Posted on 02/13/2003 4:56:58 AM PST by JohnHuang2
If the past few months are any guide, much of the chatter this Academy Awards season might have less to do with Oscar and more to do with political activism.
Especially the chatter on talk radio.
"I want to figure out a way to hurt these people," Dennis Prager said about the parade of liberal actors that have been speaking against the Bush administration.
"God knows, not physically," he added.
Prager threatened a weekly segment on his popular, nationally syndicated radio show whereby he'd update his listeners on the latest musings of the Hollywood Left.
"It's now a weekly event that someone in Hollywood says something foolish -- truly foolish -- about America," he said.
Prager's most recent Hollywood rant was set off by Dustin Hoffman, who said in London recently -- after receiving yet another award -- that President Bush's real reasons for threatening a war with Iraq are, of course, "hegemony, money, power and oil."
The Bush administration "has taken the events of 9/11 and has manipulated the grief of the country, and I think that's reprehensible," Hoffman said.
Prager went on about how such Hollywood anti-Americanism detracts from his ability to enjoy movies.
Prager might not know it, but he's not alone. According to a poll in The Hollywood Reporter, one of the two primary entertainment industry trade papers, 44 percent of Americans say they might not pay to see a movie that stars a politically active celebrity whom they disagree with.
Among the Hollywood Left, Jane Fonda, Alec Baldwin and Barbra Streisand have the most to worry about in regard to offending their audience, according to the poll, which was taken in May.
And, before Hollywood's activist celebrities dismiss talk radio as insignificant, they should understand just how large the medium's audience is: up to 47 million people over the age of 18 tune into talk radio each week, according to industry analysis.
That makes talk radio the No. 1 format among adults. Some of those adults even buy movie tickets.
Beyond Prager, others with national talk-radio shows are also seeking ways to counter Hollywood's endless, leftist babble.
"Any chance we have to ridicule them, we'll take it," Laura Ingraham said about the Hollywood Left, just before the industry's Academy Awards nominations were made public.
Oliver Stone, Madonna and Richard Gere might even make good "human shields" for Saddam Hussein, Ingraham joked on her show.
Stone earned the mention for his "wet kiss" to Fidel Castro via the new documentary film "Comandante"; Madonna for an upcoming music video that reportedly is an anti-war statement containing scenes of wounded Iraqi babies; and Gere for his anti-Bush diatribe in Germany recently.
"Bush's plans for war are a bizarre bad dream. There doesn't appear to be any sort of basis for any of this," Gere said at the 53rd Berlin Film Festival.
Like Prager, Ingraham was verbally searching on her show for a way to make the Hollywood Left "feel the pinch," as she put it.
The talk-radio circuit even has pet names for Hollywood's peaceniks. Oliver North calls them the "Susan Sarandon Left," while Michael Savage delights in the term "Hollywood Idiot."
Like the Hollywood Idiots who assert that oil is the real reason for a likely war with Iraq, Savage maintains that Gere, Hoffman, and others also have ulterior motives for bad-mouthing America in front of receptive European audiences.
They're simply suggesting that, "If you're going to boycott America, please don't boycott my movie," Savage says.
Larry Elder, the former host of TV's "Moral Court" and host of a newly syndicated national talk-radio program, has also been hammering the Hollywood Left on a regular basis.
"My favorite is Sheryl Crow's pronouncement at the American Music Awards that the best way to avoid conflicts is to not have enemies," Elder told me off the air recently. "Yeah, and the best way to avoid crime is to not have criminals!"
And it's not just the hosts. A caller to Michael Medved's radio show on Oscar-nomination day advocated boycotting the Academy Awards broadcast. "I would love to somehow punish Hollywood," the caller said.
If that poll from The Hollywood Reporter is accurate, many Americans are already engaging in a boycott of sorts, choosing to see movies that don't star Gere, Hoffman, Baldwin, Jessica Lange, Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, Martin Sheen and too many more to mention who have been publicly bashing America since the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Maybe, for the sake of their all-important box office "take," it's time the Hollywood Left stop talking and start listening to talk radio.
I can't bring myself to watch another Ben Affleck movie. Aside from his politics, I can't imagine him as Jack Ryan. I'll bet if Tom Clancy had had any say, Affeck would not have gotten the part.
I did see 'Pearl Harbor'. The first 1 1/2 hours is boring. The special effects of the actual attack are excellent.
If they wed the first 3/4 of 'Tora,Tora,Tora' to the 'Pearl Harbor' attack,now that would be a movie.
Heheh I have a Liberal friend who I've had heated discussions on the idea of a Missile defense shield, he saying it would be a waste of money, I of course saying we should have one.
He conceded the other day that maybe we do need one now that North Korea can reach our shores. I said well there is no need to hurry the worst it could do was send the Left Coast sliding into the Pacific and of course that is not necessarily a bad thing.
He failed to find any humor at all in my reply.
Let's say that you really get your way and we destroy all our nuclear weapons and stick daisies in our gun barrels and sit around with some white wine and cheese and pat ourselves on the back, so proud of what we've done for world peace.
Let's say that we cut the military budget to just enough to keep the National Guard on hand to help out with floods and fires.
Let's say that we close down our military bases all over the world and bring the troops home, increase our foreign aid and drop all the trade sanctions against everybody.
I suppose that in your fantasy world this would create a utopian world where everybody would live in peace.
After all, the great monster, the United States of America, the cause of all the world's trouble would have disbanded it's horrible military and certainly all the other countries of the world would follow suit.
After all, they only arm themselves to defend their countries from the mean old U.S.A.
Why you bunch of pitiful, hypocritical, idiotic, spoiled mugwumps. Get your head out of the sand and smell the Trade Towers burning.
Do you think that a trip to Iraq by Sean Penn did anything but encourage a wanton murderer to think that the people of the U.S.A. didn't have the nerve or the guts to fight him?
Barbra Streisand's fanatical and hateful rankings about George Bush makes about as much sense as Michael Jackson hanging a baby over a railing.
You people need to get out of Hollywood once in a while and get out into the real world. You'd be surprised at the hostility you would find out here.
Stop in at a truck stop and tell an overworked, long distance truck driver that you don't think Saddam Hussein is doing anything wrong.
Tell a farmer with a couple of sons in the military that you think the United States has no right to defend itself.
Go down to Baxley, Georgia and hold an anti-war rally and see what the folks down there think about you.
You people are some of the most disgusting examples of a waste of protoplasm I've ever had the displeasure to hear about.
Sean Penn, you're a traitor to the United States of America. You gave aid and comfort to the enemy. How many American lives will your little, "fact finding trip" to Iraq cost?
You encouraged Saddam to think that we didn't have the stomach for war.
You people protect one of the most evil men on the face of this earth and won't lift a finger to save the life of an unborn baby.
Freedom of choice you say?
Well I'm going to exercise some freedom of choice of my own.
If I see any of your names on a marquee, I'm going to boycott the movie. I will completely stop going to movies if I have to. In most cases it certainly wouldn't be much of a loss.
You scoff at our military whose boots you're not even worthy to shine. They go to battle and risk their lives so ingrates like you can live in luxury.
The day of reckoning is coming when you will be faced with the undeniable truth that the war against Saddam Hussein is the war on terrorism.
America is in imminent danger.
You're either for her or against her.
There is no middle ground.
I think we all know where you stand.
What do you think?
God Bless America!
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