Opinion

How The Trump Movement Is Killing Hollywood & The Media

REUTERS/Jim Bourg

Liz Crokin Freelance Writer
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Anti-Trump celebrities and several media outlets have foolishly used their platform to spew hate for President Donald Trump. The decision to put politics ahead of the best interest of their business has been ethically misguided and flat out stupid. This move has isolated and offended millions of Americans and certain outlets are now paying a hefty price for this misstep. We’re currently witnessing the slow death of leftist Trump-hating media outlets ranging from Us Weekly, ESPN and CNN to the Hollywood careers of previously beloved stars such as Amy Schumer and Shia LaBeouf. As their burial plots are getting deeper, entertainers and members of the Trump friendly alternative media are flourishing, and this phenomenon will only grow.

Well over a month ago, a Hollywood insider told me there’s a big shift going on in the entertainment and media industry. The source said that the industry is looking to produce more patriotic and conservative projects to appeal to Trump supporters and more conservative news outlets will pop up. At the same time, the industry is going to distance themselves from divisive celebrities who have publicly trashed Trump in a vulgar manner such as Meryl Streep, Shia LaBeouf and Amy Schumer. As my source predicted, the backlash has begun. Schumer recently announced that she dropped out as the lead star in the “Barbie” movie due to alleged “scheduling conflicts”.  LaBeouf ‘s – who started a hate-filled anti-Trump campaign with a livestream video titled He Will Not Divide Us – new thriller “Man Down” literally only sold one ticket at a U.K. box office earlier this month.

“At the end of the day, the movie executives and producers in Hollywood who supported Hillary Clinton still need to make money,” the insider explained. “The dollar is still important so they are not going to take a risk alienating a large audience simply because a star like Meryl Streep wants to mouth off and disrespect President Trump. The celebrities who chose to attack Trump over the past year – it’s starting to bite them in the ass now and they are receiving less movie offers.”

For years conservatives in Hollywood have refrained from expressing their political viewpoints since so many have been blacklisted from projects because of their beliefs. Conservatives can now breathe a sigh of relief because the stigma is changing. While so many actors in Hollywood spent awards season this year trashing Trump, singer Joy Villa boldly spoke out in support of Trump on the Grammy’s red carpet wearing a make America great again-themed dress. Her risky decision instantly paid off. She gained over 150K followers on her collective social media accounts, her album I Make The Static went to no. 1 on iTunes and Amazon and she’s been approached with several offers including film roles.

“So many doors have opened for me since I’ve come out as a Trump supporter,” Villa told the Observer. “I’ve got acting things lined up, a feature film and several TV show appearances. I’m getting sent scripts to read every day which is a dream come true.” Villa adds that there are a lot more Trump supporters in Hollywood than people realize. “I found out there are a lot more pro-Trump people than anyone thought, even in the entertainment industry. They are just private about it.”

As Villa flourishes, anti-Trump publications such as Us Weekly have crumbled. I worked for the entertainment magazine as a reporter for years during both President George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s administrations. The magazine during that time was apolitical. If Obama or Bush were featured, it was always a fluff piece or pictorial with no political agenda. However, Us Weekly’s longtime policy to stay away from pushing a political agenda drastically changed in 2016. I was shocked and utterly disgusted to see how many of their stories were hit jobs and low blow attacks on Trump and his associates.

For example, last summer Us Weekly posted an article suggesting that talk show host Laura Ingraham made a Nazi salute after she spoke at the Republican National Convention. Ingraham is a Christian woman, an advocate for the troops, a cancer survivor and the single mother to three adopted children. Yet, Us Weekly casted her as a Nazi. People expressed their outrage for Us Weekly’s vitriol toward Trump and his surrogates in the comments section on their social media pages. I knew then that if they continued on this destructive path of irresponsible and agenda driven journalism, the magazine would crash and burn. Their venom toward Trump did ease up after the election. They featured Trump and his family on multiple covers in a more fair and positive light – which were some of their bestselling covers of the year — but by then it was too late because the damage was done.

Us Weekly suffered a roughly 30 percent decline in newsstand sales in the second half of 2016 from the same period a year earlier, according to The New York Times. As a result, it was announced earlier this month that Us Weekly’s parent company, Wenner Media, sold the failing publication to American Media. This is a microcosm of what’s happening with many mainstream media outlets that have relentlessly spread lies and trashed Trump over the past year and pushed a far left PC agenda instead of fulfilling their duty of reporting the news objectively.

This trend is affecting the entire anti-Trump leftist media such as CNN, The New York Times and even ESPN. The CNN can’t send a crew anywhere without crowds gathering around them chanting “CNN sucks” as they did at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania the other night. The New York Times issued an apology after the election for their sloppy reporting. As Trump has pointed out, CNN and MSNBC have seen a ratings drop since the election while Fox News Channel broke a ratings record the first quarter of 2017. ESPN is suffering the effect of pushing a far left radical political agenda during the election as well. The network announced last week they’re laying off 100 employees.

The mainstream media only seems to do well these days when they feature pro-Trump members — usually in an attempt to make them look bad — of the alternative media such as Mike Cernovich and Milo Yiannopoulos. For instance, 60 Minutes featured Cernovich recently and for the first time possibly ever, the show trended on Twitter and won the ratings battle in that timeslot. It was the show’s first ratings win in almost ten years. Yiannopoulos, the wildly popular former Breitbart tech editor, just announced that he’s launching a new $12 million media company. The star power of conservative media personalities and even right-leaning Hollywood stars will continue to rise as the leftist media continues to dig their own graves deeper if they stay the course.

“Conservatism is the new counterculture. It’s becoming in vogue again to be a good girl and boy, to love God and country, and be polite and smile,” Villa said.

She might be onto something!

Follow Liz on Twitter @LizCrokin

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