Jane Fonda used a New York Town Hall event to put corporate power and government pressure on the center of a free-speech fight that matters to artists, publishers, and rights holders right now. At the all-star Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert For the First Amendment, she accused the government and its allies of silencing artists and said “cowardly corporations” are helping make the culture smaller.
Fonda turns a concert into a free-speech warning
Fonda spoke Sunday night at the Committee For the First Amendment’s gathering, a group originally formed in 1947 during the McCarthy Red-scare era that included her father, actor Henry Fonda. The event also featured performances from Bette Midler, Rufus Wainwright and Patti Smith.
“Right now, the government and its cronies [are] routinely violating its First Amendment to silence artists,” Fonda said, before pointing to actions she tied to the Trump administration and its right-wing supporters. She cited shuttering institutions like the Kennedy Center, defunding museums and the National Endowment of the Arts, and banning books and canceling TV hosts who speak out.
She said those moves were being allowed by “cowardly corporations,” and warned that the result would be “a very thinned-out kind of culture” in which freedom of expression, independence and a variety of viewpoints in the news would disappear.
Paramount-WBD merger tension hangs over the message
Fonda’s remarks came two days after the U.S. Justice Department cleared the way for Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN. Critics of the deal worry that the consolidation of the two companies by the Trump-friendly Ellison family could lead to political interference and a change in editorial independence at the network.
Fonda said she revived the Committee in October because she wanted to bring entertainment industry peers together at a time when “our democracy is in peril.” She said the industry needs to be “unified, activated and unwilling to engage in anticipatory obedience.”
De Niro and Midler keep the night pointed
Robert De Niro also spoke at the event and opened with a joke about President Trump’s 80th birthday party White House lawn UFC match. He said he is “devoted to our Constitution’s First Amendment” and added that when he hears something he does not like, he uses his own free speech to respond.
Midler said she was happy to be part of a community that is “so bright, so intelligent, so well-meaning … so desperate for justice.” She then performed a cover of Woody Guthrie’s “All You Fascists,” adding some of her own topical lyrics.
Watch for the reaction around Fonda’s comments, especially her criticism of the Paramount-WBD deal, and for how the Committee For the First Amendment continues to use artists and public events to push its message.
For editorial consideration and industry coverage inquiries, contact [email protected]
