Secure In Their Bigotry, Hollywood Caucus Refuses to Pass Anti-Discrimination Resolution

This week has been a shocking one for Hollywood. Shortly after releasing my syndicated column last week, I handed The Hollywood Reporter a bevy of tapes showing tremendous liberal bias in the entertainment industry — and a tape of one top Hollywood creator, Vin Di Bona (“America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “MacGyver”), celebrating anti-conservative discrimination in Hollywood. Matt Drudge linked the piece, sending my book, “Primetime Propaganda,” to the top of the Amazon.com best-seller charts.

I began receiving emails from underground conservatives in Hollywood thanking me for revealing what everyone in town knows but few could confirm: that liberal Hollywood kills careers of those with whom it disagrees. I even got a few calls from liberals congratulating me on my attempts to open up the industry to different political viewpoints.

But traditional Hollywood remained silent. They were unruffled by the revelation that many in their industry hire and fire out of ideological bigotry. They didn’t even see it as controversial.

Then Lionel Chetwynd stepped up.

For those who don’t know Lionel, a multiple Emmy-award nominee for his television writing and the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.” Lionel is also a member of an elite honor society called the Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors. The Caucus was co-created by television icon Norman Lear in 1977 in order to promote “creative freedom” and “quality and diversity of all television.”

Unfortunately, Di Bona is a high-ranking member of the Caucus. Disgusted by Di Bona’s admissions, Lionel quit the Caucus. He was soon joined by mega-producer Norman Powell. “I knew most of my fellow members looked upon [conservative] political positions … as distasteful,” Chetwynd wrote in his resignation letter. “What I know understand is the disgust was not for their views, but for their very person. Such people, Mr. Shapiro’s sources make clear, must be silenced, and it is therefore proper to make them suffer discrimination.”

The fallout was immediate and intense. The New York Times covered it. So did The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.

But was Hollywood upset? Of course not.

Read full piece here.