Should we hate or love Hollywood and TV?

[leadcounsel]

Seems to me that a majority of the cause for the erosion of gun rights is the evil portrail of guns by Hollywood, irresponsible TV shows and biased newscasts.

Sure, we all love the great action flicks like Heat, Ronin, Collateral, etc. but what about the 99% of the garbage that fuels the anti-gun side and brainwashes people against guns and gun ownership?

Personally, I generally boycott attending movie theaters, but I am guilty of watching TV and movies, so I do support it to some degree.

How do you view this and how do you reconcile your differences with Hollywood and TV?

Would it matter if gun owners said "Enough" and stopped supporting the biz? Would it be practical or realistic to have it happen?

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

Seems to me that a majority of the cause for the erosion of gun rights is the evil portrail of guns by Hollywood, irresponsible TV shows and biased newscasts.

Care to elaborate on how this is the cause? To me, the erosion of gun rights doesn't seem to come as a result an anti-gun biased public, but rather an apathetic public who can't be bothered to deal with things they feel don't affect them directly.

I could see that as movies, tv, video games, and so forth contributing to that apathy as those have displaced traditional outdoor activities such has hunting and targets shooting. There is no disputing that much of the media has an anti-gun bias. However, I'm curious how you came to the conclusion that they are principle cause.

 

[JR719]

It would be difficult to boycott. Figure on canceling your cable/sat tv account. Only a few movie rentals, watching the news would pretty much be over (at least here). No more theaters, unless you had the reviews first or heard what friends were saying about a particular movie.
I like the encore western channel, love those cowboy movies! I hate watching cop shows, it's my job and the shows are obviously not real (at least normal people know this) most that I deal with think everyone does what they see on CSI.
Think about it, what are they about? Either murder, drugs (got to have a gun), drugs and murder with a gun. The ones I've watched seem to have a slant that only the bad have the guns. I just don't watch them anymore, and gripe at the wife because she likes them.
Bring back the good oldies when guns were good. Or someone grow a set and make movies, tv shows portraying guns in a good way. Wouldn't the anti's love that?

 

[Phil DeGraves]

Boycott the movies starring known anti-gunner activists and attend movies starring the pro gunners. Same with musical artists. Of course, this requires finding out who our allies are. Some pro-gun actors (and by this I mean actors who have come out publically defending the second amendment as opposed to just owning guns and supporting the liberals, like Steven Spielberg) are Bruce Willis, Tom Selleck, Kurt Russell, Geoffrey Lewis, Peter Sherayko. John Milius (director) is also very pro-gun.

 

[MatthewVanitas]

I'll take the Devil's Advocate position here (as I tend to do):

Though there is a lot of negative imagery in fiction visual media, I think that the end result has the potential to be positive, in terms of maintaining the Constitutional Republic.

Jorg has nailed it dead on: the problem isn't anti-gun hostility, it's pure apathy. The apathetic follow the party line of whoever "seizes the terms of discourse". That is, your average John Q. Public says "guns are bad" because sincere political activists tell him that guns kill babies, and because many films lampoon gun owners as hicks, Nazis, white-trash, etc.

However, visual media also has a strong potential to counter apathy, in that it can cause people to think of the world beyond their immediate surroundings, and to imagine a different world.

Not trying to sound cheesy here, just saying that if the apathetic folks didn't have TV and movies, most would immerse themselves in local highschool football scores and zoning board meetings about the unsightly hardware store parking lot.

At least _good_ film and TV gives folks a chance to see stories set in places outside their experience. Since most people's immediate personal experience doesn't lead them to learn about firearms until it's too late, I'd say media can communicate the practical utility of firearms.

-MV

 

[orangelo]

Haven't been to a movie since Star Wars Ep3. My TV never comes on unless it's for playstation or to watch a dvd.

I'm not missing anything and scum like Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon and Rosie o Donut and Oprah aren't leeching off my dollars.

 

[marley]

Cbs has had two pro gun shows on in the past two weeks. How i met your mother. Guns are fun. And the jericho about a nuclear blast and a gun in the home saved the girls from harm. The tide might be changing back the other way. That is how it starts. Patrick

 

[Deanimator]

TV and movies should be recognized for what they mostly are: Low brow bread and circuses for people with low IQs.

To derive one's knowledge of firearms and self-defense from TV and movies is the equivalent of obtaining all of one's knowledge of astronautics from Flash Gordon serials.