Topic: Newsmax
James Hirsen has been positioning himself as an avatar of morality, even though it's clear he'll never apologize to his Newsmax readers for irresponsibly spreading false claims about the 2020 election being stolen -- even though that would be the moral thing to do. Instead, he's been trying to lecture Hollywood about moral issues (again, despite his own moral violations), and he continued to do that through the summer.
Hirsen's June 28 column cheered the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and bashed Hollywood types for criticizing the ruling:
Following the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, to return to the states the power to determine the legality of abortion, Americans now find themselves in a post-Roe v. Wade world.
What’s it like? In a word, awesome. But not for everyone.
Folks are still in disagreement with one another, perhaps more intensely than ever before.
We can’t even seem to come to terms with the premise that — there is no constitutional right to abortion but there is a fundamental right to life. So demonstrably obvious and yet so seemingly elusive.
Alongside the tragedy of abortion itself is the fact that we have fallen woefully short in bridging this divide.
Hollywood isn’t helping.
Celebrities of the pro-choice persuasion are using over-the-top language while simultaneously attempting to virtue-signal to the max. It’s occurring largely through social media.
As if Hirsen isn't also engaging in virtue-signaling by serving up rote attacks on Hollywood type for not being a right-winger like him. Indeed, he went on to praise right-wingers in Hollywood:
On a positive note, there are still a sizable number of prominent and influential Hollywood stars, who have fought the good fight in defense of our babies and their right to live.
Included in this brave bunch are Patricia Heaton, Kelsey Grammer, Mel Gibson, James Caviezel, Chuck Norris, Celine Dion, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Kirk Cameron, Candace Cameron Bure, Kanye West and Justin Bieber.
Hirsen spent his July 18 column complaining about the show "Stranger Things" touching on dark subjects (despite that's what you would expect from a show about the supernatural), grousing in particular that it's "a show about children and is highly attractive to children" (as if adolescents in real life have never had to deal with some very adult things):
Unfortunately, Season 4 of “Stranger Things” has descended to a base level of darkness that has parents, grandparents and guardians of the innocent casting the program out of homes, schools, etc., and questioning whether the show has the proper rating attached to it.
In addition to gruesome imagery and intensely aggressive behavior, Season 4 of the streaming series contains inappropriate sexual scenes and unnecessary profanity.
A reasonable explanation for the increasing coarseness of programming content is hard to come by.
Writers could have maintained the Steven Spielberg-influenced style and technique of the early episodes, which made Season 1 so appealing to viewers.
Instead the show altered its approach and is using enhanced computer graphics to peddle emotionally-laden themes, which feature graphic torture scenes, some involving child victims.
Hirsen went on to parrot complaints from the right-wing Parents Television Council that the show has too many swear words in it for at TV-14 show (CNSNews.com wrote up that very same PTC press release). Hirsen then admitted how much he was buying into the PTC press release: "
Where there’s awareness there’s hope. So as word about this issue gets out, the public just may get a ratings system that is once again accurate and reliable. After all, stranger things have happened."
Hirsen's Aug. 23 column hyped the new Christian film "Lifemark," starring the above-mentioned Kirk Cameron, proclaiming it "a movie that deals with some of the most central and poignant themes of our times — relationships, forgiveness, and the film’s primary focus: adoption." Hirsen provided a platform for Cameron and the film's makers to trash Hollywood andpiously promote their film's allegedly positive values. By contrast, a Christian reviewer found the movie boring and lacking conflict: "'Lifemark' portrays a healthy and wholesome family as one that never fights, where the teenage son never struggles with deep anger against God when bad things happen, where the parents are flawless and unquestionably wise and where trite Christianisms resolve all internal anguish. That’s not a healthy family. That’s a family that doesn’t exist anywhere, Christian or not."
Hirsen devoted his Aug.30 column to gushing over actor Shia LeBeouf for allegedly having undergobne a religious conversion to Cathoolicism while playing the title role in a film about Padre Pio, a Catholic priest who has recently been elevated to sainthood. Hirsen oddly soft-pedaled LeBeouf's pre-conversion behavior,stating only that "back in 2020 his former girlfriend had sued him, accusing him of sexual assault," which he called "debilitating" -- for LeBoeuf. In fact, the ex, musician FKA Twigs, accused LeBoeuf of not only that but much, much more, like knowingly passing an STD to her, and that her attorney also noted his history of abuse with women. And in an attempt at an apology to the ex in an podcast interview a few days before Hirsen's column was published, LeBeouf couldn't even say Twigs' name, referring to her only as "that woman."
Hirsen also hyped that "A transformational event in Shia’s personal journey was experiencing the Catholic Mass in its traditional Latin form." But he didn't mention who was apparently responsible for this embrace of right-wing, anti-Vatican II Catholicism: Mel Gibson. That's right -- Hirsen's far-right Catholic buddy and business partner whose relationship with him he kept secret for years while promotoing his film "The Passion of the Christ" and defending him after he was caught spewing anti-Semitic hate following a drunk-driving arrest.
Hirsen does have a bad habit of unethically hiding his Gibson connection; late last year, Hirsen hyped the film "Father Stu," another religious-themed project co-starring Gibson, without disclosing that it was directed by Gibson's girlfriend, Rosalind Ross.
