"Did liberal-bashers cost Garofalo her sitcom?"

Unfortunately, it appears that her sitcom "Slice o' Life" has been cancelled (suntimes.com/output/zwecker/cst-ftr-zp05.html):

Is the ghost of Sen. Joe McCarthy alive and well in Hollywood? That is certainly on the minds of many outspoken liberals in Tinsel-town these days. The latest conspiracy theory focuses on the just-announced axing by ABC of very vocal anti-Iraq war activist Janeane Garofalo's new sitcom, ''Slice o' Life...''

[...It was cancelled] just days before the show's pilot was scheduled to be taped in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A source close to Garofalo tells this column the actress and comedian was furious by the last-minute change and believes it's yet another example ''of a network bowing to the perceived power of the Bush administration. ... Janeane is convinced her politics and all the hate mail the right-wing lobby stirred up during the war is what is behind all this.''

An ABC spokeswoman denies that, saying this was a decision based strictly on the artistic merits (or lack thereof) of the show--with Garofalo's politics ''never coming into the decision-making process whatsoever.''

How can there be a conspiracy theory already? There's only four posts (democraticunderground.com/duforum/DCForumID70/10006.html) at DU.

As for McCarthyism, there's a long but interesting summary of how he was "bad news" here (oraculations.blogspot.com/2003_05_01_oraculations_archive.html). Just because McCarthy might have been a "vicious smear artist" doesn't mean there weren't commies in Hollywood: "The Hollywood angle is different. They were Communists. They lied and dodged the question before the HUAC and the media now claims they were NOT Communists... [links in which they admitted they inserted commie propaganda in scripts, etc.]"

I don't think Garofalo is a Commie or a traitor. She just needs to be sent to the Lonewacko Reeducation Camp.

Thu, 06/05/2003 - 22:02 · Importance: 4