The China crisis in entertainment

This is from 5 months ago, and it extends beyond entertainment into COVID-19 reporting, and frankly everything else too. China's government hates free speech:

Liberals pull out all the entertainment stops

Some liberals have moved on from ranting about president Trump winning the election to once again using their strong suit (the entertainment industry) to disparage the president. I'm not expecting much from Roseanne Barr's show reboot.  That is not much new. Meanwhile, the NYT newspaper is sponsoring a president Trump assassination Julius Caesar play. For real.

New York's venerated theater organization, the Public Theater, is facing a PR disaster over its long-running free "Shakespeare in the Park" series. The organization is mounting a production of Julius Caesar, which (spoiler alert!) ends with the Roman politician being assassinated. Many far-right online personas—including Donald Trump Jr.—consider this to be offensive given that Caesar appears Trump-like in this particular production. (It depicts him with blonde hair and modern attire.)

A flurry of online trolling and hysteria over the show has resulted in two corporate sponsors—Bank of America and Delta—cutting ties with the Public Theater. But not everyone is ready to cut and run. Today the New York Times, another corporate sponsor, confirmed to me that it will continue supporting the theater.

Kathy Griffin redux.  I wonder if this still applies?

Friday Musical Interlude - Entertainment

A catchy tune from the band Phoenix: Entertainment, with an usual video.

Brit stars attack Israel under false pretenses

Oh, okay. The British entertainment industry are speaking out against Israel. It's all Israel's fault that civilians are being killed, is that it?

Singer Annie Lennox and former model Bianca Jagger joined human rights campaigners to call on American president elect Barack Obama to speak up against the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and the comedian Alexei Sayle also added their support to the campaign to end the violence.

I guess they weren't paying attention when Hamas was killing Israeli civilians. Aside from the obvious hue and cry that they raise and their attempt to sway public opinion towards compassion and humanity and blah, blah, blah, what's the common background of these concerned stars?

British comedian Alexei Sayle is apparently Jewish and ashamed of Israel. I didn't realize he was Jewish, but I was aware of the fact that he was an avowed socialist. Apparently Annie Lennox has some socialism in her family background, and although she claims to avoid party affiliation, she does work with Amnesty International and Greenpeace. Bianca Jagger was a big supporter of Daniel Ortega, the former Nicaraguan dictator and socialist. And Ken Livingstone, former London mayor, is definitely a socialist.


[Photo from the 2006 U.N. rally.]

There seems to be a bit of a common thread. It's all a little clearer. Anti-Americanism, anti-Israeli, but for reasons other than what is professed in public. In 2006 Arabs and communists rallied at the U.N. with chants of death to Israel. Nice. It's a common enemy thing. Just thought I should bring these facts to the table when the conversations come up.