"The point isn't that Hollywood has no influence. It's just that its influence is agonizingly hard to predict or dismiss as unthinkingly liberal. Studies of "All in the Family" found that viewers in America, and around the globe, took different lessons from the show based on their politics and cultural norms. Despite Norman Lear's liberal best efforts, many found Archie Bunker more persuasive than his "meathead" sociologist son-in-law. HBO's epic series "The Wire" was a near-Marxist indictment of urban liberalism and the drug war, making it quite popular among many conservatives and libertarians. The popular BBC series "Downton Abbey" is shockingly conservative in many respects. The aristocrats are decent, compassionate people, and the staff is, if anything, more happily class-conscious than the blue bloods. And, yet, as far as I can tell, liberals love it."Perhaps. But I´ve never understood why elite, lavish and erudite productions about elite, lavish and erudite people amid elite, lavish and erudite backdrops require the taxpayer subsidized efforts of PBS.
And for an industry whose pretty people principals frequently volunteer for others to 'pay their fair share,' why did Congress grant Hollywood a $430 MILLION tax loop hole amid the fiscal cliff deal last year?
