Dalton Trumbo, George Bush, Harry Cohn and Sumner Redstone

I went to see the movie "Trumbo" the other night. It spoke eloquently to me about the life and times of Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.
I was inspired by Peter Askin's brilliant use of Trumbo's letters delivered perfectly by a team of actors enhanced by archival footage of the times when we were "instructed" by those elected to enhance our lives, to fear for our lives because of the "Communists among us."

They decided that internal Communism was a threat to our country and needed to be "driven out" or at least stifled, even if it destroyed parts of our Constitution and the lives of many of our citizens.

This is the half century old story about the Hollywood "blacklist" that depicts what happened to Trumbo (and others) for defying the House Un-American Activities Committee. Trumbo was unwilling to identify those who he knew to have been associated with the Communist Party and "name names."

Trumbo was a true American hero who put his financial and creative career at risk in order to defend his principles.

All through the film I was comparing the Government incited fear of Communism back then to the contemporary Government incited fear of Terrorism right now. We created a "war" against Communism then as we have created a "war" against "Terrorism" today.

In the fifties, we were to look all around us and under our beds for those Communists who would turn our nation over to the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin and our legislators and courts were willing to forgo certain minor amendments to our Constitution in order to satisfy their zeal and improper behavior.

Today the fear and intimidation is just as rampant as it was then. Instead of fearing the "Heathen Communist Hordes" we have been instructed to fear terrorists, and wage needless wars based upon fears of terrorism. We somehow countenance "Constitutional transgressions" that this President and his people have promulgated because they will keep us safe.

This movie used clips of the Congressional tribunal in which the "big players" of Hollywood were publicly interrogated by a ludicrous kangaroo court; the events that are depicted are as shocking today as they were then.

Following the hearings, producers and studio heads met at the Waldorf-Astoria to draw up the "Waldorf Statement," which banned the Hollywood Ten from working in movies. Boy was this ever a travesty.

A devastating Trumbo letter directly blames the producers more than Congress for the effectiveness of the blacklist, because they could "apply the only lash that really stings, economic reprisal."

With their livelihood denied them; the Hollywood Ten were financially ruined and socially ostracized. Trumbo said: "The blacklist was a time of evil, and no one who survived it on either side came through untouched by evil."

The "producers" companies were: MGM, Columbia, Fox, Loews, Paramount, Warner, Universal, and RKO among others. These Studio heads and producers had the power but not the courage to stand up to the Government and they didn't. Trumbo was willing to "risk" yet the powerful of Hollywood were not. This is only a part of this shameful time in America.

It is easy for me in 2008 to be critical of how they reacted to the inherent threat of the Government. I wonder now if they feared some form of economic reprisal or did they fear the government's reaction to their "non compliance" because most of them were Jews? I wish I knew the answer.

Had these "moguls" the courage to tell Congress: "screw you and your Blacklist" they could have changed this part of history. Easy to do, no, and I doubt that Congress would have had the courage to take on the studios; but then again who knows.

Today I of course blame those powerful Telcos who "folded" and gave the Administration the unconstitutional eavesdropping access that they had requested.
The Telcos had the power to say no to the Feds who wanted wiretaps without warrant's, and most of them said "come right in" and gather all of the information that you wish.

My "media friends" have suggested that I stop "ragging" on the Broadcast Network Companies. So I will leave most of that part out.

Today's "Hollywood's Studio" heads are General Electric. CBS, Walt Disney, Time Warner and News Corp, and they too remain mute and are complicit.

Need I say more?

Norman Horowitz
Non Complicit

Comments

[dexxjones]

you know it only illustrates how they really arent very creative. the recycle much of the same garbage over and over again.

last week i watched season one of Maude and if you substituted iraq for vietnam, it could have been written last year. the conservative characters used the SAME WORDS they use now.

i just finished a book that takes place on the cusp of the depression and its almost exactly the same stuff that's going on now.

its cut and paste and it continues to repeat itself because the TRUE criminals and villians in our country have never been forced to pay for their actions.

if nixon's head had been lopped off and placed for posterity under a plexiglass box in the national rotunda, best believe we would not be suffering through a cheney right now.

since cheney/rove/rice/rumsfeld/bush have no (they think) real worry of facing more than bad dissaproval ratings and since they corporate media is in on it, they have nothing to lose

until we get real about law and order (and i am not talking about pot smokers either) we will have the same bunch back in another 8 years or so. today's cheney is yesterday's rove. let us not forget.

but i think we should take it even farther- along with baddies governing us, many of those lying media types (limbaugh/hannity) should also be frog-marched off to prison for treason.

[nonbeliever]

Don't stop "ragging" on Brodcast Networks or any other entity that has assisted is the ongoing assault on our country and the Constitution.

[silverball]

i'm convinced that the oft quoted "founding fathers" would be VERY disappointed about the state of the fourth branch of government....they too, along with ALL elected officials, should be REQUIRED to take a test on the constitution...i think it would make a difference in how we are governed....AND reported!!!

[Merlin7]

The great thing about the term "terrorist" is that it can be applied to anyone the powers that be disagree with at the moment. Especially if that entity happens to be occupying some territory with oil under it. Come to think of it, our neighbors in Canada are looking more and more like terrorists these days. Those radical Islamic hosers!