The Shootists

The sun also rises in the east;

Hollywood’s power lunches have been filled in recent days with conversations about hypocrisy, according to people in the industry: Many of those who are liberal leaning and support gun control also make their livings selling violent images.

And when they can fake concern about that, they'll have it made.

Haven't we been here before?;

In the years leading up to John F. Hinckley Jr.'s attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan, he became obsessed with the movie "Taxi Driver." Hinckley saw the movie at least fifteen times, read and re-read the book it was based upon, and bought the soundtrack to the film, listening to it for hours on end. Hinckley even began to model certain aspects of his life on the actions of the main characters. 

Which does make this look a little...hypocritical... from the NY Times story;

“What you hear from the industry is this: violence has always been a part of entertainment, back to Sophocles and Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe,” said Martin Kaplan, the director of the Norman Lear Center for the study of entertainment and society at the University of Southern California. “Why should modern entertainment deprive itself of a universal and timeless element of storytelling?’”

Mr. Kaplan continued, “Violence is both a moneymaker — audiences love it — and an artist’s tool. Of course, it can be gratuitous. For every Scorsese or Peckinpah, there’s a schlockmeister who’s only in it for the dough. 

 Because Taxi Driver was made by none other than, Martin Scorsese.