Demagogue

I’m not surprised that Jonah Goldberg decided to write a column about this. I’m only surprised that it took conservatives this long to play the trite game of using a dysfunctional actor or singer as a prop to lecture readers about how evil Hollywood is.

Here’s what Goldberg tries to pass off as analysis:

… the (Michael) Jackson story is about a hugely rich and successful man using his money and influence to cover up years of sexual and psychological abuse of children. It's about the moral depravity Hollywood is willing to tolerate and enable. (Then again, tolerance and enabling are really the same thing.)

In many respects this is the perfect story to unite the entire country.

More accurately, it’s the perfect story to enable you, Goldberg, to produce a column while your brain takes a nap.

Hollywood is ruled by a class of people who believe that money solves problems and that the worst sin in the world is to judge another person's behavior.

… Obviously, there are lots of people in the entertainment industry who are horrified by the allegations and behavior of Michael Jackson. But only in Hollywood could such a thing happen in the first place.

Only in Hollywood could child molestation happen!? Earth to Goldberg: You might want to check out the web pages that the Boston Globe devoted to the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal.

Starting to sound familiar? Numerous priests engaged in sex with minors – usually boys – while church officials rarely took appropriate action and often did nothing more than transfer these priests to new dioceses.

Yeah, right. Only in Hollywood.