Hollywood’s love affair with Gov. Andrew Cuomo seemed innocuous at first.
Cuomo is a Democrat, and nearly every entertainment platform exists to promote Democratic politicians. That’s done either by generic fawning or avoiding inconvenient truths tied to said politicians.
So Cuomo’s extended love-fest with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Ben Stiller and other stars appeared par for the progressive course. Yet anyone savvy enough to browse all the media, not just the corporate press, knew something was seriously wrong with the adulation.
To paraphrase Chris Isaak, the governor had done “a bad, bad thing.”
His policies directly led to thousands of elderly people dying in nursing homes due to COVID-19. In Cuomo’s defense. the nation got caught flat-footed by the virus, and mistakes were made across the board.
Not everyone denied said mistakes, though, while promoting a book on his heroic leadership.
Cuomo did just that. Now, the receipts are coming in.
The media is dragging its feet on Cuomo’s potentially criminal negligence, which includes covering up the number of dead in his state. Some Democrats are demanding answers, though, and it may be a matter of time before Cuomo’s reckoning arrives.
For that Hollywood owes every single American a massive apology. Let’s not stop there, though. Celebrity Nation grossly misled us on more than a few occasions. The following four ways spring immediately to mind.
Net Neutrality
Call it one of many, “the sky is failing” movements centered in Hollywood. Three years ago, the Trump administration’s FCC repealed Net Neutrality, a decision many celebrities decried as the end of the Internet, if not worse.
Both the Writers Guild of America West and the Directors Guild of America savaged the decision. Celebrities decried the ruling, too, predicting soaring Internet prices and a decrease in free speech.
“The medium that allows us to be great artists is under threat. Without a free and open internet, so much music, writing, film, art, culture, passion, and creativity would be lost,” they wrote. “For the artists of the future, and the culture of the future, we will not be silent.”
The latter did happen, but that came courtesy of Big Tech authoritarians, not anything connected to Net Neutrality. And most stars cheered on this development sans a molecule of irony.
Russian Collusion
Hollywood spent month after month obsession on this gargantuan Fake News story. They had a good excuse, though. The corrupt media led them along, sharing anonymous sources and other tactics to create a scandal where one didn’t exist.
Yet Team Late Night focused endless jokes on the subject, with Stephen Colbert famously calling President Donald Trump Vladimir Putin’s BLEEP holster.
Showtime even made a two-part miniseries that pretended all the revelations we’ve seen over the past year debunking the narrative never happened. The Comey Rule just snagged two Golden Globe nominations for peddling a Whitman’s Sampler of lies and distortions.
Defund the Police
The death of George Floyd changed America. Celebrities hoped that change would include less police officers walking the beat.
Celebrities like Natalie Portman, John Legend, Lizzo, Taraji P. Henson, The Weeknd, Jane Fonda, Common, America Ferrera and Brie Larson demanded we “defund the police.” Some got cute with the verbiage, but the message was clear. We’d be a safer society with less gainfully employed cops.
We now know what happened next. Some cities did reduce the number of police officers. Other officers were attacked, marginalized or simply retired rather than endure the cultural tsunami against their profession.
And, as a result, crime soared in major American cities in 2020, including Portland, Seattle, Chicago and New York..
The situation in Minneapolis, ground zero for the Defund movement, is almost comical if there weren’t so many lives at stake. Violent crime shot up more than 20 percent in the city, enraging locals who bore the brunt of those numbers.
… residents begged the city to hire more officers, citing longer response times and increased violent crime.
The city is doing just that, essentially admitting what fewer police means to everyday Minneapolis residents.
None of this affected stars with salaries large enough to enjoy safe, secure homes and security guards should the need arise.
Trump Is Hitler
Sarah Silverman and Louis C.K. helped start this noxious, fact-free movement. President Trump is either the new Hitler or a Nazi out to kill those who don’t look like him. We heard it across the celebrity culture for four years. Fading comedy king Judd Apatow screeched it. Linda Ronstadt, Eva Longoria, Kumail Nanjiani and more did the same.
Joss Whedon, credibly accused of harassment by a growing number of ex-colleagues, predicted Trump would start rounding up and killing gay people.
So where was the Hitler-like results? Reason just reported how similar the Biden administration’s border policies are to Trump’s, one area where the Hitler-Trump analogies blossomed.
It was hyperbole on steroids, and we’ll never hear an apology for it or any of the aforementioned movements.
It’s ironic that Hollywood cowers in fear of Cancel Culture, and various stars spit out hostage-like apologies when busted by the Woke Police. They won’t apologize for these far more legitimate wrongs, though.
[Cross-posted from Hollywood in Toto.]
