Conservative actress Gina Carano found rare support among liberals in the mainstream media following her firing from “The Mandalorian” over social media posts and being dropped by her agency UTA.
In an essay titled, “Firing Actors for Being Conservative Is Another Hollywood Blacklist,” New York magazine columnist Jonathan Chait began by recalling the polarizing period in the entertainment industry when suspected communists were barred from working amid the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s.
Chait dismissed the “anti-Semitic” charges Carano has been facing over an Instagram post that compared the political divide in America to the events that led to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.
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“I don’t find this post especially insightful. But overheated comparisons to Nazi Germany are quite common, and, more to the point, not anti-Semitic. There is no hint anywhere in this post of sympathy for Nazis or blame for their victims,” Chait wrote.
“There is no hint anywhere in [Carano’s] post of sympathy for Nazis or blame for their victims.”
— Jonathan Chait, writing for New York magazine’s ‘Intelligencer’
The “Intelligencer” writer then called out the “most striking” thing how the news coverage of Carano’s firing, which was as “the utter absence of any scrutiny of her employer or her (now-former) agency.”
Gina Carano is seen Nov. 13, 2019, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic)
“The tone of the reporting simply conveys her posts as though they were a series of petty crimes, the punishment of which is inevitable and self-evidently justified. The principle that an actor ought to be fired for expressing unsound political views has simply faded into the background,” Chait explained.
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“If you think blacklisting is only bad if its targets have sensible views, I have some bad news for you about communism,” he wrote.
Chait then went into the history of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who “followed the Communist Party line in the Stalin era” during the height of McCarthyism.
“Technically, the studios had the legal right to refuse to associate themselves with people who had abhorrent beliefs. But a fairer and more liberal society is able to create some space between an individual’s political views and the position of their employer,” Chait wrote. “A Dalton Trumbo ought to have been able to hold onto his screenwriting job even though he supported a murderous dictator like Stalin. And actors ought to be able to work even if they support an authoritarian bigot like Donald Trump.”
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Chait’s column was well-received among other liberal media figures, including MSNBC host Chris Hayes.
“I’ve got my quibbles here and there, but basically agree with this,” Hayes tweeted.
Following her severed ties with Disney, Carano announced that she will be partnering with Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire and will be developing and starring in her own movie as part of the conservative outlet’s growing entertainment division.
