Michael Parenti - Make-Believe Media: The Politics of Entertainment

To Howard Kahn, John Rocco Lombardi, Bertell Oilman, Paule Oilman, James Petras, Sally Soriano, Barbara Tillman, Bob Campus, Marvin Gettleman, Ellen Schrecker, Jim Sober, Sarah Burke, Lloyd Raines, Laura Akgulian, Tim Weber, Salvatore Bizzarro, David Barsamian, and Joseph Papaleo. Fortunate is the person with a treasure of friends.

Make-believe Media tells how movies and television have propagated images and themes that support militarism, imperialism, racism, sexism, authoritarianism, and other undemocratic values. I discuss many films and television programs. Do I select only the ones that paint the entertainment media in the worst possible light? If anything, I give disproportionately greater attention to the relatively few quality films and programs of progressive hue. While only a small fraction of the immense number of films that boost militaristic, anti-labor, and other conservative themes are treated herein, many more of the progressive ones are touched upon. Thus, the selection is skewed toward the more enlightened productions.

For almost every criticism I make of the make-believe media, one could find some exceptions. I do not claim that the political biases criticized on the pages ahead are the only ones in the entertainment media, but they are the predominant ones.

Some readers will maintain that one or another topic has not been given sufficient treatment. There is no separate chapter on women, for instance. But I do deal with the way women are treated or mistreated by the media within the context of almost every chapter in this book. There is no mention of gays and lesbians or the elderly, and only scant mention of the media's stereotypic treatment of Latinos, Asians, Arabs, Native American Indians, and various other social groups and themes. All I can do is plead for a division of labor. There was no way I could do justice to every important subject and keep this volume to a manageable size. The interested reader should consult the references provided at the end of the book that deal with the areas I have not treated.

Even for the subjects I do cover, I make no claim that the treatment is definitive. Many films and programs have gone unmentioned, including no doubt some that the reader loves or loves to hate.

My hope is that readers will find this critical treatment of the entertainment media to be entertaining as well as informative. There is nothing wrong with mindless relaxation in front of a screen now and then. What is wrong is when it becomes the national pastime, a way of life, preempting our experiences and providing us with a prefabricated understanding of what the world is supposed to be. And this it does for too many people.

So I hope this book leaves at least some individuals better attuned to what is false, contrived, and politically distorted about our entertainment media. Perhaps a better awareness of such things will cause us to waste fewer hours of our precious lives in front of both the big and little screens, allowing us more time for reading, conversing, relating to our friends and families, criticizing social injustice, and becoming active citizens of our society and the agents of our own lives.

I wish to thank Shelley Moskowitz, Linda Valentino, Kathy Lipscomb, and Jane Hallaran for the important assistance they rendered. Eric Smooden of American University has my appreciation for his valuable criticisms as do Steve Barkin, University of Maryland-College Park, and Timothy Cook, Harvard University.

Once again the staff at St. Martin's Press has proven most helpful in the production of this book, especially my editor Don Reisman, who is the best editor an author might hope for, and my project editor, Elise Bauman. My thanks also to Hollywood producer Edward Lewis, who provided me with some helpful information.

Michael Parenti