David Cross and media bias

So, in the latest New Yorker, David Cross is quoted as saying “Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans recognize me from Scary Movie 2 and Alvin, and with whites it’s Arrested Development.” This coincides with his comments that the producer of the most recent Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel “there is this one producer, and I won’t say who, but she is the personification of what people think about when they think negatively about Jews.”

Now. I don’t think David Cross is a racist. I don’t think he’s wrong that different communities recognize him from different things. I think he was making a risqué joke about Jewish stereotypes and that he is not actually an anti-Semite.

But I do want you to consider what the media’s reaction would have been if a conservative actor had made the same kind of comments. Like, what if Robert Downey Jr., who made waves a few years back by admitting a Republican turn in his thinking after a stint in prison, said something like “Well, blacks love me in Iron Man, while with white audiences it’s all about Weird Science and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.” Combine that with RDJ’s defense of Mel Gibson in recent years and bam! “Actor stereotypes audiences!” headlines would scream. There would be no sympathetic blurb in the New Yorker — if there was anything, there would be an 8,000 word investigation into his history of racial animus.

This is the sort of thing that drives conservatives crazy — the department of double standards. I used to have a running bit focusing on this at Conventional Folly (maybe I’ll bring it back? It drove my lone troll, mikeybackwards, nuts). If the media’s going to make up ridiculous controversies, the least it could do is make up ridiculous controversies about people on the right and the left. I don’t think it’s asking too much.

(Photo by happyjoelmoss)