...and made you want feminism, abortion, and gay marriage. Meet Ben Shapirowho has wrtten the book Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV, the season that just concluded was chock full of liberal programming designed to brainwash America. He's a 27 year old Harvard Law grad who apparently has tried to break into Hollywood but was told he would not get work in that town due to his politics.
If there's anything TV does well, it's to reflect American culture. But according to him, it creates it. It also tries to be on the cutting edge of trends that are starting to percolate through the culture. He was interviewed by Kurt Anderson on Studio 360, an NPR radio program to discuss his views on how the left is brainwashing America with its ideas.
He was asked if he really believed the goal of the creators of entertainment was to conduct liberal proselytizing and he said that it wasn't, their main goal was to 'get away with it if they can', and by creating really good entertainment and are really good at 'sliding in their message in whatever way they feel they can'.
And what are the most liberal shows on the TV?
Family Guy, American Dad, House and Glee.
(House? Really?)
So yes, that cartoon there of Peter Griffin, is destroying America. Who would have thought that was possible.
The interview show plays a clip from Glee where the father is speaking to his gay high school age son:
'I will fight to the death for your right to love anyone you want".
Yes, this is a truly objectionable liberal progpaganda, is it not - a father expressing his undying devotion and love to his troubled son.
Doesn't he think that people of whatever politics will just take the opportunity to make money? No. He disagrees, saying that TV is not a failed business model but it's also not a maximized one. He acknowledges the contradiction of the powerful conservative Rupert Murdoch of Fox Broadcasting creating the most liberal shows, but doesn't think it's just a way to make money.
He laments the fact that the conservative right hasn't focused their children on the entertainment industry but instead has taught them that Hollywood is a den of sin. He considers this foolishnesss (not because it is) but because it's counterproductive and prevented them from producing a viable alternative. They haven't picked up the gauntlet that the Left has thrown down here. Perhaps the right can come up with some counterprogramming and produce a show that has a homophobic father kicking his gay son out on the street.
He was asked if he really believed that CBS, NBC, AND ABC were leaving money on the table by not producing what he would regard a more conservative 'family friendly programming'. (You know, where the son either can't talk to his father at all or if he does, is kicked out on the street).
Ben Shapiro: Yes, 100%. Not that they should dump all their liberal programming but they should provide more balance . You're going to hit a broader segment of the American populace.
Yes, that's just what we need more balance, because we are so short on the right wing perspective. Or maybe it just needs more cowbell.
Actually it may not be such a bad idea for them to create and produce some conservative shows and try to pass that off as entertainment. Then we can see just how fast they flame out and fail, and just how center-right this country is (NOT).
He then criticizes the Mary Tyler Moore show for legitiziming feminism and going 'too far' in the direction of someone not needing a family or a husband, just a career and some friends. (But it did say something good about women working, ha-ha).
"Over the last 40 years liberals have achieved most of their social goals, there's little doubt about that. Abortion is legal across the board, gay marriage is going to become an eventuality. This is largely due to the influence of popular mass media including television. "
Granted gay relationships and friends are becoming more mainstream on TV, but abortion is legal because of the influence of popular mass media? I'm not an avid TV watcher, so maybe I have missed the TV shows where all the girls are getting abortions?
"I am anti-gay marriage and it's going to be an eventuality in the next 10-15 years".
So here it is, his main beef. He is wracked with paroxysms about the impending eventuality of gay marriage. I have news for him, it's going to be less than 10 years. And it's all the fault of goddamn Friends Carol and Susan's Lesbian Wedding!
Then the interview moves on to discussing examples of right-wing entertianment.
KURT ANDERSON: "24 [the TV show] actually had an effect on how people thought about the legitimacy of enhanced interrogation and torture. Is there a more significant instance of entertainment programming actually having an impact on important policy?"
BEN SHAPIRO: "I keep going back to gay marriage."
[
Yes, he's clearly obsessed with it]
BEN SHAPIRO: Ellen, Will & Grace, had a much more significant impact on the discourse than 24 did.
Yes. The influence of Ellen and Will & Grace is more significant because it will pave the way for gay marriage, than a show that paved the way for torture to be a household word, (and actually did affect policy, not just discourse). And never mind how he just dismisses the fact that an actual right wing show actually had such an impact.
I think the fatal flaw Shapiro (and all his compatriots on the whiining right) makes is in his arrogance in presuming that people started out with having a right-wing mindset, and were somehow influenced, turned away from that, by writers witih a left-leaning mindset by their clever writing. Not, that they started out that way and seek out what reflects their values.
I don't predict any success for him in the entertainment industry as he continues to deny or be oblivious of the reality that TV is a mirror of American culture, not the propaganda machine that shapes people's views. Creators of entertainment are constantly trying to get a handle on what the latest trend is and bring it to their audience, figure out what people will watch and make money by presenting it, not the other way around. People tune in to what they are familiar and comfortable with. So liberals are better are figuring that out. Maybe conservatives are failing because they haven't figured out what the medium was designed to do.
Here's audio of the interview: