Bottom Line Rules Hollywood

* Re “A Two-Pronged Leftist Assault Is Underway in Hollywood,” Commentary, Oct. 15: Michael Moriarty left out the Masons, the queen of England and the pope in his paranoid commentary about the all-powerful Hollywood left. If the Commies really ran Hollywood, there would at least be a decent folk music cable channel.

As a resident of that neighboring third-world country, Moriarty should know that the flight of U.S. film and TV production to Canada (and other low-wage countries that grovel for U.S. investment) has everything to do with maximizing the bottom line and nothing to do with creative freedom. I guess it’s not Moriarty’s fault that he can’t think clearly. But why did The Times feel it should print the result?

PAUL WILLSON

Sherman Oaks

*

I would agree with much of what Moriarty says in this article. The C-word in this article (censorship) is more repugnant to me than that other C-word [communism]. However, if Hollywood would stop putting out such ---- (another C-word), perhaps the issue of the first C-word would not be an issue at all. Maybe this isn’t about censorship at all, but is more about the almighty dollar. If nonviolent movies strong on well-developed characters and a good story sold tickets, we would be presented with nonviolent movies strong on well-developed characters and a good story. This is not a free speech issue as much as it is a dollar-worshiping society issue.

Do I want to see censorship? No. But it would be nice to see a well-made, well-storied, well-acted American movie once in a while.

NANCY FLEMING

Hawthorne

*

Moriarty asserts that there is a “two-pronged, leftist assault on Hollywood.” To support his thesis Moriarty engages in mental contortions of breathtaking scope. He dredges up the specter of Joe McCarthy, accuses him of having attacked free speech and then crowns the senator as the “best friend of the American left.”

With those startling premises Moriarty blows his main argument right out of the water. McCarthy, tactics notwithstanding, was attempting to expose members of an organization that advocated the overthrow of our government by force. His efforts had nothing at all to do with free speech.

To claim that McCarthy turned out to be the “best friend” of leftists is patently false, as the decades of abuse heaped on him by those same elements proves beyond doubt. Moriarty’s major premise is interesting but he should take a course in Logic 101 if he wants readers to take his pronouncements seriously.

THOMAS C. ROGERS

San Juan Capistrano

*

I was absolutely amazed and appalled at Moriarty’s commentary. Without debating the basic issues he raises, I thought we had matured beyond the point of stigmatizing anything we don’t agree with as “socialist.” He starts out by citing Josef Stalin and proceeds to categorize as “leftist” various organizations and individuals that obviously are not right wing enough to earn his esteem.

DON RYERSON

San Pedro