More Opinions Columnists

• V.B. Price: Preserving our water is greatest challenge the city, state faces
• Jeffry Gardner: End of The Trib is part of the demise of serious journalism
• Katherine Augustine: Time with friends from Japan provides treasured memories

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

The entertainment industry in America, a constant source of irritation and amusement for conservatives, genuinely enjoys having its sleazy way with the public.

Mega-stars, near-stars, directors, producers and the like love adoration and aren't above using their positions to detail precisely how they would run the world, were they in charge.

George Clooney, for example, knows exactly how sinister President Bush is and that Big Oil is at the root of that evil. If Clooney were president, he'd have none of it. He'd put the hammer down on Big Oil - and, after all, he's an expert on the matter by virtue of his motion picture "Syriana."

The fact Clooney expends more fossil fuel jetting from Los Angeles to his home in Lake Como, Italy, in a single jaunt than I'll use traveling about town over the next three years is lost on him, I guess.

From big screen to small, stage to radio and beyond, leading lights proudly proclaim themselves defenders of all that is right - and progressive, I suppose - in our land, while they expose how sorry a big chunk of the conservative folks who live in that land are.

Recently, the show "Boston Legal" defined that chunk as the "other America" and waxed poetic about what a worthless, mean-spirited land it is.

Of course, the "Legal" writers didn't waste a moment in defining the "other America." The other America, said one character, "elects presidents." And when "the other America" isn't electing presidents the entertainment industry hates, it is, according to this episode, trampling the rights of gays and lesbians.

Whether a huge chunk of the home-viewing audience agrees or not with that assessment doesn't concern me as much as how easy it's become for the mavens of these industries to lecture to and sneer at the "other America."

Liberal moralizing is growing like a fungus in TV shows and movies, and it's wearing thin on "other America" inhabitants.

Perhaps that's no great concern, either. We're welcome to leave the theater or turn off the TV when we want. But I have the sneaking suspicion that writers, producers and actors of these shows don't think "other America" viewers recognize their condescending bilge, and that does bother me.

There is the sneering assumption the "other America" spends it's time at monster-truck rallies and lives in double-wides with Confederate flags for drapes. The demographics don't bear that out, however.

Ultimately, when you're repeatedly told you're too dumb to know what's good for you, you tune out. Any potential dialogue is effectively terminated. That's probably not healthy for the national psyche.

What if there really are two Americas? Does anybody think either one is served well by entertainment-industry players who ceaselessly use their platforms as giant pulpits to ridicule and deride this or that segment? I hope not.

Gardner is an Albuquerque writer and political consultant.