Special to WorldTribune.com
By Christopher Sparks
If there’s anyone who knows how to defeat a real enemy, its the people who heroically defeat fake enemies on film.
At least, that seems to be the logic behind U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to La-La Land to get Hollywood’s advice on how to beat Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).
Kerry was around in the 60s, so maybe he was just … tripping.
Though his meeting with studio executives was mostly hush-hush, Kerry did post a tweet: “Great convo w studio execs in LA. Good to hear their perspectives & ideas of how to counter #Daesh (ISIL) narrative.”
Officials at the State Department justified Kerry’s meeting as a “brainstorming session” on how to counter ISIL’s effective propaganda machine. The Obama administration has failed miserably on that front, so sending Kerry to get advice from Tinseltown one-percenters and potential future Democratic donors may have seemed like a no-brainer.
“These are the people, I think, widely recognized, who are some of the best communicators out there, and they run a highly profitable industry that is expert at conveying messages to a worldwide audience,” said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
Among those at the meeting were executives from Warner Bros., DreamWorks Animation, Walt Disney Co., 20th Century Fox, NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
“[Secretary Kerry] sought their perspectives and input about how the United States and the rest of the coalition, the anti-Daesh coalition, can better counter the propaganda that is being put forward by ISIL,” Toner said.
“All he was doing was he was taking advantage of the fact that he was there just outside of Hollywood in L.A., where the movie industry exists. He wanted to seek their input on how we can message better.”
No, really: Kerry seeks Hollywood’s advice on how to fight ISIL added by Editor One on
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