Hollywood conservatives launch effort to change entertainment industry

In an industry dominated by the political left, conservatives are coming together on a new platform with a mission to change Hollywood and to restore it to its patriotic roots.

Launched last week, Big Hollywood is not a gossip outpost but a group blog featuring hundreds of conservatives from the fields of politics, journalism, entertainment and culture.

“[I]t is a continuous politics and culture posting board for those who think something has gone drastically wrong and that Hollywood should return to its patriotic roots,” explains conservative new mogul Andrew Breitbart, who launched Big Hollywood last Tuesday.

“Big Hollywood's modest objective: to change the entertainment industry. To make Hollywood something we can believe in – again. In order to give millions of Americans hope,” adds Breitbart, who is known for his role in managing of the conservative Drudge Report and development of The Huffington Post.

According to a survey released last year during the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)’s annual meeting in Los Angeles, 59 per cent of Americans agree that "the people who run the TV networks and the major movie studios do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans".

A poll in 2006 by MSNBC.com and Zogby International concluded with similar results, with 60 per cent saying they thought Hollywood values were at odds with those of most of America.

“Hollywood values are characterised by decadence, narcissism, rampant drug use, extramarital sex leading to the spread of sexually-transmitted disease, lawlessness and death,” states Conservapedia, a web encyclopedia created in 2006 in protest of the “liberal, anti-Christian, and anti-American bias” of Wikipedia.

“The lack of morals and values in Hollywood culture has been destroying the fabric of American culture, particularly the family,” it adds.

Hollywood has also been accused of exporting the above-mentioned values overseas, thus negatively influencing other cultures, distorting the view of what Americans are, and inciting hatred from people of other nations.

“The anti-hero rules this celluloid world,” says Big Hollywood’s Breitbart. “Nihilism is packaged as edginess. And there's zero sense that anyone's watching out for quality control. Even the respected awards are often given to the most outlandish and gratuitously deplorable.”

Though conservatives in America have typically tried to shift the direction of the nation through new laws and new leaders, Breitbart says it is pop culture, not politics, that is the “big prize”.

“Until conservatives, libertarians and Republicans – who will be the lion's share of Big Hollywood's contributors – recognise that (pop) culture is the big prize and that politics is secondary, there will be no victory in this important battle,” he asserts.

In recent years, more Christians have also come to realise the increasingly strong influence that media – particularly the entertainment industry – has over the American population. A 2002 Barna Group survey had revealed how movies are one of the leading influencers in American society while churches have lost much of their influence. The survey prompted associate pastors at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, to create the movie-making ministry that recently produced the faith-based film “Fireproof”, which has grossed over $33 million since debuting last September.