The "Hollywood" diversion

[SoCalDem]

Republicans are slavering and blathering about that one in the stimulus..

The entertainment industry is an INDUSTRY.. They make a PRODUCT.

For every fat-cat producer with a stogie & a diamond pinkie ring, there are THOUSANDS of people just eking out a living...doing hair & makeup, sewing costumes, scrounging for props, scouting for locations, rigging lights & cables...and thousands of other necessary jobs associated with the INDUSTRY..

Shame on the scaredy-cat dems who go along with the "hollyweird" mantra that republicans have pushed for decades.. They smile and guffaw along with them and hint that "those things will come out" of the bill..

The movie/entertainment industry is a vital part of California's economy...just as the cruise lines & hotels & theme parks ar of Florida's.

The media, along with their republican pals have painted THAT kind of entertainment as "worthy" of assistance since it's "family"-centric, and California's entertainment industry is always portrayed as somehow seedy & decadent..

California has HIGH state income taxes, and many communties have levied their own income taxes..we pay sky-high property taxes, fuel costs, rents, food costs..you name it..and we have a high sales tax too..and even with all this, we still generate a LARGE percentage of this country's economy..

I'm tired of whiny-crybaby-shit-pants legislators from the vampire states going on tv and complaining about how funding of the arts, is somehow NOT a stimulus.

Tell that to the crafts-services guy with 3 kids to support, or to the lighting person..

Florida especially should STFU, since they refuse to institute a state income tax, and yet need hurricane assistance EVERY f'ing year because they refuse to halt issuing building permits in dangerous coastal areas (although this downturn may solve some of that)...and they offer up themselves as a haven for crooks who need to protect their ill-gotten money by building mega-mansions that are somehow off limits when their scams are found out..

At its heart, this whole "issue" is the fact that our entertainment industry is mostly UNION..

[EFerrari]

1. People don't really get this. I just had someone tell me that

an academic and cultural boycott should be ditched in favor of an economic boycott. :crazy:

Hello! All those people write paychecks or cash them!

[ColbertWatcher]

2. This has to be another phase in the GOP's war on media.

I'm not sure which phase this is, but this follows the GOP's (Rove's) visit to Hollywood after 9/11.

The GOP will never be satisfied until they control everything.

[SoCalDem]

3. They've gotten hold of print & tv..but those pesky individualists

keep putting out movies that "tell it like it is"..

[Deja Q]

7. A lot of TV, and movies, seem to cater to peoples' fears.

TV has shows pawning the end of the world and every other token calamity the news puts out. ("Doctor Who", 2005-20??, BSG, _____, ______)

Movies have plots about chasing oil and the reason isn't that of good or evil, only "necessity". ("Quantum of Solace")

Wasn't "Wall-E" yet another thinly veiled exploit about how shallow mankind is and how dependent on computers it is (nudge nudge wink wink), with the lead character looking like the robot from "Short Circuit" (1986) because the designer had the creativity of the vomit I threw up in the toilet on Saturday?



"tell it like it is" is also open to the interpretation of the one saying it, and at the conceptual level others perceive it as. An inevitable truism and there is no irony for me to be aware of either... I still like to think there's always a way. Too much gloom and doom; there is such a thing as "self-fulfilling prophecy". :D

[Deja Q]

5. The media are only as liberal as the conservative businesses that own them

Good bumper sticker.

Worth purchasing if you can find it.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. I just want the myth of the liberal media to go away. n/t

[SoCalDem]

9. Won't happen until there's balance restored in the media

and I don't see that happening anytime soon.. Newspapers are dwindling, and being consolidated more than ever, "news" magazines are owned by parent companies of MSNBC & CNN..Rupert Murdoch owns WSJ..

even C-span feeds us a steady diet of heritage Foundation, CATO & AEI..

every car radio has no problem hearing rightwing "shows", but to hear liberal shows you must BUY satellite equipment and pay a monthly fee..

[ColbertWatcher]

11. I'd prefer a wild swing of the pendulum first.

And then maybe the visible hand of the regulator holding it on the "liberal" side for a few decades.

[Deja Q]

4. How come there aren't more highly visible, fully family friendly shows like "The Cosby Show"?

And I don't mean remaking "The Cosby Show" either; Lord only knows what would be done - apart from making the family pasty white to help add to the knee-jerk, shock jock ratings the suits froth over.

Hell, discussing what they make isn't even the real point though I would say there should be as much wholesome and/or educational stuff out there as there are "Family Guy" and "CSI" fodder. Enough of that, here's the real issue(s):

How come do-nothing lookers like Tom Cruise get 8 digit salaries to look pretty while REAL actors have to claw and scratch at any scraps of a role thrown their way? Roles they may not otherwise want to do but because nothing else exists?

Look at the suits who tell the actors and writers "Do it this way and use this" - so-called "reality shows" are about as disgusting (when not disingenuous) as they get. You cannot deny a lot of today's programming freely gives legislators, amongst others, reasons to complain.

Oh look! Another remake of a dug up show! The original was nerdy but let's remove the braininess and add in soap opera and oodles of special effects! Or, the original may incite nostalgia if we re-make it for a new generation!! ((at what point is REAL creativity given a chance and a risk? At one point, there was nothing TO remake.))

Indeed, TV shows using 1960s music as theme jingles really show how cheap the industry has become. No risk. No talent. Just looks and veneer and shock jock antics to get attention. No depth.

I have personal friends who have had ideas -- real, original ones -- turned down because they weren't deemed "marketable" or "too cerebral" or not a dug up remake.


The INDUSTRY is fucked up thanks to things unworthy of the label "PRODUCT".

The legislators are not the problem.

The executives who won't take any real risks and think selling shit in a sieve will.

The executives do not need bailing out. For they are, by and large, a cause of how the industry went wrong.


Forgive me my language, but when Jerry and Maury have what it takes to get ratings, there are real problems. Their swill should be beneath peoples' intelligences. Not on par or greater than. But that's what people want, 100% of the time.

That or maybe I've spent too many hours watching "The Cosby Show" on DVD. :crazy:

[ColbertWatcher]

8. There may be no TV shows that could be considered "family," but ...

... there are plenty of "family" movies.

And by "family movies" I mean movies that promote heterosexual, Christian, authoritarian "values."

For me the problem with the entire entertainment industry is the moneymen, they guys who decide what gets made and what doesn't.

That's why we have remakes of old shows and bland characters and entire season's worth of programs that seem to follow a herd mentality.

It's sad with so many creative people in the world, all we get is formulaic crap.

[JuniperLea]

10. Another Union Busting Tactic!

That's what it boils down to. And that's why you will see a lot of reworked movies in theaters and on television. Like we really needed another version of Wuthering Heights! But you don't have to pay writers, you see, for work that is so old. Once a writer sells their wares to a production company, it belongs to said company. So you will see a lot of oldy, mouldy until the unions are busted up.

The industry should be given tax breaks for keeping the work in California! California desperately NEEDS the revenue! We're stinking broke, and these dumbasses are chasing the golden goose out of town!

[ColbertWatcher]

12. You may be right.

Last year the studios screwed the writers over and SAG was supposed to strike this year, but they didn't.

[RB TexLa]

13. Their product is garbage. Their money comes from the ignorant who feel they must watch the

television every night and they must go give their money to them to watch movies.

Americans would be better off if we didn't give them so much of our money. I know they don't deserve to have my money.

And it's a very easy product to live without.

[spanone]

14. oh, they love to bash those 'hollywood liberals'

[katty]

15. yes we do make a product -- and it's everywhere

and believe, i'm doing it all day-it's not that easy to make!