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- Got it? - Yeah, yeah, hold it.

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What is it? What is it?

My first recollection of television

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

as it came into our house,

it was wrapped in paper with a big bow on it.

For me?

I don't think anybody realized the profound changes

that television would bring about.

Television.

In Avalon, I covered the subject.

I showed how we went from this large extended family

to ultimately this small nuclear family

sitting at TV trays,

watching television,

watching an American family on television.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with television.

I worked in it.

I did all the kinds of jobs,

everything from a floor director

to writing and directing television.

And I don't think anyone,

anyone could possibly have envisioned

the changes that would have taken place

and the effects that television had on us.

It certainly has changed politics,

the nature of so-called celebrity,

and it's probably changed us in many ways

that we still have yet to understand.

That's television.

Anne!

Anne!

Anne!

During the inauguration weekend,

I had a chance to run into the creative coalition.

It's a group of writers, directors, actors.

They are very political, but they are nonpartisan.

They basically promote various social programs

that they feel very strongly about.

There is that sort of fine line

between Hollywood and politics.

He's said to be one of the most showbizzy

of world leaders.

Obama himself is a celebrity.

We're more interested in what Michelle Obama is wearing

than what Sharon stone is wearing.

what'd you see, baby?

I originally met them at the DNC,

and I followed them through the RNC.

What was interesting is to see how they have to navigate

through these kind of choppy waters,

meeting with politicians,

being considered a celebrity,

so therefore, there is a number of press around them.

And you see how do they have to find a way

so that they can get their message out at the same time

for that message not to become frivolous in nature.

And then, of course the big question is,

how do you survive the media circus

and not end up the clown?

Thank you, America.

One love. Good night!

Politics and celebrity,

some folks complain they don't belong,

they shouldn't be intertwined.

Why are you compelled to speak out

and make your opinions known?

Why do you think it is important

to lend your celebrity here, especially at the DNC?

You came all the way out here from Hollywood?

What drew you to come out here?

What will you be doing on the convention floor

and during the convention?

It's a funny thing.

I've been getting that question a lot.

And I think people have become kind of cynical

about political-- politicalized celebrities.

If I do have a skill or a credential,

it's being able to communicate to people.

So I want to learn what it is

and hopefully communicate it to, you know, regular folks,

even if it's only to say, "you know what?

It's a big beauty pageant, doesn't mean anything."

Well, creative coalition goes to both conventions

'cause we're non-- we are nonpartisan.

And we bring issues to the table for the national discussion.

So when we talk about the employee free choice act,

we're talking about majority sign-ups.

We're talking about the right to form unions

that act on their behalf,

collectively helping bargaining on their behalf.

Hollywood is the only elite that is purely ideological.

The people who give money in Hollywood,

they give money purely for what they believe.

They're not benefiting from that money.

And something about that offends.

The people who live in shaker heights

or who live outside of Houston--

I don't even know where you would live there--

Those people live just as well.

But because they're operating

on the basis of their own economic self-interest,

it's perceived as somehow legitimate,

whereas Barbra Streisand is considered kooky

because she's giving money to what she believes in

rather than what's in her own interest.

And I think Hollywood

should stop being apologetic about that.

Any moments as you've been filming here

where you just say this is right out of wag the dog

or, you know, one of your fictional movies?

Well, I think there's a little bit of wag the dog

that's a part of the life we lead now.

Naked girl covered in napalm.

"V" for victory.

Five marines raising the flag, mount Suribachi.

You remember the picture 50 years from now,

you'll have forgotten the war.

The Gulf war: Smart bombs falling down the chimney,

2,500 missions a day, 100 days,

one video of one bomb, Mr. Motss.

The American people bought that war.

- Mm-hmm. - War is show business.

We are living in an age of satire.

You can't actually rationalize it.

You can't make sense out of what is going on

in a certain way.

So that what happens is, you are in an absurdist times.

It's a collision of disinformation

that bangs into one another,

and people are trying to make sense out of stuff

that has no logic whatsoever.

The Hillary Clinton campaign

is putting out the following picture.

He was educated in a madrasa.

Barack Obama is a practicing Christian,

but Obama's half brother is not so sure.

His middle name, Hussein.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama

is trying to change political fashion.

Everybody wears them,

from a mayor to a county commissioner

to members of congress to the president.

You're not wearing a lapel pin, are you?

I will wear one, and I have worn one.

He--I'm not making a statement about it.

But do you see my point?

So, you know, we pool these things

to put it on the television and say, "look at that."

And some of it sticks,

because it's very hard to wipe images out of your head.

They get in there. They just get in there.

What happens is, a visual is very, very strong.

It doesn't need context.

It creates its own context.

And we are in an electronic age

of which all of this information is flying around.

Certain truths which are not truths

become the truth.

The Democratic convention has officially become

an a-list Obama celeb-ration:

Charlize Theron, Ben Affleck,

Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow,

and Sheryl Crow.

But are stars like these helping or hurting Barack's campaign?

Barack Obama's had a number of Hollywood fund-raisers.

Reached out, there are a number of stars

that are coming here that are recognizable

that are supporting Obama.

And there's very few on the McCain side.

And even McCain's been trying to suggest that Obama--

That it's this issue of celebrity.

What do you think of Obama doing the Hollywood feel to it?

What's your reaction to that stretch?

Hollywood has always aligned themselves with the democrats.

Always.

I mean, there are very few Hollywood figures

that I can think of that have ever aligned themselves

with the republican party.

I mean, Hollywood, it's just a liberal bastion.

I think it's smart on his part.

For me, it's free publicity.

I think it is absolutely insulting to me

that they think my opinion should be based

on what somebody that can put on a performance

and make you believe something

that is totally imaginary thinks.

I think Hollywood is unrealistic

to most American people.

The typical people gathered here,

we're not movie stars.

We don't make billions of dollars.

I think that the few more conservative movie stars,

they can't even get a job

if it's known that they're not a limousine liberal.

There's a perception that celebrities are elitist,

you know, as if they're not of the people, right?

That's--that's a common kind of thing.

Now, it's my experience that 90% of those people

who are writers, directors, actors

come from very much middle-class backgrounds.

My father was a drive-in theater manager.

There's seven kids in my family.

And I had a choice.

I could not have money, or I could get a job

when I was 11 years old.

So that's when I got my social security card

and starting working at June's cafe in Midvale, Utah,

and washing dishes and peeling potatoes.

And I was so happy,

because we couldn't afford whole milk,

you know, like, milk and butter,

so we all had margarine and powdered milk.

So when I started working at that restaurant

and could eat butter and drink milk,

I was the happiest kid in the world.

It was absolutely wonderful, yeah.

It's an interesting question,

because, of course, it's become a question in the campaign:

Two candidates viewed by the others as elitist.

We have the John McCain campaign all built around the notion

that Barack Obama is a celebrity

who's removed from the average American,

even though he basically grew up with a single mother

at times on food stamps.

And then you've got John McCain now with a huge campaign issue

because, at least for the moment,

he can't tell people how many houses he has.

It's one of those issues

that doesn't just hit Hollywood celebrities.

It also hits political figures,

the question whether they're too elitist.

He's the biggest celebrity in the world.

All: Obama! Obama!

But is he ready to lead?

And what's also true now, though,

is that celebrity has kind of changed.

It's all become a fuzzy picture.

The national enquirer focuses now

just as much on political figures

as it does on movie stars.

CNN will have just as many Hollywood celebrities on

as they do political figures.

What I wanted to say was just have one moment

when we're all together

and to say thank you so much for being here.

And as you know and as you meet people,

as you meet what we call influentials and electeds,

they're thrilled that you're here.

They're beyond thrilled, because they see

that you're giving the time to listen to their issues,

to perhaps get engaged,

to light fires under the rest of the country

on any of these issues.

It also gives us the juice that we need

so that when we go to capitol hill on specific issues,

they know who we are.

And they know how we are

because of you all coming here this week.

Look up there, guys.

they impeached me, they indicted me,

they convicted me, and they imprisoned me.

And I'm sorry, but I can't say anything more than that

without my lawyer's permission.

We think that it takes a movement of millions.

You know, it takes the people to make change,

not the government.

You should tell Richard.

What's that?

I actually had the job basically you played

at the white house.

I was the deputy domestic policy advisor under Clinton

with Bruce Reed.

You were way below what I was doing.

the west wing walk and talk we're doing here.

You're doing very well, by the way.

Thank you.

Tom Friedman is gonna be an extra

in the next Coen brothers movie.

Oh, cool. How do we get to the floor?

You don't care about politics.

You just want to get in the movies.

Well, that's what everybody in politics wants to do.

The most interesting thing to me, though, is,

celebrity now, there is zero difference

between Hollywood celebrity and Washington celebrity

in the eyes of the Washington celebrities.

How many times do you get asked,

so what's the difference between west wing

and real politics?

How many times today?

The thing for me is that I feel like I have

an inside take on it.

And I feel like even when I'm in amongst the crowd

and I'm out there with Bruce Springsteen

and everyone else is just regular people

all trying to get a seat or a good standing position

to watch the inauguration,

but part of me feels like

I should be standing next to the president.

Or at least next to the vice president,

since I campaigned for him.

hey, Tim, loved you in wings.

Thanks. Thank you.

I think that celebrities, like, in general

are really helpful, because they can be really useful

in progressing really good causes,

kind of like the inspired, the red campaign.

I mean, I'm sure that Angelina Jolie

working with the United Nations

has given the United Nations a really big boost

in credibility with the younger crowd.

After 9/11, they asked Ja Rule

what he thought about 9/11.

Last time I checked,

Ja Rule was not a specialist in emergency management response

or politics.

So celebrities need to use intelligent things

or stay the fuck out of politics, in my opinion.

You know, through all of history,

the celebrities have been involved in politics.

But there's a difference between writing a check

and getting out on the bully pulpit as a celebrity.

And I'm more for them writing checks

and hosting functions

than really getting on the airways.

That we committed ourselves.

We committed ourselves to building the world

as it should be.

So tonight let's stand together to elect Barack Obama

president of the United States of America.

Thank you.

God bless you, and god bless America.

There's--there's Anne Hathaway right there.

See her at the table to the left?

There's her head poking over.

There's different grades of celebrity.

You know, it's people who are a celebrity

because they've got their name in the newspaper,

and then was Albert Einstein a celebrity?

I don't know.

I've always been politically active

before I was well known.

So I'm not gonna use the word "celebrity" anymore.

It's taken on a bad connotation.

The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,

that's an important element,

that you can't allow--

13 executives between the two of them--

Making $76 million in one year.

That's one measure of accountability.

But in bailing them out,

you're not allowing them to go without accountability?

I mean, shouldn't somebody have paid for those mistakes?

Well, I think there is accountability built into this.

How?

One is to make sure that when they make these loans

that there's an overseer

that we didn't have in place before,

a real strong world--

But these same guys that just made this mistake

are still in their jobs, right?

They are.

And they're still getting paid $76 million?

Well, I don't know what it will be in 2010.

All right, $50 million.

How many times have you come to conventions?

This is my third,

and the first one was the convention in Chicago in 1968.

A hotbed.

I think, since that time and this time,

there has developed a new policy between the parties

of making sure that nothing gets done

and nobody gets any credit for bringing good government.

You know, they're watching the media just as carefully.

They've had to become actors themselves.

They have to play the media.

They have to be more versed in impressions

and what they're wearing

than they are in just trying to get the job done.

In 1959, there was an article written

about the nature of television and its growth

and how it begins to affect politicians

and the PR, et cetera,

and the dangers of the money in the system.

And that was written in '59 in TV guide

by John F. Kennedy.

The other thing that happened in the '50s

was the evolution of PR firms

and the evolution of selling a lifestyle

instead of giving you information about a product.

Advertising completely changed.

And that's what's happened in politics.

They don't give you the specifics

of the product that you're buying.

They give the lifestyle you'll inherit

if you accept that person.

Here's what's interesting to me--

And I don't know how you change this around--

Commentary on television.

Someone's giving a speech, and they're giving a commentary

of what's happening.

Now let's apply that into the past.

So if you take Churchill when he was saying,

"we will fight them on the beaches.

We will fight them on the so and so."

What they would have said about Churchill is,

you know, "he needs to lose some weight.

"It seemed like he was kind of tired.

"Did you think that he really stood up?

"Should he have done that sitting down?

"Shouldn't he have been standing up?

Look how short he is."

I mean, that's what they talk about.

I wish I had this quote with me at the time,

but here's what he actually said.

"Television is a medium that lends itself to manipulation,

"exploitation, and gimmicks.

"Political campaigns can actually be taken over

"by the public relations experts,

"who tell the candidate not only how to use TV

"but what to say, what to stand for,

and what kind of person to be."

This is John Kennedy in TV guide in 1959.

I think Kennedy decided to stop writing articles

and actually ran for the presidency,

which he did in 1960 against Richard Nixon.

It was clear in that first television debate

that Kennedy had that face, that demeanor

that worked well for television.

Nixon, on the other hand, came across as dour,

a little darker, a little bit too much sweating.

It didn't go over well.

However, polls that were taken with a radio audience,

Nixon won the debate if you were listening to radio.

And that was the beginning of the TV politician.

It wasn't lost on those who saw Reagan,

who came out and gave a speech for Goldwater in 1964

in his bid for the presidency.

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

We'll preserve for our children

this, the last best hope of man on earth,

or we'll sentence them to take the last step

into 1,000 years of darkness.

And everyone looked and said, "my, god, wait a minute.

Reagan may be a candidate for office."

Reagan has that friendly television face,

the way he talks, convincing.

He connects with us.

And within two years,

Reagan became governor of California.

I think that was the beginning of the television politicians,

those that knew how to use that lens,

knew how to put it together in terms of the visual

and in terms of how to ultimately communicate

to an audience.

And that was a big change

in the second half of the 20th century.

Seen on CNN.

$10 here today.

$5 T-shirt.

Two for $5.

Souvenirs. Jingle, jingle, jingle.

We got sugar land, Texas, Habanero hot sauce.

Get your inauguration edition.

In the beginning when media, licensed by the FCC,

we're gonna have entertainment,

and they said, "but you have to have some public service."

So, "all right, we have to have public service."

So news was public service.

Then at some point, someone said,

"you know, you can actually make some money

off of the public service thing which is news."

Well, that's the story, folks.

Glad we could get together.

Remember to tune in to camel news caravan

at this time tomorrow night, brought to you by camel.

No other cigarette is so rich-tasting

yet so mild as camel.

They went, "oh."

So now news can make money.

The 1956 Democratic presidential convention,

brought to you by Westinghouse.

This is the profile

of a man trying to decide how to vote.

Well, I may have to split my vote three ways.

Just look at those luscious pancakes.

Then Ted Turner said, "well, if news can make money,

24-hour news can make money 24 hours a day."

And then we go down that road.

It's not to say it's right or wrong.

But it shifts the emphasis away

from that which is a public service

to that which is providing information

and at the same time requiring a certain rating.

Where are we with that struggle?

Jim Lehrer is holding up the public service aspect of it,

and the rest of us are desperately chasing ratings

in the same way that American idol is,

with all the same values.

It's been a one-way street.

There's been no reversal in the phenomenon

that you can point to.

All of the desks we've expanded to here

beyond those three network news anchors

very much concentrate on entertainment

and opinion and character.

And they want--they are trying to get you to fall in love

with the star of this show,

the character who they've put as the star of this show,

just like any prime-time entertainment series.

Brit Hume.

We don't back down.

We don't hide from the truth.

We don't push an agenda.

David Gregory finds out who's ready

for the most powerful job on the planet.

Accountability.

AC360.

The repercussions of that is that you have

to be very--much more careful about your consumption of news,

because now the target is ratings.

It is simply ratings. That is all it is.

Okay, let's do it.

15, stand by, everyone.

Come to me. There's my pick. Cue music. Pull.

It starts now on MSNBC

with the best political team in the business.

Fasten your seat belts.

You need to watch this.

The Democratic contenders will square off.

Each will try to take the lead and take each other down.

The best political team on television.

We're the best political team on television.

Here's positively the best place to start your day.

CBS news has learned...

It happened in an instant.

That's the CBS evening news. Good night.

I can tell you from looking at the numbers--

And ratings, daily ratings, like in cable television,

we get them literally by the minute.

I mean, you know by the minute what's going on--

That's a poll.

That's essentially a poll.

That is a poll.

And we know that if you throw on anything

having to do with something beyond America--

And I'm talking Tijuana and Ottawa included,

I mean, close--

Boom, right to wheel of fortune.

Not into it. Don't want to see it.

Each team, Republicans and democrats, has territory.

Political shows learned from entertainment shows

that conflict is important.

That's what drives the one-hour dramas.

And now we've taken conflict,

and we've put it into the political shows.

So we have a democrat and a republican,

and they can go at one another.

And that conflict becomes more interesting to it.

And that's what ultimately drives the ratings.

And at the same time, it may ultimately create

this kind of polarization that's taking place,

the republican and the democrat,

and everybody sticks to their own view.

Left.

Right.

Left.

I never hear anyone cross party lines

in these particular shows,

because that's less entertaining.

Left.

Right.

To disagree is more entertaining.

Give money for Halliburton?

All: Hell, no.

Give money for empire?

All: Hell, no.

Days before coming to the convention, I happen to see

the Crosby, stills, Nash, and young documentary

called deja vu.

And in it, they performed a political song,

and the audience booed and hissed.

Some cheered.

But you can just see how divided that audience was.

bullshit.

Yeah, bullshit.

This country is at war, and they have a lot of nerve

standing there saying, "we're for the country."

If you're with terrorism, we're gonna get you.

George Bush is right.

I believe George Bush needs four more years.

Flip.

All I can tell you is that Osama Bin Laden

is a prime suspect.

Flop.

I just don't spend that much time on him.

I had the opportunity to talk with Crosby and Nash

about that documentary.

That's the worst concert I've ever been to.

You do the things going way back to the '60s

like Ohio, et cetera.

Did you ever get this real negative reaction

back then in the '60s to this?

Yeah, but back then, people seemed to understand,

you know, whose concert they were going to.

The people in Atlanta in the film,

I wonder whose concert

they thought they were going to, you know?

I mean, because we've always been, as you said,

very political.

And for them to come and be offended

that we were being very political

is kind of like, you know, going to an air show

and being offended at the planes.

You know, it took great courage to show both sides.

We wanted to start dialogue.

We wanted to stimulate discussion about the issues

that are facing us.

And we wanted to know what they thought about it.

And some nasty things were said.

You know, they would like us not to speak.

We would like to defend their right to speak.

My dad was a cinematographer.

- Was he really? - Yeah.

- Did you ever see high noon? - Yeah.

- My dad shot that. - Did he really?

He shot a lot of stuff, and then he got kind of tired

with the commie sympathizer pinko thing in the--

During the '50s.

- Oh, did he really? - Yeah.

And he didn't work for a long time

until Roger Corman started hiring him

to do those four-week wonders.

can you put some lights onstage for me for a minute?

Just while I do this song. That would be great.

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Ready, gentlemen?

We're rocking.

when you live in a democracy

where you have elected officials,

those people represent you.

It's a representative government.

And I didn't appreciate that so much

until the events of 9/11.

And I knew now that the responsibilities

of living in a free and Democratic society

require my participation,

that it's not something that's passive.

To involve myself in the Democratic process

and to become more educated

and have the opportunity to see how it works

was an extraordinary thing to do,

because most of us take it for granted, you know?

I certainly did.

with the increasing polarization of this country,

it becomes even more difficult for one side

to communicate with another.

And Frank Luntz does this on a regular basis.

So I thought it'd be worthwhile

to hear what he has to say on that subject.

I come from--and I also thought it would be interesting

at the Democratic convention

to give you a slightly more conservative perspective

as someone who for many years worked in the republican party,

gave it up back in 2000.

I've known Robin Bronk for a few years now.

I've always been impressed

with the intensity and the passion

of what you all do and how you do it.

I'm not always impressed of the language that you use

and how you present it.

I know that you care deeply.

But in the end, is it the caring that matters

or the results that matter?

The challenge for you guys is not to communicate

the way that you feel.

The challenge is to be successful.

If you want the legislation to get the arts back,

then you put it in such a way not just for the democrats.

There has to be a way to communicate

with the Republicans.

The exact word choice that you make

does determine how people hear you.

I'm totally confused right now.

I fee like suddenly you're here lecturing us

about our use of language,

but I don't understand that.

That's not why I was sat down here.

I thought we were sat down here to have a specific dialogue

about what it is that we all feel

in terms of our use of celebrity

or, therefore, celebrity in terms of helping someone.

And suddenly I feel like I'm being lectured

by a group of people that--

Well, one of the key things that we support

as the creative coalition is the first amendment,

which is freedom of speech,

which means that you can say what you want to say

however passionately you may want to say it.

Well, I would like to hear what he has to say, though.

We can discard it.

I don't think we need to be defensive

about the way we express ourselves.

I'm interested.

If he has any information for us,

I'd like to get it,

and if not, we'll junk it and go on to the next one.

It seems to me it's about semantics.

If I'm not using the correct language to those people,

what's the point?

Well, it's not the correct language.

There's a difference between asking for--

If you're gonna talk--

For me personally, I don't talk about impeachment.

I talk about accountability.

Because "impeachment" is a word

that sounds like you've got sour grapes

and you just are being vindictive.

Accountability is something that's active.

It's like the, you know, right to life.

What a great twist of that thing.

You know, contras as opposed to freedom fighters.

It's all in the way that it's phrased.

I also have to say that I agree with you

on something, Frank, which is that communicating how we feel

is not necessarily the most effective thing.

First of all, it's astonishing.

It's brilliant. And it's incredibly effective.

And obviously when I sat down with him and our group

and he began and began, in a sense,

saying that we were, in a way, hurting the Obama campaign

or hurting any sort of cause that our group was presenting

because of the fact that we were somewhat or well known

and, in some cases, very well known,

that that was antithetical to the possibility

of what anyone else could do,

to me, I was--i was disturbed, to say the least.

So much of what they did here

is what I was actually saying to them, "don't do."

Right.

They had a chance to pull out of me

so much stuff that I tend to give to people

that they may not like.

And that's what I was here to do.

That's what I was hoping this conversation would be.

Instead, they attacked.

But don't you think

that there's something inherent in that?

Because you said, "they attacked."

Three people attacked.

The rest of us were waiting our turn.

They went first.

But that-- and they went first.

And that's something that we have to deal with

is the fact that one of us says one thing,

and it gets ascribed to every single one of us.

But that's on camera.

And the loudest people tend to get heard the most.

But, you know, to feel like the way you people do it

and the way they hear you,

there was maybe a little bit of that.

There was.

However, the importance,

I think the great importance of what you were trying to give us:

To improve our communication skills

to get what we want.

We're actors.

We want to know how to do the scene right

to get what we want.

I mean, if I had those words, I would have agreed to go

to the republican convention next week.

I was so afraid that I would do exactly

what you are saying happens that I declined.

I was afraid to go

because I don't have the skill to communicate with people

who have hurt my feelings so deeply.

You know, we've been talking about media and celebrity a lot.

And, you know, it reminds me of the Joe the plumber story.

You remember that whole thing.

And that's not unlike meet John Doe, the film,

if you remember the old movie.

In this case, it's a common guy.

He was a vagrant,

and he rises to national prominence.

And they hang on every word that, you know, John Doe says.

I know a lot of you are saying, "what can I do?

I'm just a little punk. I don't count."

Well, you're dead wrong.

The little punks have always counted,

because in the long run, the character of a country

is the sum total of the character of its little punks.

And suddenly he becomes relevant,

maybe even more relevant than what a politician may say,

because he's the average guy, and we make this connection.

It does happen.

And, you know, that applies in many ways

to Joe the plumber.

Are you aware of the fact

that if John McCain should end up winning the presidency

that he'll largely have you to thank for it?

It's not his fault that he got, you know, singled out.

He asked Obama a question on the campaign trail.

That's all fine.

Media picks up on it.

It's exploited by the McCain machinery.

Joe's with us today.

Joe, where are you?

Where is Joe?

Is Joe here with us today?

And next thing you know, Joe is everywhere.

He's on this show and that show,

and he's everyplace.

All right, well, you're all Joe the plumber,

so all of you stand up and say...

And the celebrity becomes part of him.

You know, people in his community know him.

And he becomes caught up in that whole thing.

But he goes John Doe one step further,

because the adulation and the attention,

he suddenly crosses the line,

and now he believes that he could be a war correspondent.

And he's over there in Israel reporting back

on what's happening in the war.

And he forgets that he's Joe the plumber.

He doesn't have the credentials to be a war correspondent.

And there he is running around, sort of lost, in a sense,

lost his own identity because he was nothing more

than a toy of the media.

In a desperate effort to regain the spotlight,

the plumber went to Israel to cover the Gaza war

as a reporter for a conservative website

with a microphone and everything.

His findings: "I think media should be abolished,

from, uh, you know, reporting."

I hate to break this to you,

but right now, you're in the media reporting,

so you've just called for your own self-abolition.

The problem with Joe the plumber is,

his celebrity was a one-trick pony.

He was just a man who asked a question,

and finally, the media tired of him.

And here's the hard reality:

You can't remain a celebrity if the camera's no longer there.

Sometimes when, you know, you're asked--

When you're talking about a movie,

you're there to promote a movie,

and you're asked a question about politics,

it can come out in the course of a conversation

that's an hour and a half,

three hours, five hours long with a reporter.

But in a 2,000-word article, you're talking about the movie,

and then you're talking about your politics.

People who have spent their life

working as hard as someone like Sarandon,

or even I know Richard Dreyfuss is here

and has, you know, extraordinary politics

and has really genuinely spent much of his life

when he's not acting actually--

I mean, learning the issues to the extent

that's he's teaching at Oxford.

Maybe it's better to keep the two things separate

and say when I talk about politics,

when I go out with the creative coalition,

that's my focus, that's what I'm here to talk about,

and I'm not gonna talk about movies,

and I won't use that in any way to promote a movie.

And then when I'm trying to promote a movie,

I'm not gonna promote my politics.

There's no talk about

Richard Dreyfuss actually teaches politics at Oxford.

There's--it's not for a second.

It's the guy-- I heard it last night on MSNBC.

"The guy from jaws is here to tell you why

the republican administration screwed up Katrina."

the guy from ghost.

But remember ghost?

I know.

The bad guy, the bad crook.

I remember the face, but I couldn't remember his name.

But I got a picture.

You ask yourself, "what are the celebrities doing here?

What do you need celebrities for at a political convention?"

And the reason is, is because

all of these various organizations

are trying to vie for attention

from the 15,000 journalists here

so that they can get their cause noticed.

And celebrities are the way to do it.

The cause in itself is never enough.

But there's two problems with that.

One is that the people that cover celebrities

are not interested in the causes.

So they get their names mentioned,

but it doesn't advance the causes.

The second problem with it is that a lot of the celebrities

don't know shit about what they're talking about.

So it's really important to pick a cause

that you've educated yourself about,

that you feel comfortable discussing.

Bicycling is something that you can do

to make immediate positive impact on the environment.

Right.

This is my bicycle.

All: This is my bicycle.

There are many like it, but this one is mine.

All: There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Can I have everybody's attention, please?

We should get this started.

Governor Patterson has graciously agreed

to have a dialogue with us.

And I guess we'll open up the floor.

- Thank you. - David.

Yes, sir.

As a governor,

you're about to have to make serious cuts.

I'm a product of a New York City education,

from kindergarten to John Dewey high school in Coney island.

When I went-- when I was in school,

we had to take music.

I took violin and recorder lessons.

We had art, and you had to take gym.

That's not necessarily the case anymore.

As governor, I know you have tough decisions to make.

But where is the money gonna come

so art, music, and physical education

can be put back into the curriculum

in the New York City public school system?

That is-- I didn't really--

I didn't try to do that to you.

Yeah, I know.

I didn't really hear a question.

I heard an instruction, and I'm with it.

But I would say this. I would say this...

Put your hands up.

Oh, yeah.

Yes, we can.

hip-hop was the answer from when music programs

got stripped from schools in New York.

A couple of friends of mine, like, hip-hop legends,

said that when music programs were tooken from school,

they taught with vinyl, right?

When music programs were took from school,

the people that used to play in disco bands

went from clubs that had disco bands

to people that just spun disco records.

And from disco records came people

that just rapped over records rather than rapping over a band.

And then hip-hop kind of became the answer

to lack of music education in schools.

For me, I got involved in music through hip-hop.

Hip-hop taught me-- educated me on jazz

because tribe called quest sampled Ron Carter,

and a tribe called quest sampled herbie mann.

And then from them, I learned thelonious monk.

So hip-hop saved my life.

Music saved my life.

And I think it's important

for music programs to be in schools.

I was in the little theater because it was there.

It was fun to do.

You get a--i watched my sons in the public schools.

He was the only sixth grader to get a part

in guys and dolls this past year.

He was big Jules.

- Oh, that's so fun. - But you know what he did?

He learned to get along with other kids.

It's not like we need arts education

because we're trying to turn everybody into an actor

or a painter or a poet.

We need arts education because that's how we can help our kids

to become complete human beings.

Yes.

As we were filming,

every time arts and education came up,

people's eyes began to glaze over.

Not an interesting subject.

Hurricanes are interesting.

Floods, you can sell.

If you talk about the infrastructure,

boring subject.

Showing Bridges falling down got our attention.

And that's the problem with arts.

If you try to have a meaningful conversation about the arts,

it suddenly becomes too meaningful.

It's not a topic that stimulates us.

It has no visual component.

A few years ago,

the administration tried to get rid of public broadcasting.

And there was a lot of momentum to get rid of it,

do away with it.

And what saved it was the mothers

that kept saying, "you can't get rid of it.

Elmo's on public broadcasting."

And the image of Elmo, that fuzzy little creature,

that photogenic character,

saved public broadcasting in America.

And art certainly saved my life,

although I got into it a little bit later.

Yeah, well, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Faces and voices of recovery

are people who are-- like myself, are in recovery

but want to make sure that people don't feel

like it's a shameful thing to admit it.

A lot of people think that celebrity advocacy

is just another way of getting your name in the papers.

And that's actually the last thing in the world

that I'm here for.

I'm really just here to listen and to learn.

I would doubt that you need another photo op.

I think you're probably okay.

I'm not really here for any other reason.

And then here I am trying to educate myself

as a young woman in America,

and I'm wondering if I'm actually being irresponsible

when I'm asked a question about something regarding this

and I don't know how to answer it

because I just don't have enough information.

Right.

And it sounds like such a cop-out

to say, "I'm not educated about that.

"I wish--i don't want to speak on a subject

that I know very little about."

I think that people think that we're very careless

with our opinions

and that our beliefs are quite casual.

If we all come together, we're all drops of water.

We're all gonna fill up the bucket.

But we have to do it together.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

- You guys are great. - Thank you so much.

And any time, give us--give us a call.

Okay, I have your-- I have your card.

I have your card.

the campaigns are very savvy marketers.

I would say in Denver, I got to see just how savvy

the Obama campaign is as marketers.

They do a great job in terms of design and branding,

the "O" with the flag,

and they really keyed in

on a very specific kind of iconography right away.

And that permeates every piece of communication that they have.

It's nice.

It's the type of thing you'd want to wear on a T-shirt.

And I think that's what they were aiming for,

something that young, enthusiastic people

would want to wear on-- you know, on their heads

or on their T-shirts.

You know, when I first met you,

you were wearing a white linen suit.

- Really? - Mm-hmm.

What was I wearing a white linen suit for?

We were auditioning for a certs mints together.

Oh, my god.

One of my earliest memories:

Going with my grandfather to see some of the astronauts

being brought back after a splashdown,

sitting on his shoulders,

and waving a little American flag.

I grew up in Detroit, Michigan.

I went to high school there.

When I got out of high school, I headed south,

and I went to Texas.

One day in Texas, I got on a public bus,

and it was very crowded, and I was standing.

And then a seat became empty, and I sat down.

And I sat down next to an African-American man

who looked at me surprised and jumped up.

I didn't know what was the matter.

And then a white man sat down next to me.

He said, "you a yankee?"

I said, "yes."

He said, "we don't sit next to colored folks here."

And some shame went into my heart

that has been there ever since

that today on Martin Luther King day

is being lifted because I have the great honor

to read to you the words

of the next president of the United States,

Barack Obama.

thank you.

Thank you so much, everybody.

All: Yes, we can. Yes, we can.

Yes, we can.

Well, I'm from Minneapolis.

I left there about ten years ago.

I do have mixed feelings

about the republican national convention taking place there.

It's not exactly the honor of, oh, say, the Olympics.

But what can you do?

I'll take two suits to the--the RNC.

And I'm not gonna be there very long,

'cause I can't get time off work.

Absolutely we need to go talk about arts funding,

because they don't see arts funding

as something that is profitable.

You know what?

I don't know exactly what they think about that.

So I need to find out,

because I'm making a whole lot of generalizations,

and that's the problem.

And that's not fair.

So I should find out.

I want to go to the RNC because, as I said before,

I'm learning about this process.

I want to see what the differences between

the DNC and the republican national convention

and also to, you know, ask those people some questions

about, you know, what they're thinking

and, again, educate myself.

There is no debate anymore.

I think that when closed-circuit television got into the senate

and got into the house of congress,

when that happened and they didn't have

to be on the floor to hear what's going on

and they can have their aides upstairs

hear what's taking place and seeing it

and then reporting to the senator,

reporting to the congressman,

you took passion off the table.

You took debate and this kind of struggle

to come up with some legislation off the table.

So if you see Byrd when he spoke out against authorization

for the Iraqi war,

when he stood up there and had this passioned plea,

and then you see there is no one in the chamber, no one.

So therefore, someone upstairs says to the senator,

"so what did Byrd say?"

"Well, you know, he just spoke out.

"He just said what he would say.

You know, he's opposed to the war."

But there's no passion to it.

So you can't be moved to say,

"you know something?

"This man has affected me, and maybe he's right,

whether I'm a democrat or a republican."

But there is-- that doesn't exist.

There is no kind of give-and-take.

There's no kind of collision of ideas.

Now it exists in isolation.

And therefore, ideas don't lead to ideas.

There are only, "this is my position.

This is my position."

I think that the camera made the big difference.

Now, I'm sure 90% of the people that you might talk to say,

"well, that is the most harebrained idea

I've ever heard of."

I mean, it's so amazing.

As we ride around, you don't get a sense

that there's a convention happening here.

You don't feel the energy or the vibe.

I mean, it's like it's nonexistent.

Yeah, it's--this is a very, very subdued convention.

It's like this could be literally, you know,

fedders air-conditioning convention...

We should go.

- That they're showing up for-- - I actually think it is.

There's, like, nobody here.

You said something last night which was interesting,

'cause we were talking about polarization,

and you said you were walking the street and--

Yeah, it was an antiwar protest

that was here in Minnesota.

I'm--it's no secret. I'm for McCain.

And someone said, "I used to love you as an actor,

"and now I don't.

I--you know, I don't like your political views."

And I stopped them, and I said,

"I would love to be able to sit down with you sometime,

"you know, on the grass across the street at the park

and have a discussion about that."

The most important motivation for me

is a faith-based perspective.

I've grown in my experience and in my wisdom

to understand the power and influence

that an individual can have.

And I've also learned that with the platform of celebrity

that I believe god has given me,

I can also make a difference.

What's scaring me now,

'cause this is the first time I've ever seen it in my life,

is a certain intolerance on the left

and a certain type of--

A certain intolerance on the left.

Left.

They are unwilling to hear arguments they don't agree with.

They are willing to go ad hominem like that.

They have very little tolerance for discussion

about either bush or policy.

I've had people say to me, my family, friends,

people I respect-- I still do--they say to me,

"there is nothing you could possibly say

that will change my mind."

The one thing about the creative coalition

is that it is--there are Republicans and democrats

in the group.

So when we go to Washington to advocate for the arts,

it's not a lot of liberal democrats going down.

It's a bipartisan group.

Well, first of all, by its nature,

you say, why would the arts

ever get into a political situation?

Where did it turn into a republican-democrat,

conservative-liberal issue?

a lot of artists don't get involved politically.

The dominant theory of career management is,

don't offend anybody.

So for every celebrity that does something political,

there's ten that don't.

Those that do, I think, were brought up with a set of values

to feel that if you get a microphone,

say something valuable.

All right, this is what's gonna happen.

Woody Guthrie knew, like you're going to suspect,

this song's about something other

than you might have thought originally.

And it got me thinking, who is this land for anyway?

I got a feeling this land was not made

for billionaires and bankers.

I got a feeling this land was not made

for celebutantes and reality TV shows.

Do you ever get people who would say, you know,

"that music, it's too political.

Just do songs and don't be political?"

Well, I mean, I think that all music is political.

I think that there's--

The bread and circuses of pop escapist music

is no less political than the music of early Dylan

or rage against the machine.

One thing that I find amazing

is that somehow when you pick up a guitar,

you put down your first amendment rights to comment.

You know, you don't have to have an honors degree

from political science in Harvard

in order to comment on the matters of the day

or know right from wrong.

I do happen to have an honors degree

from political science at Harvard.

in general, creative people come from all walks of life.

Many of them come from very poor background.

Certainly when you think of hip-hop,

for decades, I think, have been almost the only public voices

of poor African-American culture.

And a lot of rock and roll people or actors

come from all walks of life.

I certainly don't think that they have a monopoly on wisdom,

and there are limits to their value in discussing issues.

They're not professors.

They're not policy analysts.

They're not scientists.

But as communicators,

they certainly are as valid to me

as people who go to law school.

have you been actively political?

I tend to avoid direct--

Direct political comment in a song

unless I have a metaphor.

And the metaphor can stand for anything.

But then people understand what's underneath that.

I spoke specifically about Pinochet in one song

many years ago about the disappeared.

But the central metaphor of that was women dancing on their own

with the pictures of their loved ones pinned to them.

And I found that a very poignant metaphor.

You could understand whether you knew anything

about Chile or Pinochet.

And yet if you knew about it, it was so much more powerful.

I truly and honestly believe that this country

is the greatest country that mankind has ever known.

I want to see it stay that way.

And that's--it's like the polarization

is certainly not helping any.

And I mean, you know, I'm always thinking

somebody to ask about something.

I mean, if there's something I don't like,

if congress done something I don't like,

I'm the first one to take them to task for it.

I mean, I'll just sit here and tell you.

I mean, this--you know, I don't think they've done anything.

I think they're the most a do-nothing bunch people.

Everybody--half of them-- if they could--

It's the same thing you just said, Barry.

It's the polarization.

It's, "I can't do this because I'm a democrat."

"I can't do this because I'm a republican."

They're Americans, first of all.

Then they're democrats and Republicans.

A lot of people talk about,

there's a polarization of politics.

What keeps feeding that separation?

It gets into the air through fox news

and things like that, you know?

It's pretty straightforward.

It's--you know, and-- you know, there's one story.

They're great-- the right wing in this country,

the conservative media in this country

are really talented at some things, right?

And they're really talented at taking one story

which isn't necessarily representative of something

but making it representative of something

that they believe to exist out there

and that they want to gin up their people about.

This "Republicans can't--

"Conservatives can't get work in Hollywood" is an example.

That's how they win elections.

You know, they have to-- they have to win elections

based on getting their constituency angry and ginned up

about the liberals who are supposedly running the country

and leading the country to galloping ruin

and stuff like that.

And if Obama does become president,

I would expect polarization to increase in the short term.

You do?

Yeah, 'cause that'll be the only kind of weapon

that the right wing will have against him.

The wedge issues are so successful politically.

The parties are so much defined

by opposite ends of the political spectrum.

You know, I've lived a long time,

so I've been able to see a lot of changes.

You know, I was a child in world war ii.

And everybody used to be nicer.

When politicians spoke, they respected each other.

When they spoke about their opponent,

they spoke respectfully.

And it's gotten so nasty and so dirty.

One of my biggest jobs

in the eight years that I was speaker

was bringing people together around the table

and finding consensus.

The system right now is just gridlock.

Government doesn't have to do everything.

One of the reasons I decided to leave congress:

I can do more on the outside than I can do on the inside.

It got frustrating.

Well, that's interesting,

because you can certainly apply that to Al Gore.

Al Gore was vice president of the United States.

Global warming was an issue of his.

I don't know how much he talked about it.

But the point is, when he finally left politics,

when he ended up making a documentary

about global warming...

Temperature increases are taking place

all over the world,

and that's causing stronger storms.

This is the biggest crisis in the history of this country.

Suddenly that issue became widespread

because it was picked up by all the talk shows.

The vice president of the United States

is making a movie about, you know, global warming.

That becomes a story in itself.

And then, of course, it wins an academy award.

Now that even feeds it more.

Entertainment is running stories.

Looks like you guys are fitting in

quite well here in Hollywood.

This film has grossed, what, $42 million, I hear.

And those who were, in a sense,

not even aware of global warming

are now actually beginning to get that information,

not from a political point of view

but because it's now in the entertainment world.

Who do you have on?

This is made by Ralph Lauren.

This is truly a really important issue.

And we are thrilled to be here and to help shed some light

and, you know--and spotlight some attention on this issue.

Thank you so much.

It's a pleasure and truly an honor to be here.

Back when I was in high school,

my mother went crazy.

And at 17 years old,

I had to authorize the doctor to put her away

in a mental institution.

I really hit the wall when I realized

I didn't know enough about what mental illness really was

when she called home and she didn't know who I was.

She said she could only remember the phone number.

And I said, "well, I'm your son, Giancarlo."

And she said, "who is that?"

After years, we finally were able

to find the right medication to stabilize her out.

So when talking about mental health reform,

it's important to understand that our science is changing

and that there are things that we can do

to deliver our friends, loved ones

back to who they really are.

Hey, it's Tony.

Hi, so I just walked...

No, I think the entire use of the big screen

is a better thing than what the democrats had.

Look at all the Texans are dressed alike.

That's nice. That's nice.

I like the straw hats.

Now, why--see, why are you profiling?

Why are you assuming they're Texans?

- Because they're standing-- - they could be from Oklahoma.

They're standing in front of the Texas sign.

- Oh, okay. - Looks like Oregon to me.

There's no dialogue.

There's no dialogue. There's no thought.

It's just a TV show.

There's a teleprompter running,

and the guys get up there and read,

and they're TV actors.

This is so controlled,

and it's so-- it's so choreographed

that it isn't really a convention.

It's just, we go there, and we're just props.

We're just here to rubber-stamp

what's already been decided.

We're not here to talk about anything

or make any discussions

or have any kind of a debate about any issues.

We're just here to-- and we're done.

So if we can get it done in a half an hour

and there was a huge hurricane,

they could have just sent everybody home,

'cause there's not really much to do here.

This is all about selling commercial time.

It's a TV show.

Might as well be watching Baywatch.

We the people,

the citizens of the United States,

get to decide our next president,

not the left-wing media, not Hollywood celebrities,

not anyone else but the people of America.

Senator John McCain's just gambled his chances

of becoming president on a running mate

whose political experience above the level

of mayor of a Hamlet

consists of exactly 635 days as the governor

of the 47th most populous state in the union.

All: Sarah, Sarah, Sarah.

Yeah, that's what you want

in a time of crisis in the white house.

When she got a phone call at 3:00 in the morning,

it was 'cause a moose had gotten into the garbage cans.

She's a real human.

She's experienced.

You know, the raising a family,

was involved with, you know,

children's ups and downs,

teenagers.

At times, they're always the hormonal confusion.

The president running this country,

I want that person to at one point

at least have had a five-minute conversation

with her teenaged kids about birth control.

That's all.

Don't you think we've made the right choice

for the next vice president...

When Sarah Palin is brought in to be the VP

at the republican convention,

she hasn't even come out,

she hasn't given her speech,

and they're screaming, "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah,"

like finally, after all these years,

we're gonna get Sarah to be the VP.

And there was this fervor about it.

And the day before, they never heard of her.

I don't understand.

How could they be this excited

about a woman they didn't know yesterday?

They weren't.

They are professional politicians.

The convention hall is filled with professional politicians.

Every single person there, every single delegate

is a professional member of that party.

Their job is to clap like seals

when these characters emerge.

They don't feel that strongly about them.

They don't feel much differently

from what the general public feels.

They know the weaknesses.

They--they're like sports fans.

You know, they know the other team is favored by 20 points,

but they're cheering for their team.

The great crime of that was how the media carried it,

'cause they didn't know her either.

You know, we were all looking up,

you know, how do you pronounce her name?

You know, on that first day, "is it 'pay-lin', 'pa'--

you know, 'pah-lin'?"

You know, we were all--so we were all hustling, you know?

And they just all fell for, you know, first impressions.

And they fell for the fact that she can read a teleprompter.

I guess a small-town mayor

is sort of like a community organizer,

except that you have actual responsibilities.

He worked as a community organizer.

What?

"Community organizer" was used for comedic effect

at the republican convention.

They were making fun of the essential skills

that made this particular candidate

able to organize a campaign, keep it organized,

take it national.

And so you-- for people like me,

you look at that campaign, and the longer you look at it,

the key to it organizationally and strategically

is the community organizer in chief.

All right, so let's start with you, Barry.

Could the republican party,

who's had a miserable four- or five-year run,

directed last night any better for their base?

You know, they had to bring forward a new story...

- Right. - Hockey mom story.

Without being cynical to any of it,

you wonder whether things

are just gonna be terms of storytelling

is how we're gonna elect people

or whether or not issues are really gonna play out.

If you find the right way to tell the story,

that becomes the story.

Bush was portrayed as this Texan,

straight shooter, got a ranch,

gonna talk straight talk.

And you can create that character

just like you create a character in a movie.

In other words, Humphrey Bogart was a tough street guy.

Humphrey Bogart in real life

was an upper middle-class New Yorker.

Someone told me this recently,

a very good painter friend of mine.

He said, "the problem with celebrity

"is that you don't realize that you exist

in a two-dimensional world to most people."

They look at you on film, on TV.

We want our celebrities to be mystical, in a sense,

to be almost godlike, in a way.

And I think any time there's a connection

between suddenly you're talking about something

that I also have some opinion about as a normal person,

it doesn't-- the disconnect begins.

You're not living in the fantasy world anymore.

Politics, for better or worse,

is tied to the television camera,

and so is the nature of celebrity.

So everybody has to put on somehow a good image.

Whether it's a real image or not,

you have to come up with an image.

Yeah, and I mean-- and it can be--

You know, it can be your own doing.

I don't know if you saw, but I did the Bill Maher show

with Ralph Nader.

Here's a guy who has a lot of good ideas.

And the way he looks and the way he delivers those ideas

are so profoundly scary on television,

it's terrifying.

And if someone else delivered that message,

it would be a lot more palatable.

So if being telegenic is important

to being president of the United States,

where would that leave Lincoln?

That's not a telegenic face.

Plus, he suffered from melancholy or depression.

You put the camera in his face every day,

that's not gonna work.

John Adams: A little too round, little too pudgy.

Plus, he spoke with a lisp.

Taft: A little too fat.

Late-night comics would have a field day with him.

In fact, he was so heavy that the story goes

that he got stuck in the white house bathtub.

Boy, that joke would probably play out

for his entire presidency.

FDR: Might work for television,

but because he suffered with polio,

back in those days, they could hide that fact.

Nowadays, you couldn't.

So he might be under the close scrutiny

of maybe he's too fragile

to be president of the United States.

Maybe he doesn't have the stamina for the job.

So what we have today is a world

where we view everything through the eyes of the television.

It doesn't matter how brilliant that person might be

who's running for president.

It doesn't matter how qualified that person might be.

If they are not telegenic,

they cannot become president of the United States.

We are about this far away from the political version

of miss America.

The other thing is-- I was thinking about this--

The theatrics of last night.

I mean, clearly, everything was orchestrated,

from the baby to the remark about the lipstick.

And everything is orch--

But everything is orchestrated on the Democratic side too.

And when she took the cheap shot about the styrofoam columns,

it's all Holly-- that is all about Hollywood.

It is all-- it was all a show last night.

No, she's talking about that, and behind her,

you've got the America the beautiful floating by.

And there's mount Rushmore, and there's beautiful lakes,

and there's mountains, and that's her backdrop.

He's got columns. She's got this.

I mean, you know, it's all basically--

- It's all theater. - It's all theater.

We are basically, perhaps, Rome about to collapse,

and we're now being thrilled by these storytellers.

Yes, yes, we are. That's what we are.

We are. We are.

We are, literally, yeah.

We're listening to the music on the Titanic and saying,

"I like the other song better."

I was thinking of Charlie Daniels' comment

about the left, the right, liberals, conservatives,

democrats, Republicans,

and his comment that we are Americans first.

And I was thinking about the polarization

that we face today,

and I was wondering what would happen

if we would bring together the so-called celebrity,

the so-called main street,

and bring these people together, let them sit in a room,

let them talk to one another face-to-face.

I was curious what would happen.

When you think of what Hollywood,

the impact of Hollywood on America,

by a show of hands,

how many of you believe it's negative in general?

But after what he said.

Why--why-- why do you think it's negative?

I think they try to use their influence,

their money, their notoriety to push an issue,

be it right or wrong.

They don't--they don't let the voter think for themselves.

It's their way or no way.

I don't think that they don't keep the voter

from thinking for themselves.

What annoys me the most is the undue influence they have

because all you have to do is show up,

and a camera comes on.

I could have read Russell Kirk

and everything that I need to know about the subject

and be right,

but you're good-looking, and a camera follows you.

Therefore, your message is magnified

even if it's wrong.

That's what drives me nuts.

And I think what has happened

is that the celebrity of Hollywood

has crossed the line over

into what is actually news and truth.

I'll say it: I think even fox news

sometimes gets salacious in some of the things

that they put out there.

Okay, get out.

The celebrity status and e-networks and all that

has bled over into being news,

and news has become celebrity sensationalism.

There is a level of arrogance in Hollywood

that we can't stand.

You guys think that you know everything,

that you have all the answers,

that you speak for us.

You do not.

You don't speak for the general America.

I'm always shocked at how you guys view the world.

You live in such a small, isolated community.

You're not the normal America.

When you own eight homes, when you make multimillions,

when you have agents and camera people

and cosmetic people constantly building you up

and yessing you all the time,

you guys don't get what it's like.

And then you come at us and say,

"you don't think like the rest of the country,"

and you belittle us.

You belittle us, and you demean us

because we don't think like you do,

so therefore, we're stupid.

We're stupid Americans out there.

And that's just not fair.

You're looking at me, so I'd like to address that.

- I'm not just looking at you. - No, it's okay.

You know, one thing that, you know,

I think is important for you to understand

is that I--you know, whatever you think my life might--

Whatever you think my life might be right now,

you know, I didn't start this way.

I mean, you know, I've been a cook

and a carpenter and had a floor tiling company

and pumped gas and worked on a bee farm in Missouri

and done all kinds of various jobs.

I've driven carpool for endless hours,

and I miss it like crazy.

I'm very angry at my children for growing up.

You know, I coached little league.

I coached T-ball.

I coached AYSO soccer.

So I mean, it's not like--

I don't feel that I personally am completely divorced

from the things that, you know, people go through.

I worry about my kids, you know?

I've been incredibly lucky, incredibly lucky,

and I've worked very hard.

So, you know, I think that we probably have

a lot more in common than maybe, you know, you're assuming.

We need to find those things

where our common ground connects.

And because we're artists,

you know, art always connects people,

or for the most part, it connects people,

you know, like music.

Most of our issues have been bipartisan.

That's what we're working towards.

So as far as I'm concerned,

I don't want to criticize anything.

I think you want to hear our message,

and we want to hear your message.

It's the same.

I can hear the passion in your voice

about wanting to make a difference,

and I respect that totally.

And I respect all of you for what you're doing.

And I think of a quote that's one of my favorites:

"In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, charity."

We can work together.

We can respect one another and work towards common goals

but not attack one another.

I applaud the folks here for coming out

and helping get the dialogue started.

My objection is when you've got the Tim Robbins of the world,

out there with vitriolic rhetoric,

attacking our country all the time

and that gets press instead of making a real dialogue happen.

That's a problem.

And we're talking about accountability

at this convention.

You people be accountable.

You got great responsibility.

Be our voices.

Frank is asking that I wrap it up.

And I just want to say on behalf of the creative coalition

and everybody here, thank you so much.

- Thank you. - Thank you.

I want to say one other thing.

I want to say one other thing which I--

I feel this is me personally,

not as a representative of the creative coalition.

But one of the things that I really love about this country

and I've loved even more going

through this political process a little bit

is the fact that we can accommodate people

like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tim Robbins.

We are Americans.

We have big shoulders.

We should be able to sit down and have nice, tough dialogue,

you know, to get in each other's face,

argue it out, and shake hands and go our separate ways.

And the fact that we're talking is the whole deal.

What did you think when they were talking about celebrity

and they were angry about celebrity?

What was your feeling at that time?

Because there was some very directed anger

toward celebrity.

What was your thoughts?

That--i got to tell you, that really upset me.

That really upset me,

because I remember the tone in that woman's voice.

I remember feeling like she meant it.

She wasn't trying to impress the people around her.

She was genuinely mad.

She was mad because she wasn't being heard.

And what I remember thinking was,

if you're mad that we have a platform

and can somehow by that extension be heard,

the problem isn't with us.

The problem is with the people

who are supposedly "listening" to you that aren't.

The problem is with your government.

Take care.

- Pleasure dialoguing with you. - Thanks.

Most of these folks here today echoed this underlying hostility

that their voices won't be heard,

that they are unimportant,

and that they are probably more informed than I am

but yet their voice will never be heard.

See, the other assumption that I think someone needs

to expose as silly is that everyone ought to be involved.

Most people should not be involved, actually.

I mean...

No, I'm totally serious.

This idea that everybody ought to have an opinion,

well, that's ludicrous.

Actually, most people have no opinion.

They're busy making the country better

by having nice marriages, raising decent children,

sort of working hard at their jobs, drinking beer,

doing things that normal people do.

And among creative people

and people involved in nontraditional pursuits

like acting or journalists or whatever--

But, you know, if you're not keeping a normal schedule,

there's this expectation that you are somehow engaged

in the public life of the country,

and you have something to say.

And in fact, I wish more people had the courage to say,

"you know what?

"I'm profoundly interested in-- I don't know--bird-watching,

"fly-fishing, acting, whatever.

"I'm not so interested in the ICBM treaty

or social security, because I don't know squat about it."

It's super complicated.

I had a TV show for eight years

where I had to talk about different topics every night.

I spent my whole life trying to learn just basic things

like, where does our money come from?

And what I learned in the process of those eight years

was, no person could understand how modern America works.

And I don't care how smart you are.

It's too complex.

Deal with the fact here that a recent survey--

I think it was a couple years ago--

That said that 40% of high school students

don't know who we fought in world war ii.

So when they see those people running around

with those German helmets and everything,

who do they think they are?

Or is it just like-- or is it just basically

raiders of the lost ark to them?

I wonder--i mean, that's obviously depressing as hell,

and everybody's at fault,

and there are a ton of crappy parents out there,

and a lot of schools are really bad.

But I really think every society has always been run

by about 8% of the population.

I mean, that's just true.

I mean, this is an anomaly, right?

It's a country where we pretend

that all 300 million of us are in charge.

But we know. Let's be real.

I mean, you must know 60%

of the people who run the country.

I'm being totally serious.

Because they live in about four places.

And that's just it.

It's government of the informed by the informed.

That's what it is.

And I'm not saying that's a good thing.

I'm not taking an elitist position here.

I'm just saying it's reality.

I grew up with a television coming into my house as a kid.

I am not so sure that television isn't in the end of the day--

Creates a great sense of entertainment

and at the same time may be

the most disastrous invention that ever happened

in the history of mankind,

because it finally blurred the lines between truth,

reality, and mythology.

And it mixed it all up, and we got confused,

and we can't figure out what's real anymore.

And it may ultimately muddy the waters to such a degree

that we are lost and will never find truth.

it's like reality television is not real.

And so what we're watching at the convention

is like reality television, and it's not real.

And that is the accepted reality that we live in today,

and all of this is the make-believe,

and we live in this make-believe world.

it might just be that ultimately that, you know,

the television is so powerful,

so influential,

and so addictive

that we can never find any truth.

I don't know.

That's terrifying.

There's no more reality.

- No. - Perfectly sad.

It is my great personal honor to present

the 44th president of these United States,

Barack Obama.

so what you have now is,

you have celebrities that need media

if they want to spotlight their special causes.

The media needs the celebrity

because it's ratings,

and ratings means money.

And the politicians need celebrities and the media

to help them get elected or reelected

and also to bring attention to their causes.

So everyone is selling something.

So what you end up with is sort of this unholy alliance

of the three:

The politician,

the celebrity,

media.

And perhaps that's the form of democracy we have today.

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