It was more than people who had Communist views. Anyone who had the barest association with a Communist could be brought before the Senate. Lucille Ball was forced to testify about her father.

People who had no Communist ties were also affected.

The reality is that “Hollywood” is not a liberal town. It’s actually quite conservative. There are some people who are powerful and are “liberal.” But most studios are part of mega corporations, like Disney or Time Warner. The heads of both until recently were Republicans.

A truthful examination of Hollywood’s products would show it guilty of pushing the worst sexist, racist, and homophobic stereotypes for generations. Only on rare occasions has it ventured away from the “mainstream.” Look at how older actresses are still easily discarded.

“Correct, and they feel very strongly that the past not be their future. The great debate over is how anyone is to be paid for digital distribution, movies or TV shows that you would download on to your computer. And the writers want to make sure that they get their fair share going forward.“

http://tinyurl.com/2xrkx8

So, he defends whiny writers who wanted more money, but trashes gays who want equality. He supports the writer’s right to strike and cripple media production, but trashed gays who boycott for their rights. What a douchebag

If this D.J. found out that a business had donated money to a group that advocated beating up women, would he allow his wife to shop there? Well these Prop 8 Supporters are advocating hurting me. It is not wrong for me to want to avoid supporting them in their efforts. It would be like telling blacks that avoiding a business owned by a Klansmen was wrong of them. This guy is obviously an idiot.

Pay no attention.

This is all about gays getting power and using it to further our interests.

If they don’t like tough, they’ll have to live with it.

If the PINK LIST was like the black list people could lose or not be hired for work because:

-they associate with known homophobes
-they went to a mormon wedding
-a family member converted to mormonism
-they had intimate relations or dated a mormon
-three people told us you associate with mormons

The black list was insidious and evil.

The PINK list is no different from the old (and still going on depending who you talk to) Coors Boycott.

You’re against us, so you aren’t getting our business.
It’s just that simple.

I have been a fervent supporter of KCRW for over nine years so I was extremely disappointed to hear yesterday’s “rant” on The Business comparing the gay community’s boycott of organizations that have discriminated against their rights to the blacklists of the 50s.

It is unfortunate that the host, Claude Brodesser-Akner was merely ranting “on behalf of the entire editorial staff” of the program instead of researching the facts. The Hollywood Blacklist was about preventing suspected Communists from working in the entertainment industry. A social minority boycotting people or institutions who indisputably helped to wipe out their existing civil rights is not the same thing.

When the director of the LA Film festival donated $1,500 to the Yes on 8 campaign, it was him, not the gay community, that put this festival at risk of a boycott. If Richard Raddon had donated the same amount of money to a campaign against interracial marriage in the 60s and still chosen to screen movies with African Americans or Jews, I wonder if your host would have excused Raddon’s support of the campaign as merely “naïve” or “wrongheaded”. In any case, the “real issue” is not whether Raddon’s personal views affected the films he did or did not choose for the festival. The real issue is that a lot of people were hurt when Raddon irresponsibly signed a check that helped eliminate the rights of a minority group.

As the head of an organization that has been “the very model of inclusion and open-mindedness”, Richard Raddon should have known better. As the host of a show on one of the preeminent radio stations in California, Cluade Brodesser-Akner should have done his homework better!

I am still undecided whether I will exercise my right to rant – by not renewing my KCRW subscription in 2009. However, I am certain that I will not be tuning in to The Business and the irresponsible journalism of its incompetent editorial staff.

- Government and movie production cartels who control the fundamental ability to make movies granting access to that ability based on a formal process of ideological exclusion

and

- Customers choosing not to patronize certain movie-related businesses based on those businesses fueling ideologies those customers disagree with, allowing those business elements to continue operation but with a smaller potential customer base

Are equivalent?

ruth@kcrw.org

Talk about apples and oranges!

i don’t know if it is mandatory for that station/show to address the entire issue, although it would be fair, but it is incumbent that they/he understand that two entirely different mechanisms are under discussion.

the black list, in words of one syllable, was a top down act, whereas a boycott is a bottom up act.

artists have a right to choose their venues based on their individual criteria, and i, the consumer, have a right to make my purchases according to my criteria, and to make those criteria known, to the press, and to management.

in the “macaca” era where a political career is ended by one careless phrase, it is beyond naive to piss on your patronage under cover and think it will go unnoticed and unremarked. it is stupid, and it is career suicide.

Or email them: thebusiness@kcrw.org