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Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Douglas MacKinnon :: Townhall.com Columnist
Hollywood to GOP: "We Still Hate You"
by Douglas MacKinnon
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Just because you can, does not mean you should. Look, as conservatives or Republicans, we truly do get the point that much of Hollywood despises us or the ideology they have convinced themselves we blindly follow.

For the last two decades or so, they have channeled much of that anger into films that have bashed Richard Nixon or George W. Bush. And now, purely because he can, director Ron Howard and his team are giving us "Frost/Nixon." A feel-good film for liberals that once again, in case you missed the plethora of earlier offerings, trumpets the evils of President Richard Nixon and his particular band of henchmen.

Recently, here in Washington, Mr. Howard offered up a screening of the film at the headquarters of the National Geographic Society before a mostly left-leaning audience. Unfortunately for the filmmaker and those in attendance who really can't stand Mr. Nixon or President George W. Bush, a fly in the ointment appeared in the guise of Chris Wallace from Fox News. Now, even though an independent study by Pew demonstrates that Fox News, by far, is the most balanced of the networks, all on the left loudly proclaim it to be nothing more than a tool of the Bush administration.

Understanding that hostile perception, Mr. Wallace, as he himself has described in interviews, could stand it no more and decided to challenge the liberal panel of Mr. Howard, screenwriter Peter Morgan, James Reston Jr., and "Historian" Robert Dallek. During the question and answer session after the screening, what most set off Mr. Wallace was a pronouncement by Mr. Reston (the son of the New York Times columnist and openly Nixon hating former researcher for Frost) that the film was "a metaphor for George W. Bush."

As he has stated, against the pleas of his wife to remain silent, Mr. Wallace asked for a microphone to refute what he believed to be a ridiculous and biased statement. "To compare George W. Bush to Richard Nixon is to trivialize Nixon's crimes and is a disservice to Bush," said Mr. Wallace. "Richard Nixon's crimes were committed solely for his own political gain, whereas George W. Bush was trying to protect the American people." Mr. Wallace then reminded the panel that Mr. Bush must have done something right after 9/11 as, over seven years later, "we are all sitting here tonight so comfortably."

Therein lies a very important point. For much of the left, it's imperative to their narrative that they never admit Mr. Bush has done anything right. While they have taken him to task time and again for "never admitting his mistakes," the irony is lost on them that they can't admit to his successes. Even those that protect them and their loved ones.

As if to underline the loathing of Mr. Bush and the denial of any of his success, "Historian" Mr. Dallek predictably suggested to Mr. Wallace that while, thanks to the Watergate tapes, Mr. Nixon's crimes were well documented, we would have to wait until such documentation on Mr. Bush emerged before his sins would become more apparent. Mr. Wallace again became frustrated that a "historian" would utter such an ignorant and biased statement and said, "You make suppositions on no facts whatsoever." To which Mr. Dallek incredulously replied, "Do you read The New York Times?"

As one who spent three years working in a joint command in the Pentagon with a top secret clearance, and with the full knowledge that the American people -- and that includes the powers that be in Hollywood -- are not privy to the vast amount of information or intelligence used to protect them, I'd like to pose a very probable scenario to Messrs. Howard, Morgan, Reston, and Dallek: What if, based on up-to-the-minute intelligence contained in the President's Daily Briefing (the PDB), President Barack Obama is confronted with horrific information that the candidate Obama never saw, and decides --purely in the national security interests of our nation -- to keep in place some of the policies of the hated Mr. Bush? What critical movie, biased historical supposition, or slanted screenplay will they offer up in criticism of Mr. Obama? For that matter, what critical movies of any presidents other than Messrs. Nixon and Bush, would the panel consider? Surely Mr. Dallek knows that unbiased history tells us that President Lyndon Johnson abused his office and power.

In the last several years, Hollywood has produced a number of money-losing failures aimed at Mr. Bush. It is the right of those investors, screenwriters, producers and directors to make films that the vast majority of Americans choose not to see. Just as it is Mr. Howard's right to make yet another film demonizing Mr. Nixon.

At what point however, does Hollywood let their irrational and often factually inaccurate hatred for these two presidents go and move on? Obviously, they are not there yet.

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About The Author

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and author of the forthcoming novel, The Apocalypse Directive.

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No More Andy Griffith Show
When I heard that Ron Howard and Andy Griffith had produced a commercial for Obama, I decided then not to watch The Andy Griffith Show any more. They hijacked that good show for political gain for the democrats.
Hollywood doesn't make any money from me. I NEVER watch network television. It is all boring brain pollution. Movie stars used to be heros that fought for our country like Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable. Now we have Brad Pitt being interviewed by Larry King down in New Orleans with a bunch of crazy purple tents, speaking with an affected accent, championing some scheme he had come up with to help rebuild the city. (And it is blasphemy if he and his wife are to star in a new production of Atlas Shrugged.)
Hollywood is a bunch of freaks. When they all go broke, will they be asking for a bail out, too?

Rowdy - you said it BEST!
JUST STAY AWAY FROM THE MOVIE THEATERS!

We have seen just one picture in I don't know how many years...An American Carol - and we went opening weekend to help the count (though I heard there were many shady dealings with wrong ticket stubs etc in some areas) A great couple of hours and the audience stood up and applauded at the end!

There is absolutely no way our hardearned dollars are going to be spent on trash put out by Hollywood liberals.

If there is anything good to come out of this terrible economic mess the DEMOCRATS (Barney Frank/Chris Dodd) and their Fannie and Freddie cohorts have inflicted on our country it could be that the funds available for 'entertainment' and other options will be lessened to a degree where the left-coast millionaires might just be hurting a bit. It's time to take them down a peg or two, in my humble opinion.

Why they (directors/producers/writers/actors) believe THEY are so intelligent that the ordinary Americans should just sit and watch and absorb their propaganda is beyond me. But, sad to say, we can see it every day in the mind-altered young people...so glad my parenting days are behind me ;-)

JUST STAY HOME AND ENJOY YOUR FAMILY - READ A BOOK - GARDEN - BAKE - QUILT - WORK IN YOUR WOODSHOP - You know, the things that helped develop our strong CHARACTER. So many of the young today don't even know how to spell that word, much less have any!

JUST DO WHATEVER GIVES YOU PLEASURE AND BUILDS YOUR SELF IMAGE & RESPECT - MOVIES DO NOT!
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