The Separation of State and Media

It is widely accepted that film is an extremely powerful form of persuasion. While predominately known as entertainment, films have often been used as propaganda or political statements. One of the most blatant examples we’ve seen thus far was the film Casablanca. Casablanca, undercover as a love story, is a plea to the United States to involve themselves in the second world war and put an end to the fascist regime taking over Europe. This film, however, was not criticized for its lack of neutrality but rather celebrated for being such an important work of propaganda.

Why, then, was the blacklist later initiated in Hollywood? A ban which would not only prevent certain political statements from being made through film, but also to permanently fire any and every person defined as a communist? Wouldn’t this be a violation of the first amendment? The answer, as we would see it today, is that yes, this is a violation of the First Amendment. However, at the time, the movies did not have First Amendment protection, due to a Supreme Court decision that in 1910 defined film as only a business, not an art.  In the late 40s, the exception was made for a particular reason. The famous “Hollywood Blacklist” occurred during the 1940s and 1950s, the decade following the recent end of World War II. This was a time of recuperation but also fear for many people. A terror such as Hitler had not been seen so closely by the American people before and the fear of such a regime resurfacing was terrifying. Thus began the age of McCarthyism; any mention of communism was completely inappropriate and unpatriotic. While the Hollywood Blacklist was extreme, it was the result of trauma and fear, not necessarily a voluntary disregard of the first amendment.

Looking around at the various news stations it seems obvious that the government does not ban the production of media promoting certain ideologies, FOX being a blatant Republican channel and MSNBC being a blatant liberal channel. Some, however, would argue that film has always been modified by the government, and that a modern day blacklist still exists. As Jonathan Strong describes in his article Blacklisting is Alive and Well in Modern Day America, “The Obama administration has gone a step further in targeting Fox News in verbal attacks..the left has chosen to once again target conservative radio hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.” On a smaller scale John Fund describes the same phenomena happening, Scott Eckern, artistic director of the California Musical Theater in Sacramento, the state’s largest nonprofit performing-arts company, donated $1,000 to the “Yes on 8” campaign. Protests from the composer of the Broadway musical Hairspray and many other show-business people soon forced him to resign.” Do these claims prove that the blackmail list still exists? Or are these merely complaints destined to occur between two opposing parties?

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/330097/new-blacklist-john-fund

https://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/exclusive-blacklisting-is-alive-and-well-in-modern-day-america

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