Gavin Newsom Demands Hollywood ‘Choose’ to Boycott Pro-life States

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) demanded Wednesday that Hollywood studios boycott states that pass pro-life laws and restrictions on abortion, as he backed a five-year extension of a $1.65 billion state tax credit to the entertainment industry.

Newsom announced his support for the tax credit, and in an accompanying public advertisement titled “Hollywood: Your Values, Your Choice,” Newsom said that it was “time to choose” between California’s liberal values, and those of conservative states (original emphasis):

Over the past several years, the legislatures of states like Georgia and Oklahoma have waged a cruel assault on essential rights. Now, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s abhorrent decision overturning Roe v. Wade, those same states are moving quickly to strip reproductive freedom.

…

Today more than ever, you have a responsibility to take stock of your values — and those of your employees — when doing business in those states.

California is a freedom state: Freedom to tell your stories. Freedom to access the health services you need, including abortion care.

…

So to those in power to make decisions about where to film, where to hire, where to open new offices, we in California say: Walk the walk.

Choose freedom. Choose creativity. Choose California.

Newsom’s message suggests that the state is willing to impose its own ideological views on the entertainment industry — and that the “freedom” the industry enjoys in the state, including its access to tax credits, depends on conformity to the state view.

Without any sense of irony, Newsom suggested that conforming to the government’s own view meant choosing “creativity.”

California is in the habit of boycotting conservative states, so much so that the state bans official travel to 22 states, nearly half the country. (That did not stop Newsom from vacationing in Idaho in violation of the ban, taking a state security detail.)

However, despite boycotts and threats, states like Georgia are seeing record spending in film and television production, as Breitbart News reported on Wednesday. One reason for Newsom’s heavy-handed message is that California is facing steep competition from states and countries that offer the industry lower production costs, fewer regulations, and more tax credits.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.