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In Hollywood, ‘Hope and Change’ Trumps Critical Thought
A film insider's take on how media should influence global relations misses the mark.
America may possess the most powerful military in the world. But the nation’s ability to harness its soft power, specifically its entertainment exports, is what may cement how the rest of the world views — and respects — us.
So argues a new book with a great title: American Idol After Iraq: Competing for Hearts and Minds in the Global Media Age, by film executive Mike Medavoy and foreign affairs correspondent Nathan Gardels. Reality shows and blockbuster movies aren’t just puffery, they argue. They are weapons in the war to influence public opinion. And right now, Medavoy and Gardels feels pop culture is firing mostly blanks.
It’s all fascinating grist for a book, and the authors expand the subject to include a number of crucial sub-topics. But Idol doesn’t have the courage to follow through on its main premise. To do so would veer into the kind of discourse you might hear from a “family values” Republican.
In essence, if American entertainment cleaned up its act, the world might view us in a more positive light. But the book doesn’t argue so much about R-rated content as it does that American films aren’t sensitive enough to the rest of the globe.
Early on, the book does make some salient points: “Sometimes films and television shows mislead outsiders about American life, for example by the near total absence of religious expression in mainstream entertainment.”
But Idol goes on to list American weaknesses and missteps with alacrity — and often accuracy — but can’t do the same for other countries. It’s the liberal two-step. We’re wrong, wrong, wrong on most counts, but every other country gets a moral pass. We lack insight and experience regarding other countries to our everlasting shame — but it’s never to other countries’ shame that they misinterpret the U.S.
The authors clearly had “hope and change” on the brain as they huddled together to create Idol. Every few pages, they reference how President Barack Obama will right some of the wrongs committed by President George W. Bush — asides given no real weight since Obama hasn’t done anything yet in his young presidency. Let’s wait for him to change the world before writing about it as if it’s a fait accompli.
The authors then remind us — as if it were news to celebrate — that a Hamas spokesman said he preferred Obama as president.
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Christian Toto is a freelance writer and film critic for The Washington Times. His work has appeared in People magazine, MovieMaker Magazine, The Denver Post, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and Scripps Howard News Service. He also contributes movie radio commentary to three stations as well as the nationally syndicated Dennis Miller Show and runs the blog What Would Toto Watch?
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27 Comments
1. eon:From what I see every day on AP, Reuters, the New York Times, etc., the news we see is already “denationalized”, in the sense that the American media never stop telling us how bad/evil/”unenlightened” we are, and never stop fawning over every foreign dictator who wishes to see us erased from the face of the Earth so he can rule over same. Add in the news media’s reflexive love affair with any such petty tyrant and/or terrorist who hates Jews in general and Israel in particular, and this is one issue on which The One can already say “Mission Accomplished”.
And He didn’t even have to ask for it; the media have done it all by themselves.
clear ether
eon
Jun 14, 2009 - 3:43 am 2. syn:At this point, the only way the entertainment industry can offer value would be for the dream machine to enter complete bankruptcy so that something better can be built.
Hollywood is run by tyrants like those currently running Iran; both would rather decimate an entire country and its people than to give up power and control.
My suggestion is to stop funding Kingdom Hollywood and they won’t have the power to destroy you.
Jun 14, 2009 - 4:10 am 3. Horace Wells:Sounds like the usual right wing talking points about Hollywood, which is how horrible and traitorous they are. Except the one movie dear to all those loving theocons’ hearts, made by a known anti-Semite, with the original anti-semitic theme about something that may have happened 1500 years b4 the US was discovered. So how did the “Passion” shot in a dead language overseas, help the US’s image?
Jun 14, 2009 - 5:25 am 4. Realist:If a Martian came to earth and visited America after first getting all his information about that country from Hollywood movies and TV he would be astounded because after watching those outpourings he would be convinced that American was a place where Blacks were the highest educated most intelligent and decisive people there. After all every Hollywood movie always has the Black guy as the Police Chief, Wizard Lawyer, Computer Expert, Wacky Brilliant Scientist and the Hero’s bestest and truest friend ever.
Jun 14, 2009 - 6:06 am 5. Captain Obvious:Absolutely ridiculous as we all know that the 13% of the population that are Black commit nearly 50% of all the crime and over 60% of the murders in the USA but hey what is truth to Hollywood when they can use the drip drip drip of propaganda to pretend otherwise. Oh and 96% of Blacks voted for Obambi too wonder why?
Not into boycotts or anything, but…
I don’t purchase Hollywood products unless I’m certain it’s worth watching (needless to say, I don’t go to many movies nor do I buy many DVDs.)
It has been months since I watched ANYTHING on ABC, CBS, NBC, or any of the MSM newscast stations. The nearest thing my (largish) city has to a newspaper has its own agenda, which I do not support by paying for the opportunity to read the drivel. I buy no print media outside of hobby or specific interest ones. All that stuff is available at the public library and when anything of importance happens it’s on the net.
And you know, I DON’T MISS ANY of it. Want to join me?
Jun 14, 2009 - 6:28 am 6. Jack:What amazes me is that in Hollywood, every one has agents. One of the things an agent does is insulate the client from having to make demands himself. The biggest chunk of money from successful films goes to the headline stars, directors, producers and finally, maybe, investors.
They exploit interns and all of the blue collar workers for their own personal benefit.
When Obama starts to talk about limiting the pay in Hollywood and for Union Bosses, I will start to take him seriously.
The same thing applies to Oprah! She really doesn’t need 7 houses.
Jun 14, 2009 - 7:15 am 7. whataloadacrap08:“Hollywood” is owned lock, stock and barrel by overseas investors so is it any wonder our empty head glitterati are mouthing spoon-fed lines that sound alien to us? Come to think of it, our government is owned by foreigners too, is it any wonder that it seems as alien to us too?
Jun 14, 2009 - 7:57 am 8. Tom W:Hollywood is much more responsible for the negative opinions that other countries hold for America. The trash that they produce is probably the only thing that the people in these other countries have to judge us by. These movies portray Americans as immoral, violent, bigoted, selfish creeps. It is no wonder that we are mistrusted around the world. They can try to blame Bush for all of the bad feelings, but then why shouldn’t the world hate Bush since according to Hollywood he is hated here too.
One other thought…
As our President considers the value of CEOs to their company and what fair compensation is for them I would suggest that he also take a look at what the Hollywood elites earn. If it is unfair for the CEO of a major corporation to make millions it is obscene for a Hollywood actor to make 25 million for just one film. Aren’t these actor’s members of a fine union? Don’t they have union scale wages? It is time for the Hollywood actors to make the sacrifices that they would force on the rest of us. Take your scale wages and be happy…
Jun 14, 2009 - 8:12 am 9. Delia:Yeah. I’m waiting for all of those uber rich Californian Hollyweirdos to put their money where their big mouths are and cough up their wealth to help save ‘Calipornia’.
I’d actually be shocked and awed if the rich people in California did the ‘noble’ thing and donated their wealth to ‘redistribute’ to those in ‘need’.
HA!
Jun 14, 2009 - 8:50 am 10. NahnCee:I decline to read this book, and therefore to consider any of its ideas, on the basis that I refuse to donate money into the coffers of anyone who will just turn around and donate it, in turn, to the lying cheating hack from Chicago who is busy disassembling our Constitution and selling America down the river to his overseas puppet-masters.
Jun 14, 2009 - 9:08 am 11. Don:The books sound like a marketing study searching for multicultural concepts to better sell Hollywood products off shore. May I suggest some feature film concepts?
Jun 14, 2009 - 9:42 am 12. sherlock:1. The life and times of Mohammed, living by the sword.
2. The jihad way.
3. Islam and the gay lifestyle; dying for hedonism.
4. Islam and 1400 hundred years of African slavery.
5. 1400 years of Islam and the suppression of western science.
6. The barbary pirates find love in the Caribbean.
“But one wishes the authors could follow their arguments through to more intellectually consistent conclusions.”
Might as well wish for a pony on Chistmas morning. It’s clear that these people think that America IS a terrible place – that’s why they want the movies and the news “de-nationalized”. They are afraid too much good news about America is still getting out despite the best efforts of their pals, not too little. And I’ll bet they are getting nervous about the possibility that as Obama’s glow fades, some media types will realize that there is money to be made with movies that DON’T crap on America!
This book sounds like it raises dis-ingenuousness to an art form!
Jun 14, 2009 - 10:24 am 13. h'wood Indoctrination:How can the author say hollywood producers are in it for the money?
They certainly make lots in fees and salary but the return on investment is not there. Between 2006 and 2008 a production company I worked for had these numbers:
Spend Receipts
19,083,754.15 2,290,973.34 12%
With a bottom line like this it is impossible to say profit is any motive. The company used well known US actors and the projects were/are occidentalist views of the evil US. Financed entirely by european/mideastern `investment’.
The author of this article needs to call a spade a spade and point out the motives for such propaganda and stop pussy-footing around.
These `producers’ will do anything for their `fee’ (no profit implied or intended).
Jun 14, 2009 - 1:26 pm 14. nedarc:If we are to ever effect real change we have to have balance in our schools, colleges, univ. and most of all have the ” Media ” go back to reporting the ‘news’ rather than adding thier one sided LIBERAL SLANT to all things holy and truthful! Liberals always put down the ‘Fifty’s’
Jun 14, 2009 - 3:31 pm 15. FCCS(SW/AW) RJW:that is because America was at her greatest then.
We Had all the power after WW 11, only one with the nuclear bomb and the greatest troop presence in Europe. What did we do…Guess. This is why America is so great and do not ever forget it!
3. Horace Wells:
Unfortunately, Horace, antisemitism is a province of neither the extreme right or left. For instance, the very day that madman (an Obama nirther AND a 9/11 truther, how’s THAT for pigeonholing his idedology?) killed the security guard at the Holocaust Museum, Obama’s own (former) pastor, Rev. Wright commented that “the jews” wouldn’t allow him to see Obama. Anti-semitism also seems to be nearly twice as prominent among the “left” as the “right”, as shown in a recent survey asking if “Jews” were to blame for the current economic crisis: http://bostonreview.net/BR34.3/malhotra_margalit.php. And, should I bring up, “Hymietown” from the Rev, Jackson?
And yes, Mel Gibson has shown himself to hold anti-semitic views, but the only way you can charge the movie itself with anti-semitism is to indict the Gospels themselves. the movie (with a bit of dramatic license in some details, true) portrays the “passion” as accurately as it can where Jesus was turned over for crucifixion by his fellow jews. But then again from your post, you may very well be indicting the Gospels themselves with anti-semitism.
It is interesting you focus on one line of the entire essay and seemingly ignore the thrust of the piece. To answer your final question with a question – how is it that we continue to portray ourselves across the world so negatively? Why are our sins required to be openly displayed and condemned while similar sins in others are ignored?
Jun 14, 2009 - 5:16 pm 16. Class Clown:Agreed. It would be great if Hollywood could make American movies that actually bore some resemblance to actual America. However, there is an intermediate step. They could first start making movies that don’t stink!
Aren’t these people the “creative class”? Is there anyone else out there who has sat through the endless credits they run after movies these days and thought “It took this many people to make a film that sucked this badly?”
Andrew Klavan recently had an essay that singled out Michael Bay as making movies that were pro-American. Unfortunatly, his movies are also terrible. For myself, the best serious film I’ve seen in several years is Children of Men. The filmmakers are out and out Marxists (watch the DVD commentary, if you dare), but they at least followed what should be the first rule of movie making: MAKE A GOOD MOVIE!
And for that matter, that movie did have a theme that resonated with us conservatives as well. It is a future in which humans can no longer have children, which may only be slightly different that current demographic trends.
Jun 14, 2009 - 5:26 pm 17. seansarto:Where is Paris Hilton in all of this?…After all she is a key role-model for the market that Hollywood is inducing to herald Obama as the “New Dylan”…Of course her “socialist” cred is nil, so maybe that’s why they’re keeping her on the down, after all, she does herald from wealthy origins…not really the soda shop discovery …Thus the whole “entrepreneurial woman of sexual maturity” narrative goes out the window…It’s not like she scraped her way to the top like, say, a young Chinese female is indoctrinated to relate to her…She was never exposed to the drooling bellies of slobs fondling all over her families inheritance…Of course neither did Dylan and neither did Obama…No real socialist cred there either…No Long Marchers
But she is key to this administration in that she represents one of the young females, (the critical psyche of natural selection), in the material wealth of the conservative aristocracy that fell for the whole “whine and whimper” production values of the R&B club crowd (See R. Kelly, P. Didiy, Beyonce.).When I emphasize “whine and whimper”, I mean that any market analyst knows a young women is physiologically wired and predetermined, (doesn’t matter what her “social” background is), to be biased towards certain frequencies that register in her mind as the cries of “hungry babies”… Just as young men’s hormones will block out self preservation impulses for the sake of reproduction…A young female is also physiologically inclined to respond sympathetically in all regards…..So knowing this, just by plugging those frequencies into a machine as “production” values the African male was being indoctrinated in the their psyches and perceptions as “needy”, hungry
children. It’s where science and economics in today’s US society ally themselves to co-exist and thrive… Take advantage of their labors, through the paths of least resistence……Some scientist believes he is making important discoveries to benefit the species and some begrudged section of that species sees it as their main chance instead…an’ voila!
Women like Madonna…become iconic for jest getting played by pimps.
Then it’s all “guanzi” in pinyin, or in English “the good time”, “favor flav” economy.
Of course you need good people to martyr..because that is where real profits are in this world.
Jun 14, 2009 - 6:27 pm 18. seansarto:Oh yeah, an’ the other thing, an’ this is the important bit, the welfare crowd is how Hollywood gets it’s greatest return on investments..People with nothing better to do…The peasantry surrounding the castles…So giving them more money is basically laudering your dirty cash, (other nation’s money), through a legitimate government agencies…with a broad tax-bse…thus getting the “interest” which is primarily “social” validation and putting it right back in your pocket..all shiny an’ clean smelling…
Jun 14, 2009 - 6:52 pm 19. Horace Wells:FCCS(SW/AW) RJW:
Jun 14, 2009 - 7:38 pm 20. Paul of Alexandria:to be honest, I still like Mel, talented movie making crackpot he is, though I won’t buy his movies. Ditto with Sean Penn, I don’t really expect much from artists beyond their work and they are both good at their trade. I look at movie people like plumbers, if they do a good job, fine, but I could care less about their lifestyles, spouses, houses or causes. Ms. Toto brought up the “Passion” as one movie that improved the US’s image abroad, yet I disagree and ask, outside of her personal feelings and bias, what evidence she uses to buttress that claim.
As far as anti-Semitism goes, it exists in all sorts of places and times, sort of like malaria, which existed(s) even in the Ohio Valley. I’ve called many leftists out, saying anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism since you specifically deny Jews, of all people, the right to just one little country, then judge Israel by standards you don’t apply to her neighbors/adversaries. After all, aren’t other harrassed groups allowed their little space where they can build a society free from the malignant tensions of their sworn enemies. Forget the black left which is mostly built around Muslim bullies and total crackpots with 0 gratitude. Probably the one good thing Stalin ever did after WW ll was the mass transfers of populations, mainly Poles, ethnic Germans, into more homogenuous territories, while multi ethnic Jugoslavia exploded like a landmine once the central tyrant disappeared.
Dinesh D’Souza wrote an excellent book on this general subject: “The Enemy at Home, the cultural left and its responsibility for 9/11″.
from the cover blurb:
Jun 14, 2009 - 8:05 pm 21. Class Clown:seansarto,
huh?
Jun 14, 2009 - 8:32 pm 22. Moogie:#20 Paul of Alexandria: The cover blurb of the book you cite has its basis in the following documentary, The History of Political Correctness.
Jun 14, 2009 - 10:07 pm 23. seansarto:Yeah, some typos there…
18. seansarto:
Jun 14, 2009 - 10:33 pm 24. seansarto:Oh yeah, an’ one other thing,…This is the important bit…The welfare crowd is how Hollywood gets it’s greatest return on investments…People with nothing better to do…The peasantry surrounding the castles (Go to LA)…Giving this peasantry more money is basically laundering dirty cash, (selling out American properties and legacies to other nations), through what have become the artifices of legitimate government offices…Offices with a broad tax-base to maintain their security…By doing this they receive “interest” on those investments through “social validation”…a “trust”, an “affirmation”…which reinforces the insular aspects of that broad tax-base, (basically the military and policing agencies protections),while still retaining the wealth of resources right back in their pockets…But now it’s all shiny an’ clean smelling…It’s not like that peasantry is going to do anything more then just buy more movies and entertainment products anyways…They’ll just re-enforce the idolization and demand more cosmopolitan representation in those markets…Which is the essence of their claims of racism…and therefore Hollywood’s bottom line.
An’ to the Hollywood scum, who are the predators of young minds…It’s excess success anyways..(after the 7th house an’ 6th wife, most of them get listless an’ bored)..Is it their fault that a sucker’s born every minute?
I’d only add..Don’t forget Ron L. Hubbard(Scientology) was the spawn of the defense industry..
Jun 14, 2009 - 11:09 pm 25. ic:You are assuming Hollywood denizens are capable of “critical thought”.
Jun 15, 2009 - 12:27 am 26. Marc Malone:#24 seansarto – That was a radical bit of paranoia. Scientology and the gubmint have always had a completely adversarial relationship. I know. My mother was in at the start. I grew up with it. The gubmint was the enemy. It was part of their doctrine. Still is.
P.S. Don’t worry. I converted to Christianity long ago.
Jun 15, 2009 - 2:36 am 27. seansarto:P.P.S. What does this have to do with article, anyway?
“America may possess the most powerful military in the world. But the nation’s ability to harness its soft power, specifically its entertainment exports, is what may cement how the rest of the world views — and respects — us”.
I paraphrase the first paragraph here in an article about a book written by Hollywood “insiders” which mentions government foreign policy with allusions to the defense department in its very first sentence.
..Nuf said ’bout that…unless you want to start a long conversation here Mr. Malone.
…yes, I do have a gift of gab…
Thus I’m compelled to let you in on a few personal notes… (I’m not even sure I can do that here in this format)…but, before I went into the US NAVY I had been doing my own privately funded research into the subject of terrorism in Northern Ireland…When I joined the NAVY back in 1999, I was in my prime and very much one of the “new Dylans” as an Irish/Italian, (aka “white”). My job in the NAVY took me to Fort Meade, next to the NSA campus there.
Jun 15, 2009 - 6:34 amNow, as this article delineates, “soft power” is a policy of defense. The NSA is very involved (aka your word, “paranoid”..I’m not treally pissin’ my pants here) with who your icons get to be…and they’ve become very stupid and reckless…Why wouldn’t you believe that? I just use Ron L. as “Exhibit A” in defense of my United States and where the twain began to meet with such disastrous results…..I was there on the NSA grounds in training and I had very disturbing confrontation with some snotty little brat who was fanatical about clubbing status and had connections in the upper brass. Well, she got her panties all twisted up about my having Hollywood cred…this made her zealous because she wanted to bestow that cred on her own predilections, onto someone, let’s say, she had a fetish for…She was defensive about having to see me rise by my own labors and exploit their fruits through my professional conduct with the NAVY…She targeted me…she just had to convince others what she was doing was right…even though my conduct was honorable even towards her person…So, my connection to this dynamic is not really about National Defense…I was a part of National Defense and I was good…My relation to this material is that it is all about an internal affairs breakdown and a lack of inter-disciplinary measures…That can sometimes gets blown up way out of proportion…As you are now witness to…You see, I outranked her, I was older then her, I was more fit then her, and had a lot going for me BEFORE I entered the NAVY…but I wouldn’t get on my knees like she was inclined to…And it became about favors at that point, not rank or even about UCMJ. I told the truth about the situation but the brass went with her preference…because she was female, which was against UCMJ code…and she apparently had a black fetish.
From 1999 I’ve watched the continuation of her little saga with a front row seat…watchin’ it get worse and worse…because that is what happens when discipline fails…and when some little rotten person gets into positions of influence…they rot out the core…Luckily I had the logic to see how when those who break the laws, but get away with it, are equated as “equals” to those who abide by them, well, things will fall apart and go ta seed. That’s something the United States Constitution taught me…Unfortunately it’s the United States, MY United States, which I invested so dearly in, that’s goin’ there.