Reality? We Don’t Need No Stinking Reality.
Holy smoke. This is how low they will go to assassinate the character of a person? Seriously? The LA Times reaches the depths of sleazy behavior by saying Fred Thompson's roles as an actor - a paid performer - will be used against him politically. Especially the ones that the LA Times can salivate over because he played a bad guy. For money - as in a job. As in reading someone else's written words in a performance for television.
The L.A. Times asks: Will Fred Thompson’s racist role have political repercussions?
Ronald Reagan became president even though he worked with chimps in B movies.
Arnold Schwarzenegger played a murderous robot, and that didn’t keep him from becoming governor.
. . . “Law & Order” actor and former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) . . . played a white supremacist, spewing anti-Semitic comments and fondling an autographed copy of “Mein Kampf” on a television drama 19 years ago.
The paper mulls over the meaning of this — and looks to conservative blogs!
His colleagues say that he was just an actor putting everything he had into playing the role of a charismatic racist, named Knox Pooley, in three episodes of CBS’ hit show “Wiseguy” in 1988. “Do you call Tom Cruise a killer because he played one in a movie?” asked show creator and writer Stephen J. Cannell.
But in the age of YouTube, this performance could raise an intriguing political question: How does a performer eyeing a presidential run deal with a video history that can be downloaded, taken out of context, chopped into embarrassing pieces and then distributed endlessly though cyberspace? Some conservative political blogs are already considering the problem.
Patterico points out that the writer of this smear job (and that is exactly what this is) took two comments out of context on his site to use as "evidence" of this concern. Ed Morrisey ripped the LA Times for being unable to separate fiction from reality.
I see the Los Angeles Times has spent decades living in and reporting on the film community without learning anything about acting. In their Celebrity News section, Tina Daunt wonders whether voters will confuse Fred Thompson the politician with the roles performed by Fred Thompson the actor. She speaks with a USC professor who apparently doesn't understand the difference, either (via Hot Air):
This is seriously demented. Steven Cannell, the producer, has slammed the LA Times for this record-breaking stoop to fling slime:
Cannell makes the point pretty explicit, although it seems that Daunt missed it:
"He was an actor hired to play a part," Cannell said. "These are not his personal views. He doesn't believe any of that, nor do I. If this is all they can find to say about him, then they've hit a new low."
I'd add this: if they are so desperate to sink to positively subterranean efforts to assassinate someone's character, they are scared as all hell of this man and his potential. And the backfire from this kind of crap will make him an even stronger candidate.
H/T Memeorandum for the links.
Other Links to this Post
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The Anchoress » Unserious vs Serious, scanning the sphere — Saturday, 5 May , 2007 @ 12:03 am
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Blue Crab Boulevard » Common Sense — Saturday, 5 May , 2007 @ 11:18 am
By LA Times, Saturday, 5 May , 2007 @ 12:44 pm
…then they’ve hit a new low…
We prefer to think of it as pushing the envelope.