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Joe McCarthy is Back, And This Time, He's Pissed
The Screen Actors Guild on Tuesday issued a press release warning against a "new blacklist" in Hollywood.
Quoth SAG: Some have recently suggested that well-known individuals who express "unacceptable" views should be punished by losing their right to work.
Who is "some"? The release doesn't say. It is similarly silent about which "well-known individuals" have been threatened with "losing their right to work" because of their "unacceptable" views. (Aren't sneer quotes fun?)
But that's fine, because I am prepared to reveal the identity ("name names," if you will) of the mysterious "some" in question.
It is:
Nobody. Not George W. Bush. Not Ari Fleischer. Not the feared and loathed John Ashcroft. At best—at best—SAG might be able to point to some cranky John Bircher on the Web, or possibly a radio talkshow host on the very fringes of the right. Which makes the statement that much more ridiculous.
But, by all means, read the full text of the press release for yourself. It is impossible to exaggerate its hysterical tone.
If anything, the more outspoken of the anti-war Hollywood Left stand to gain from the publicity. Janeane Garafalo has never been more famous. Marty Sheen will continue to work long after the creatively moribund West Wing retires to the Elysian Fields of syndication. One might argue that Sean Penn's career suffered because of his trip to Baghdad. But one could also point to the fact that his last couple of films were seen by all of two-dozen people. Three-dozen, tops.
(Also posted on the Claremont Institute's weblog, The Remedy.)
