By Pat Sajak

Editor’s note: Pat Sajak has been in broadcasting since 1967. He is a Vietnam War veteran and host of Wheel of Fortune, the most watched TV show of any kind in syndication. The following is abridged from a speech delivered at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, on April 4, 2002. It is reprinted by permission from Imprimis, the national speech digest of Hillsdale College (www.hillsdale.edu)

September 2002 – Here in this quiet, peaceful corner of Michigan, you might not have a sense of your importance in the world. I come from a community that has the opposite problem. Because it is so big and so powerful, so great and so well-known, it has an exaggerated view of its significance. That community is Hollywood. Not Hollywood, the town. But I mean Hollywood, the Entertainment Mecca – which includes parts of Southern California and New York City, and, because news has become entertainment, some of Washington, D.C., as well. 

You see, one of the dangers of my business is that it has the potential to fill you with a distorted view of life and of your importance in it. And it’s understandable in a way. If you are part of a successful enterprise, people treat you very well. They send limos for you. They pretend that the most outlandish or inane things you might say are important and quotable.

You’re treated importantly, so you must be important. Suddenly your views are not just your own private opinions; they become part of the public record. The world waits breathlessly for your next pronouncement.

Rosie O’Donnell – a daytime talk show host – goes public with her sexual preference, and she is lauded as brave. And what’s brave about getting the chance to be interviewed by ABC and landing on magazine covers? I characterize it as bravery-as-a-career-move. 

I don’t mean to pick on Ms. O’Donnell, but it’s just another example of the self-importance that show business can bestow on you – the idea that your sexual preference matters to anyone other than your immediate family and your partner, or partners, seems rather silly.

Speaking of silly, Alec Baldwin, an actor, recently compared the election of George W. Bush to the terrorist attacks of last September. This is the same Baldwin brother who promised to leave the country if Bush were elected. Sadly, he reneged on that one. Baldwin also went on Conan O’Brien’s late-night show during the Clinton impeachment to say that Illinois Republican Congressman Henry Hyde should be shot – along with his family. 

Do remarks like that get you chastised in Hollywood? Ostracized? Marginalized? No, it’s Alec Baldwin. He’s an actor. He’s in show business. He’s important.

Filmmaker Rob Reiner – a cofounder of Castle Rock Entertainment – is reportedly upset by what he sees in many films these days.

So what’s got Rob so upset? Gratuitous violence? Casual sex? Disrespect toward Christianity? Bias against Big Business? No, of course not. That would be censorship. He wants to get rid of smoking … in movies.

To quote Mr. Reiner, “Movies are basically advertising cigarettes to kids.” No knock on Rob. In fact, I agree with him. But why is smoking open to censorship and not these other issues? And what happened to Hollywood’s argument that movies and TV shows don’t cause bad behavior, they just reflect it?

You see, if you complain about what you see as excesses on the screen, you are a book-burning prude who wants to tell everyone else how to live. You are a censor. You have no right. That is a right saved for the wise. They know better. They are important. 

I could go on with a laundry list of silly and hypocritical things said and done by some of my fellow show business luminaries, but the point here is not to make them look silly. They’re perfectly capable of doing that without my help. The larger point is the disconnect between the realities of this nation and its people, and the perceived realities of many in the entertainment community.

Former CBS newsman Bernard Goldberg has written a best-selling book called Bias, in which he maintains that the real problem with the media is not a bias based on liberal vs. conservative or Republican vs. Democrat. It is a bias based on the sameness of worldview caused by social, intellectual, educational and professional inbreeding. These are folks who travel in the same circles, go to the same parties, talk to the same people, compare their ideas to people with the same ideas, and develop a standard view on issues that makes any deviation from them seem somehow marginal, or even weird.

They think they have diversity in their midst because they take pains to hire a representative mix of gender and race. But there is no diversity of thought. On the great social issues of our time, there is an alarmingly monolithic view held by what has become known as the “media elite.” 

At a dinner party in Los Angeles recently, our hostess was about to say some grudgingly kind words about President Bush and the way he was handling the War on Terror. She prefaced her remarks by saying, “Now I know everyone at this table voted for Al Gore, but …” Well, she knew no such thing. She just presumed it. It’s what “right-thinking” people did. This false reality is a phenomenon that permeates media circles.

It’s the phenomenon that allows the media to rediscover patriotism and heroism in the wake of September 11, when those of you in Hillsdale and millions of others know that those traits never went away.

It’s the phenomenon that explains Hollywood’s disdain for big business. Never mind that some of the biggest and least-competitive businesses are in entertainment. They merge, they lay off thousands, while stock options accrue to the top executives. They simply don’t see the contradiction. They are above it.

And, perhaps worst of all, it’s the phenomenon that allows movie studios and television networks to program with an utter disregard for your kids and your communities. It’s not that they’re evil people. They have kids and they care about them. But they see no connection between what they do and the results of what they do. And, besides, you’re not really families and communities. You’re ratings, demographics and sales.

You see, they are – for the most part – clueless. Clueless about this country and its people. Clueless about you. And they are afraid. They are afraid of the new technologies – afraid of the dwindling numbers of viewers or readers or listeners … afraid for their very existence. So, don’t you see, they have to do what it takes to survive. They are important. Who do you people out here – the ones they fly over on their way to the other Coast for meetings – who do you think you are?

Well, you are this country. You are its future. And I think that’s a very good thing to be. The world can look mighty dark at times. But how exciting to be in a position to help change all that. And you’re at the center of it. The center is not Los Angeles or New York. The power is not in Hollywood or Washington. The power is here.