Some Christians are really good at shooting their own sinful wounded, much less those who aren’t believers. So, I would be the last person to dump on Harvey Weinstein while he’s down and getting pulverized. I don’t have to. Everyone else in Hollywood is turning on their man now. Dateline NBC would know about such things.
Journalists who celebrate their own ethics by “policing their own” railed on Dateline for strapping on a few extra incendiaries to make those Chevy truck gas tanks go off not just “accidentally,” but with a little more aplomb on their show 25 years ago. It took Dateline and NBC years to recover. The journalists then think they “solved” that problem. But they are hardly moral arbiters, and truth in news reporting is still up for grabs. Just ask Brian Williams, if he can remember correctly.
That’s why I just shake my head at “professional” Hollywood who is now aghast—aghast I tell you—at what went on at Harvey’s place. One day, these moral paragons can’t wait to tell you what you should think about politics and religion in America. And the next day they are taking their clothes off—consensually they say—on screen to entertain you. Now, they are aghast that a Hollywood mogul would take advantage of—wait for it—people like them.
What I find particularly appalling is that now that they have Weinstein, that has “solved” the problem. Jake Tapper at CNN is ripping the media for covering this up. NBC is back in the middle of it. A late-night talk show host suddenly has skeletons in his closet he doesn’t want to talk about. People who made public jokes about Harvey’s behavior in the past, some on television, are having to “walk back” those comments. You see, they are “policing their own.”
But, no worries. All of this won’t last too much longer. Hollywood is all better now that they’ve policed themselves. Even Hollywood’s “Mr. Clean,” Tom Hanks, thinks we can all move on now. Nothing to see here.
“I’ve never worked with Harvey,” Mr. Hanks said in The New York Times two days ago. “But, aah, it all just sort of fits, doesn’t it?” Why did Hollywood help shelter him, if everyone knew about the decades of abusive behavior? “Well, that’s a really good question and isn’t it part and parcel to all of society somehow, that people in power get away with this?” he says. “Look, I don’t want to rag on Harvey but so obviously something went down there.
To quote a stupid movie line, “Duh!” And, I have a hard time believing that Mr. Hanks doesn’t see himself as one of the “people in power.” Just ask him about politics.
Look, Hollywood without Weinstein is the same as it was with Weinstein. And sadly, Christians will continue to buy tickets to see the same kind of sleaze coming out of their consensual studios. Note to my Christian brothers and sisters: Hollywood moguls are hardly moral arbiters.
Literally, I don’t buy it. And, my brothers and sisters in Christ, perhaps you can help me here. Why would you?