There is a procedure in law called summary judgment where you can win your case without even going to trial because the basic facts are simply undisputed.  Ben Shapiro’s new book,  Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV is one of the best motions for summary judgment I’ve ever read.  There can be no dispute over the facts because Ben presents them through the words of the leading lights of Hollywood liberaldom themselves – how he got the interviews he recounts here is simply beyond me (I count over 20 pages of footnotes).  But what is clear is that the television industry is liberal-left through and through, and that it pushes its dogma upon its audience while closing ranks to ensure conservatives never get a chance to enter what Ben demonstrates is an insular, incestuous community of like-minded Democrats cocooned away from reality in an echo chamber of Obama-worshipping limo-libhood. 

The half-hearted denials of some in the industry are belied by their own actions and their own words – and, surprisingly, by the refreshingly candid admissions of some liberals in television who not only admit its intolerance and stridency but even claim to regret it.  Case closed.

Full disclosure – Ben’s a friend and my frequent “Hour of Hate” partner on Larry O’Conner’s legendary Stage Right Show.  He’s also the rarest of things – a proud Harvard Law School graduate who is fiercely conservative and who loves television (By the way, Ben’s much-mocked predilection for wearing Harvard Law hats and other apparel makes a hilarious appearance in the book).  But Ben’s no snob – he not only freely admits how much he likes television but insists that much of it is well-acted, well-directed and well-produced, its insidious pinko undercurrents notwithstanding.  Moreover, Ben is a creature of Hollywood – he has family in the industry, friends in the industry, and he even flirted with entering into it himself, until he ran smack into the seemingly impenetrable wall that is the conservative blacklist.

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It was a little over 30 years ago that I first laid eyes on the remarkable Larry Gelbart.  The occasion was our high school’s 50th anniversary.  I had been selected to host the celebration in the auditorium.  It was also my duty to talk about what Fairfax High had been like when I was there during the 1950s.  It was Larry’s job to report on the 1940s.  As I recall, producer Mike Frankovich handled the 30s and singer Martha Tilton recalled the 1920s. Although I got to introduce Gelbart to the audience, we didn’t actually meet.

Several months later, in a weekly column I was then writing for the L.A. Times, I took exception to the constant trashing of TV.  For all its obvious faults, I pointed out that over the years TV, not Broadway, books or the movies, was the place to find the best comedy in America.  I went on to mention ten or twelve of the anonymous men most responsible for writing the funniest lines.  Naturally, Larry Gelbart was one of the names on my list. (more…)

Recently, I received an e-mail from a young associate pastor in Maryland.  He introduced himself as an avid fan of “MASH.” He said that one of his favorite episodes had been one I wrote, “Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?” and that he was considering using the show as an inspiration for an upcoming sermon.  He wanted to know how I had come up with the idea.  He also wanted to know how my own faith and understanding of God or Christ had informed my writing. 

I must confess that I am not usually given to thinking of my writing in such grandiose terms, and it shocked me to find a man of the cloth doing so.  It took some thinking on my part, especially as the writing took place over 30 years ago.  At the time, my TV writing career was at a standstill.  Because my agents were a man and wife team who were well-meaning, but highly ineffective, it appeared that things weren’t likely to change for the better any time soon.  (more…)