PAUL HOLLANDER
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In
their studies of media elites S. Robert Lichter and Stanley
Rothman found similar evidence of a strong social-critical disposi–
tion. Fifty-four percent in their sample "placerd] themselves to the
left of center, compared to only nineteen percent who chose the right
side of the spectrum." Forty-six percent believed that the "U .S. ex–
ploits Third World, causes poverty"; fifty-seven percent believed
"U.S. use of resources immoral"; fifty-one percent that the "goal of
foreign policy is to protect U.S. business ..."; eighty-six percent that
"big corporations should be publicly owned ." Eighty-one percent of
them voted for McGovern in 1972.
In
another study the same authors probed the attitudes of lead–
ers or top staffers in seventy-four public interest organizations as well
as major public interest law firms. They concluded, among other
things:
The liberalism of public interest leaders shades into profound
dissatisfaction with the American social and economic order. .. .
In fact their alienation was one of our most striking findings .. . .
. . . Only about half the public interest leaders believe the system
can be salvaged.
As was the case with the media elite, the public interest elite
also favored McGovern, with ninety-six percent of those sampled
voting for him. They too come from comfortable backgrounds and
possess impressive educational credentials and belong to what may
be called the sixties generation.
In
yet another study the same authors examined the political
values and attitudes of highly successful moviemakers: "primarily
white males with very large incomes ... and a low regard for our in–
stitutions ." Eighty-two percent of them voted for McGovern . While
not anticapitalist (perhaps not surprisingly, with two-thirds of them
reporting family incomes in excess of $200,000 per year), "they are
alienated from society in other ways.... over half think that Ameri–
can institutions need a complete overhaul."
In
a corresponding study these authors addressed the same ques–
tions to "the cream of television's creative community." They found
"forty-three percent endors[ing] a complete overhaul of American in–
stitutions .. . their acceptance of the economic system is tempered
by
a deep-set alienation from the social-political system." Moreover
". . . the television elite is deeply dissatisfied with the direction our
society is taking and would like to alter it in profound ways."
