Entertainment moguls like Leo Hindery (who ran against DNC chair Howard Dean back in the day) expect their pocketbooks to trump the popular will.
Talk about
everything that is wrong with government.
Leo Hindery, a major Democratic donor whose New York media private equity firm owns cable channels, said Obama might have reason to worry about his entertainment industry fundraising base.
“[The bill] is an issue that has no business being decided politically – by anybody on one side or the other – and the fact that it might be becoming a political issue is unfair to the content producers,” said Hindery, who’s contributed more than $3 million to Democratic candidates and groups.
Ah, yes. There's an expectation that throwing money at Congress and the White House will lead to decisions being made for, well, financial reasons, as opposed to valid policy ones.
Here's the bottom line—how many people are lining up behind the pro-PIPA/SOPA forces? How many regular Americans are fighting alongside the studios? How many petition signatures has the MPAA and RIAA gathered from its customers?
The answer is none. There isn't an industry more disdainful of its audience than these self-styled "content producers" (as if they're the only ones producing content). And while they aren't busy trying to kill new technologies like the VCR (and the internet), or pre-accusing their customers of being criminals by flashing that insulting FBI warning before every video that they've bought, or suing teenagers and parents for posting videos of their babies dancing to commercial music, then they're working the congressional backrooms to screw the broader public.
The television, movies and music industries donated more than $9 million on Obama last election, according to Center for Responsive Politics, and more than 70 percent of the industries’ donations to federal candidates from employees and political action committees have gone to support Democrats in recent years.
Here's the deal, Mr. Fucking Hollywood—don't donate more money. Take your $9 million and shove it up your ass.
It would do everyone a favor. You'd get to keep your money, since the government you thought you bought isn't living up to your standards. And America would benefit—because without your money, you have no influence in DC. You don't have policy on your side, you don't have public support on your side, and you don't have the moral high ground on your side.
Hollywood dinosaurs can whine and cry about how "unfair" it is that everyone hates your fucking guts, and you can weep about how the issue has become "political," as if it wasn't already political the moment you demanded PIPA and SOPA in exchange for millions of dollars in political contributions.
Hollywood isn't alone in demanding services for campaign contributions. The Republicans, after all, are owned outright big Big Oil, Pharma and other major corporate interests. But I don't expect good responsive government out of the Republicans. I do expect it from our side.
If you haven't contacted your senators yet, please do.