Entertainment journalists love it when stars get political.
Those stories generate clicks and traffic. The more emotionally charged the rhetoric, the better.
Just Google “Robert De Niro, Donald Trump” and watch your computer screen light up with news stories. Larry David’s recent anti-Trump rant generated countless headlines.
Vanity Fair. The Hollywood Reporter. Mediaite. CNN. Variety. TMZ. The Hill. Rolling Stone. The Wrap.
It’s a sign of the times. Actors feel more compelled than ever to get political. Readers, in turn, can’t get enough of these stories. They either feel enraged or enlightened by them, depending on the ideology in play.
And then there’s Michael Rapaport.
I never thought that I would say and see the day that Fake Jake Paul would be entering the boxing ring against Iron Mike Tyson, let alone on Netflix
New @iamrapaport podcast just dropped and is breaking down all the hard hits https://t.co/6EZXr3LXms pic.twitter.com/DJuk4cqzbn
— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) March 8, 2024
The veteran actor is one of Hollywood’s most identifiable faces, and that was before he joined the podcasting revolution. Think “Beautiful Girls,” “Justified,” “Atypical” and many more movies and TV projects.
His over-the-top podcast monologues often go viral, be it covering the latest sports headlines or his take on a particular president.
Rapaport’s nickname for Donald Trump can’t be shared here. Suffice it to say he’s not a MAGA train passenger.
Except that’s changing, to a degree.
Rapaport is fed up with President Joe Biden, and he’s equally aghast at Democrats who side with Hamas over Israel. So the star has been speaking out on both subjects.
Loudly.
He’s also used his celebrity cache for satirical purposes. This Oscar-themed sketch mocking Hollywood for ignoring the hostages still held by Hamas is both funny and furious.
So where’s the news coverage?
If a conservative actor like Jon Voight suddenly praised President Joe Biden it would be all over the media. And rightly so.
For someone like Rapaport to consider pulling the electoral lever for Trump is newsworthy. Except journalists have turned away from the actor, all but refusing to cover his ideological metamorphosis.
Conservative news outlets routinely report on Rapaport’s comments.
Actor Michael Rapaport Signals Shift On Trump After Years Of Fervent Opposition: ‘My Political Views Have Changed’ https://t.co/uI9qcXKbwY pic.twitter.com/YSb63KR9de
— Daily Wire News (@DailyWireNews) March 29, 2024
These are some very, very strange days. https://t.co/Nt7YA12A2i
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 31, 2024
Here’s a rare exception: The Hollywood Reporter shared the actor slamming fellow artists for not bringing up the hostages during the Golden Globes ceremony.
Type in, “Michael Rapaport” into Google News and that’s the only mainstream media outlet to cover the star over the first four pages of results.
The “why” couldn’t be more obvious.
Sites like Variety, CNN, Rolling Stone and The Hill are Leftist to the core, even if they don’t announce that worldview. Sharing Rapaport’s unconventional thinking only hurts Democrats and, by extension, President Biden’s re-election chances.
Spreading the news about his blistering Oscar-themed sketch might get a flood of clicks, but it would shame Biden as well as Hollywood liberals.
Especially since Rapaport checks off both of those boxes.
The best way to cover his commentary is to throw a blanket over it and hope readers won’t learn about it. Except his musings are all over social media, Israeli-themed news outlets and conservative sites.
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