Follow the money and you’ll see what drives many people in life, as well as in politics. Conservatives and liberals alike often find this to be true when it comes to the interchange of money, politicians, and powerful organizations. Planned Parenthood receives an exorbitant amount of taxpayer subsidies but also gives thousands of dollars to Democrats each year in order to keep receiving them. The continual exchange of money and power is common, if incestuous. However, occasionally, the reverse exists: Liberal organizations secretly back conservative politicians they despise, probably to keep their tax breaks, even while publicly denouncing their political positions.
In a tweet thread on Monday, Judd Legum, founder of ThinkProgress and former research director of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, revealed information he found showing a disparity that might not be all that unusual. The same large Hollywood companies who claim they’ll stop filming in Georgia and Louisiana because of their new six-week abortion bans also donated money to the same conservative politicians who supported the bans. Legum covers the full story in his newsletter.
1. Hollywood studios have publicly declared their opposition to abortion bans in Georgia.
But you know what they aren’t telling you?
The same studios bankrolled the politicians most responsible for Georgia’s abortion ban (and a similar ban in Lousiana)https://t.co/ySJyZolmKJ
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) June 3, 2019
Legum says “NBCUniversal, for example, is threatening to leave Georgia if courts uphold its abortion ban … But Comcast, NBCUniversal’s parent company, donated over 100K to the Georgia politicians most responsible for the ban.” Disney Studios has also threatened to discontinue filming in Georgia and they gave approximately $10,000 to politicians supporting the bans. Legum tweets the obvious irony: “What’s striking to me is that these studios can publicly declare themselves champions of women and reproductive rights without addressing these donations.” He concluded his thread urging these studios, which to any progressive would seem to be acting duplicitously, to “make sure those donations reflect” support for women’s rights.
However surprising and even disappointing this deception might be, the hypocritical nature of how money manifests in policy and politics, especially when it intersects with the entertainment industry, is hardly uncommon.
Hollywood actors such as Liam Neeson, paid enormous sums by studios for blockbuster crime thrillers, are often rabid supporters of gun control. Female actors and models such as Emma Watson, who claim women need to be stronger, more independent, and paid on their merits, pose nude in films and magazine covers, without realizing the irony. If I may venture into the territory of the most-sacred land of the Game of Thrones series, which recently ended: Many, many episodes featured rape and misogynistic treatment of female characters (at best), yet actress Sophie Turner claimed that was simply not so. However, actress Jessica Chastain did call out the treatment of Turner’s character for such treatment, disagreeing that rape is a necessary part of a character arc.
For decades now, Either Hollywood has failed to realize the double standard they have created for themselves, or, more likely, they do and they gaslight themselves, and the rest of us, into believing it doesn’t exist. When it comes to Hollywood’s bottom line, a policy stance is only as strong as the dollar that supports it.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
