Liberal Media and Conservative Movies

Last Monday Night on Political Pistachio Radio a caller questioned my determination that the media is liberally biased. We agreed that television, especially the news networks, are liberal. Newspapers are notoriously known to lean to the left. In Southern California, from San Diego to Los Angeles, from the beach cities to the desert, the only non-liberal daily newspaper is the Orange County Register, and the Orange County Republicans are well known (along with a few niches in the Inland Empire) as being the final bastion of conservatism remaining in the Southern California region. Magazines definitely lean to the left. In fact, in my opinion, the only media outlet that does not lean far left is Talk Radio.

My caller on the radio show disagreed. He claimed that Hollywood is not liberal. I asked him, if that's the case, name one conservative movie (after which I added that for every one conservative movie he could name, I could name twenty liberal movies).

The liberal caller proclaimed Saving Private Ryan to be that conservative movie.

I was in such dismay that there was actually someone out there so misinformed that they actually thought that Hollywood is not in the tank for the far left liberal agenda that I did not respond specifically to the caller's choice of movie.

I later got to thinking about the liberal caller's choice of movie. First of all, I found it telling that the liberal caller had to go all the way back to 1998 to find a film he thought to be a conservative film, and as luck would have it, he chose wrong.

Speilberg wanted Saving Private Ryan to show the atrocities of war, beginning the film with, as the New York Times called it:

. . . mass slaughter of American soldiers is depicted in a compelling, unforgettable 24-minute sequence.

The idea of the film was to (as one commenter at the New York Times put it) be "horrifying" and "convince humankind to make eradicating war its number one priority."

Liberals seem to think that films like "Saving Private Ryan" are conservative films because of their depiction of war. Remember, the liberal left believes that conservatives are "warmongers" and "glorifiers of war." So, with that warped thinking, of course they think that realistic war movies must be Conservative.

I agree that most Americans want the troops to come home. I am one of those Americans that want the troops to come home. Nobody in their right mind is "Pro-War." But, I do not want the troops to come home under the flag of defeat, or without completing the mission. I want the troops to come home as victors. Coming home as anything less than under the banner of victory will encourage the enemy to strike America again, and a retreat in defeat from Iraq will embolden the enemy to step up their worldwide efforts - and that is not even talking about the message we would be sending to our allies when it comes to our dependability and willingness to finish what we start.

The far left will argue that if I don't like war, then how could I support such military endeavors such as the Iraq? If I am not a warmonger, how is it I can support sending our fine young warriors to a foreign shore to fight?

My answer to that is, "War Sucks. War is a horrible thing. But there are other things that suck much more than war, and because of that, sometimes war is necessary. For those that say war never accomplishes anything, remember that it took war to create this nation, abolish slavery, and stop genocidal maniacs like Hitler.

As for the answer to the question about Conservative Movies, there is one getting ready to hit the theaters this week, as a matter of fact. Every once in a while the Hollywood Right gains the opportunity to put out something that is not Anti-Military, or Anti-America. That most recent endeavor will be released October 3rd, and is called: An American Carol.