Right-Wing Hysteria Watch: Is 'Glee' part of Hollywood's leftist propaganda machine?

I'm not the world's biggest "Glee" fan, but from what I'd heard from my 11-year-old's school chums, the musical show is a fun, lighthearted look at a fictional high school glee club in Lima, Ohio. Or, as the San Francisco Chronicle put it, the show is a "quirky, sweet, humorous, non-partisan funfest."

But now the pundits in the conservative blogosphere, always quick to pull the trigger whenever they see Hollywood trying to hypnotize America using its all-powerful left-wing propaganda machine, have raised the alarm about "Glee," citing a disrespectful slam at Sarah Palin in the show's Tuesday night return to the airwaves. As the Newsbusters website described it, Jane Lynch, who plays a conniving high school cheerleading coach, told two of her cheerleaders: "You may be two of the stupidest teens I've ever encountered. And that's saying something. I once taught a cheerleading seminar to a young Sarah Palin."

"Glee" was already in hot water with the right wing, since the show's creator, Ryan Murphy, had in previous episodes made fun of abstinence education and, as Newsbusters puts it, "tried to normalize teen homosexuality." Apparently on the right, treating gay kids as regular folks, instead of as scary deviants, is cause for alarm.

Not to be outdone, over at Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood website, John Nolte has also weighed in with his usual light touch, claiming that the Palin gag was part of a concerted liberal effort to mesmerize your children with lefty propaganda. Here's his not-quite-so-entirely levelheaded take:

"Glee" is millions of dollars of sound and fury aimed squarely at your children. And as we can now see, the creators are all about getting between you and your kids with their political and social agendas. They know Palin is a growing political force and nothing's off the table when it comes to marginalizing her -- even at the expense of their own show's entertainment value -- even at the expense of audience share.

Poor Ryan Murphy. I guess it would've been oh-so-much simpler if he'd just had Jane Lynch tell the silly cheerleaders that they were the dumbest teens she'd ever seen. And that was saying something, since she'd once taught cheerleading to ... Megan Fox. It would've gotten a nice knowing laugh without prompting any hysterical shrieks of angst from the right-wing blogosphere, which is so paranoid about Hollywood's oppressive Marxist-Obamaism that it seems bent on getting worked up every time anyone in show business shows any signs of liberal bias.

(As you may recall, the righties were up in arms for weeks when Tom Hanks seemed to imply, while doing interviews promoting HBO's "The Pacific" series, that there was some link between our war against Japan during World War II and the modern-day war on terrorism.)

But guess what? I'm betting that Murphy is a liberal and he liked the idea of a Sarah Palin joke. The same goes, in reverse, if you listen to right-wing-dominated talk radio, where you can hear Rush Limbaugh, pretty much any day of the week, making jokes about his favorite liberal whipping boys. Ditto for Fox News. The conservatives rule talk radio and cable TV, the liberals rule Hollywood and that's the way it goes.

What I did find intriguing is that in all the attacks on "Glee," none of the conservative bloggers got around to mentioning that, despite their constant drumbeat of charges that regular Americans don't like Hollywood leftist entertainment, "Glee" is a huge hit, with its Tuesday night show drawing 13.7 million viewers, a huge leap forward from the average viewership of its first 13 episodes. And even more intriguing, the conservative bloggers somehow forgot to mention that this leftist propaganda show is, ahem, airing on Fox TV, which is owned, ahem, by arch conservative Rupert Murdoch.

Does that make Rupert a traitor to the cause? Or is he one of those conservatives who actually believes in creative freedom, where show-runners can offer their own special slant on the world as long as they attract enough eyeballs to have a hit show? Does that make Rupert a turncoat? Or is he just the kind of guy who, when it comes to entertainment, believes in different strokes for different folks?  

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Photo: Jane Lynch directs the Cheerios! squad in "The Power of Madonna" episode of "Glee" on Fox. Credit: Michael Yarish/Fox

 

 

Comments

[atlanta]

So, conservatives are angry. When did that become news?

[AIG]

Is it not right to make fun of famous people anymore? Let's be honest Palin and Bush are not very intelligent people. Yeah it's low brow stuff but making fun of stupid folks who are famous has been common place for awhile. I'm sure there were plenty of Jokes about the Clintons back when Monica was somebody

[Scytherius]

The poor little marginalized Right Wing. When will they get it through their head that no one cares what they think?

[sheniquathon biscuits]

to some troll on the board, i forget the name, i'm high.... i am a big liberal, totally. and i'm not afraid of palin in the least. i'm just annoyed that she hasn't died yet, because, she, like, forgot to breathe. same with that paris hilton thing. it's not about my beliefs, it's that palin's a talentless parasite who was too old for a sex video so she had to find some other way to whore herself out past being a blip on some unmonitored radar screen. i mean this in the most un-political and un-sexist way: that palin thing is a piece of meat for sale, and that's all.

[Joe B.]

I did actually blog about Sue Sylvester being Ryan Murphy's analogue for the Republican party back in December.

That's at this link:
http://iamatvjunkie.typepad.com/i_am_a_tv_junkie_a_blog_f/2009/12/is-glees-sue-sylvester-ryan-murphys-analogue-for-the-republican-party.html

Now, whether conservative parents can stop their kids from watching the show, that's another issue, an issue I'm sure Newscorp is surprised to find themselves in the middle of.

(Yes, I'm dangling a participle. It's not a final exam, it's a blog comment after all.)

[Joe B.]

I did actually blog about Sue Sylvester being Ryan Murphy's analogue for the Republican party back in December.

That's at this link:
http://iamatvjunkie.typepad.com/i_am_a_tv_junkie_a_blog_f/2009/12/is-glees-sue-sylvester-ryan-murphys-analogue-for-the-republican-party.html

Now, whether conservative parents can stop their kids from watching the show, that's another issue, an issue I'm sure Newscorp is surprised to find themselves in the middle of.

(Yes, I'm dangling a participle. It's not a final exam, it's a blog comment after all.)

[James Pollock]

It's not THAT surprising that a show that conservatives dislike airs on Fox... GHW Bush didn't like the Simpsons, and that was back when HE was President.

Apparently, Mr. Murdoch likes to make money. His broadcast network puts on shows that draw lots of viewers, and so does his "news" network.

[malclave]

"And that was saying something, since she’d once taught cheerleading to … Megan Fox. "

Why pick on Megan?

How about somebody like, I dunno, Hillary Clinton? I mean, that's one dumb broad... giving an "overcharge" button to the Russian ambassador? What the heck is that?

[malclave]

sheniquathon biscuits wrote about Sarah Palin:

"i'm just annoyed that she hasn't died yet"

No doubt, given that as a liberal you define yourself by hatred.

[Dave]

Insult who you like. Im not your boss, Im just a father of a couple of your customers. Who pays the bills. So it is Tivoed no more.

Making the line about Biden would have been funnier by the way.