nonsense to choose from on Television but a few instances stand out.
An episode of the now canceled CBS series "Medium," starring Patricia Arquette, gave us a Sheriff Joe Arpaio-like character that was not anything like the real Sheriff Joe. Instead of a tough-as-nails, patriotic crime fighter like the real sheriff in Arizona, "Medium" made its Arizona sheriff a child rapist and murderer. Nice, eh?
Not to be outdone, the normally patriotic series "NCIS," starring Mark Harmon, also a CBS series, portrayed a group of terrorists trying to set off a dirty bomb. Were these terrorists an al Qaeda cell, a radical Islamic sect, or even a Pakistani or Somali immigrant? Nope. The episode titled "Dead Air," features a cabal of white suburbanites sick of the U.S. government and trying to explode a dirty bomb to bring the government down. This episode also featured the characters intimating that radio talk shows are all run by "smart-aleck" hosts that are not big on "intelligent conversation." The white suburbanites called themselves an army of "MAH," or Military At Home. In an era when Islamic terror is killing people all across the world, "NCIS" gave us American, white, suburbanite terrorists. One wonders if Whoopi Goldberg wrote this episode for them?
Of course, this is not to mention all the nonsense that goes on over at ABCs The View (like when the girls childishly walked off the set over an appearance of Fox News host Bill O'Reilly), or more Rosie O'Donnell blather, or the foolishness that infects MSNBC on a daily basis — does MSNBC even qualify as TV? If I were to focus on those venues we'd not have room for anything else.
Comic Books
Let's start with the PC move to add a gay character to the venerable Archie Comics series. This is certainly the ultimate in political correctness. After generations of fantasy teen love now we have an Archie Comics that sees the need to lower the whole series to prurient interests.
Marvel Comics took at least one turn towards PCism in 2010, too. In Captain America issue #602 we met a new super villain. What powered this new villain that was about to destroy America? Tea, it seems. That's right in issue #602 Captain America proclaimed the Tea Party an enemy to America. Imagine, Captain America afraid of Americans!
DC Comics also got into the PC game this year when on a trip to Europe, Batman helped sponsor a Muslim superhero in France. With all the troubles that radical Islam is causing Europe — but most especially France — DC Comics thought it was a great idea to create a Muslim superhero by glossing over all the reality of the clash of cultures and making a Muslim the "French savior." PCism big time that.
Music
What could be a better example of PCism run amuck than the recent campaign of "Lady Gaga" to turn the armed forces pink? Gaga... I hesitate to even write the absurd moniker... was a vocal opponent of the Clinton era policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) and spent a lot of energy and wind working to get the U.S. Senate to repeal the policy. As it happens, during the lame duck session, DADT was indeed repealed. Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid was so excited he took to Twitter to give the thumbs up to Lady Ga... ugh, I mean Miss. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.
In a sort of case of anti-PCism we turn to long-time practitioner of PCism, Madonna. After spending an entire career selling sex to teens and claiming that her fans have a right to express their sexuality especially if that expression mimics Madonna's lascivious wardrobe, Madonna found that her own daughter's wardrobe should be less revealing. In fact, Madonna insisted that her own daughter's wardrobe be downright conservative.
Finally, MTV went for PC gold with its choice of Man of the Year for 2010 and so MTV incongruously picked Kanye West as man of the year. Kanye didn't do much music this year but he did make an ass out of himself half a dozen times. After his mistreatment of singer Taylor Swift at an awards show in 2009, Kanye gave a long-in-coming but half-hearted apology in 2010. Then he immediately attacked her for not coming to his support. Even President Obama called West a "jackass" for his behavior. He also absurdly accused Matt Lauer of "Today" for an ambush interview that never really happened. And he topped off his jackassery by practically getting booed off a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade float he was singing from because of his behavior. This kind of man deserves a man of the year award? The big question that dogged him all year was whether or not he was drunk his behavior was so idiotic.
Well, there were certainly many hundreds of other examples, but these examples certainly show that the entertainment industry's PCism is still in full bloom. Makes you wince thinking that they have a whole new year to fill up with such nonsense, doesn't it?
(Originally posted at BigHollywood.com)
© Warner Todd Huston
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