ANTI-RELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA | JULY 20, 2021

The Hollywood Reporter’s Record on Intolerance is Another Flop

Whenever I read an industry publication that purports to be “just” and “enlightened” comment on religions in a disparaging, offensive way, I think of how far we have strayed from our heritage as a country that celebrates religious freedom.

And when I read the kind of nonsensical bigotry that The Hollywood Reporter just published not only about the religion that literally saved my life, Scientology, but also (to really pile it on) the Jehovah’s Witnesses, it makes me sad—for the people who publish such negative trash.

Clearly, sexual abuse by anyone, especially people in positions of trust like clergy, is unacceptable and an affront to basic decency, but this article wasn’t really about that.

If you had a neighbor who constantly spread nasty, malicious rumors about you and your best friends, wouldn’t you pity that person? I mean, what kind of a small-minded, craven individual would expend energy trying to tear down people of good will like that?

And yet, once again, that’s exactly what the The Hollywood Reporter is working so diligently to do: to do all they can to be a bad neighbor.

Do we really need more religious intolerance in America today?

After all, there are tens of thousands of Scientologists in Hollywood and Los Angeles, and many work in the entertainment industry which THR is supposed to represent. By spreading hate speech (in 2021, for crying out loud), THR spits in my face, and the faces of all my fellow actors, directors, writers, producers and other industry members—and to what end?

More divisiveness? More bigotry? More shrill name-calling and reckless blame?

Do we really need more religious intolerance in America today?

Isn’t it the task of Hollywood storytellers to bring us all together in a spirit of inclusion, not to separate us into small, artificially disparate groups to be mislabeled, misunderstood and maligned?

Shame on The Hollywood Reporter for its unholy crusade against members of the religious community. No one deserves to be misrepresented and dehumanized in the press on the basis of their beliefs, least of all members of a religion whose record of helping the Hollywood community is a long and lauded one.

Clean up your act, Hollywood Reporter.

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AUTHOR

Jim Meskimen

Jim Meskimen is an actor, director, impressionist and YouTube personality. He comes from a show-business family; his mom is actress Marion Ross, who portrayed “Mrs. C” on Happy Days. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Tamra and daughter Taylor who are also actresses and voice artists.

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