New York Mag Writer Says Gina Carano’s Treatment Akin To Blacklist

New York Magazine writer Jonathan Chait says Hollywood’s treatment of conservative actress Gina Carano is reminiscent of the Hollywood blacklist in the 1950s.

Chait’s Friday essay for the Intelligencer argued there was no “principled distinction” between Carano’s recent termination from future episodes of The Mandalorian and her representation and the Hollywood blacklist against communists.

Carano was dropped by talent agency UTA this week after sharing a social media post comparing the current political climate to the Nazi era. Lucasfilms, which produces The Mandalorian, said it had no plans for her.

Chait wrote that the post “was not anti-Semitic by any reasonable definition.”

“The post simply argued (uncontroversially) that the Holocaust grew out of a hate campaign against Jews, which it then likened (controversially) to hatred of fellow Americans for their political views,” Chait wrote. “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.”

The media reporting on Carano’s social media also came under fire from Chait.

“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,” he wrote. “The principle that an actor ought to be fired for expressing unsound political views has simply faded into the background.”

He added, “If you think blacklisting is only bad if its targets have sensible views, I have some bad news for you about communism.”

Chait conceded that Hollywood has the right to choose who it will work with. 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.”

“A Dalton Trumbo ought to have been able to hold onto his screenwriting job even though he supported a murderous dictator like Stalin,’ he said “And actors ought to be able to work even if they support an authoritarian bigot like Donald Trump.”