If you're an outspoken religious or political conservative in the entertainment industry, it's open season by the liberal media not just on your beliefs but on your right to work. The latest example of this new outright McCarthyism comes from Wired magazine, which gives a strongly worded condemnation of DC Comics for having hired author Orson Scott Card to write Superman.
Wired’s outrage stems from Card’s vocal opposition to gay marriage, which the magazine's Graeme McMillan says would offend the Man of Steel. “[D]oesn’t Superman stand against such bigotry?" he asked. While Card may have very outlandish opinions on homosexuality, McMillan seems to have no problem with efforts by gay activists to virtually blacklist the Superman author from the comic industry.
After providing excerpts of Card’s views, McMillan claims that his beliefs:
Align with Card’s larger, fiercely conservative worldview, which has inspired essays arguing that President Barack Obama was reelected last year because the media conspired to help him win a second term and that America’s public school system is “brainwashing” children through selective history lessons in order to create an army of Democratic Party voters – or as he calls them, the “Leftaliban.”
McMillan then pointed outefforts by a group called All Out, an international campaign for LGBT equality, which has created an online petition calling for Card’s removal from the title. McMillan further sympathizes with the efforts to blacklist Card, commenting that:
The issue has already inspired boycotts and parodies, bleeding from internet fandom into reports at mainstream news outlets like, The Huffington Post, NPR, USA Today, and The Guardian, which may help push DC into taking action. The publisher has recently been willing to reverse unpopular decisions based on fan reaction, after all.
In his closing paragraph, McMillan noted that "The now non-homophobic Adventures of Superman no. 1 will be launched digitally on April 29, with the print edition following on May 29." Of course, there's no indication that Card's storyline had anything to do with issues related to gay marriage or anything else remotely considered "homophobic" in the first place.
Superman famously stands for "truth, justice, and the American way." Blacklisting someone for his/her political beliefs, regardless of what they are, is patently unjust and un-American. This new McCarthyism is something that needs to be banished to the Phantom Zone.
