Blacklists: Out with the old; In with the new

From WorldNetDaily...

SB 1322, a plan by state Sen. Alan Lowenthal, was approved by lawmakers and forwarded to Schwarzenegger for his signature or veto, officials with the pro-family Capital Resource Institute said today....

Officials said the bill "will banish from current law the ability of schools to fire teachers for being Communists. It will also allow Communists to use public school property for their meetings."

"During floor debate on the bill Monday afternoon, minority Republican lawmakers attempted to at least insert language banning terrorists from teaching in schools or using government property as they conspire against innocent American citizens. The amendments to SB 1322 were voted down by the majority Democrats," the group said.

Hollywood has been screaming against the idea of blacklisting people based on political ideology since it was discovered that there were so many Communist spies and sympathizers there. Liberals see Communists as people that have simply taken "good" ideas a tad too far. Therefore they don't see them as a real threat, even though there has never existed a Communist country where the people were free and didn't suffer abuse and deprivation.

However, it seems Hollywood doesn't mind the idea of blacklisting some people.

From Politico...

The political blogsosphere, of course, went ballistic. Then Jeffrey Wells, who runs the movie and pop culture site Hollywood-Elsewhere.com, took [ actor John] Voight to task for his [political] right turn and wrote that, if he were a studio executive, he might think twice before hiring Voight for any future film work. “[Voight is] obviously entitled to say and write whatever he wants,” wrote Wells. “But it's only natural that industry-based Obama supporters will henceforth regard him askance. Honestly? If I were a producer and I had to make a casting decision about hiring Voight or some older actor who hadn't pissed me off with an idiotic Washington Times op-ed piece, I might very well say to myself, ‘Voight? Let him eat cake.'"

While Wells was condemned by some Hollywood people, one has to wonder whether it was for his idea of blacklisting conservatives, or simply his foolishness in publicly voicing something Hollywood has been doing for decades.

Posted by Danny Carlton at August 7, 2008 7:02 AM