Anyone could have predicted that the elitist snobs would lose their minds over the White House hosting a UFC event on President Donald Trump's birthday, led by Lawrence O'Donnell wailing about the "despicable vulgarity" of the whole thing.
But the Hollywood Left attempted despicably vulgar counterprogramming in Manhattan, a "star-studded event" titled "Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment." It was hosted by Jane Fonda's Committee for the First Amendment. That's right -- the woman who pretended to shoot at American airplanes with Vietnamese communists is now lecturing us on our freedoms.
"Right now, the government and its cronies (are) routinely violating its First Amendment to silence artists," Fonda claimed onstage. "Shuttering institutions like the Kennedy Center, defunding museums and the National Endowment of the Arts, and banning books, canceling TV hosts who speak out. It's really bad."
No one "fact-checks" celebrities when they lecture like Blutarsky in "National Lampoon's Animal House" about the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor. The NEA hasn't been "defunded," but there have been grant cancellations. The Kennedy Center hasn't been "shuttered," but it's closed for repairs. The government didn't "cancel TV hosts" like Stephen Colbert. But they pretend that's what happened when Trump cheered it on.
But the most fraudulent argument here is that Fonda & Co. did anything for free speech as Team Biden geared up to censor and spike all the "disinformation" coming from conservatives. Fonda only started her "committee" up again to perform against Trump. They are the cynics that think free speech is only for them, and we have "democracy" only when the Democrats win.
Like clockwork, Robert De Niro came out for the latest in his "tuck Frump" lectures. He claimed, "I hate to say it, but loving our country is starting to sound like an abused spouse saying they love their abuser. I can't love a country that starts stupid and inhumane wars, killing thousands of innocents and indirectly causing the deaths and suffering of millions more. I can't love a country that takes health care away from millions of people and uses that money to enrich their pals in the Trump-Epstein class. I can't love a country that sends out masked militias to shoot citizens in the streets, torture our neighbors and separate families."
Nobody's going to "fact-check" any of that bilge. The Hollywood Left opposes all American wars as "stupid" (and often ends up siding with the enemy, like Fonda). Democrats constantly yammer about the Republicans "taking health care away from millions" when it often means the Republicans would first like proof of citizenship, or some work requirement for Medicaid, or they refuse to spend endlessly to shore up the so-called Affordable Care Act. No conditions on the taxpayer money are allowed.
It's almost boring at this point to hear leftists trash any attempt at enforcing our immigration laws as murderous masked militias shooting citizens. In their ongoing caricature, every ICE agent is smeared as a murderer, and every illegal alien is wonderful, possibly a valedictorian who's about to cure cancer.
But the fact-mangling didn't just come from arrogant actors. Joyless Joy Reid was there, too, claiming evil billionaire Jeff Bezos ripped the anti-Trump motto "Democracy Dies in Darkness" off the front page of The Washington Post. Wrong. It's still there, every day.
Inside the Hollywood Bubble, Bette Midler sang a peppy song about fighting the "fascists" -- by that, she means all Trump voters. Their cartoon is so self-congratulatory -- we're democracy, you're fascism. Call Kamala Harris a "communist" and the "fact checkers" pounce. Call a conservative a "fascist" and nobody blinks.
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org.
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