When news of Andrew Breitbart’s death hit the internet on Thursday, one friend of Andrew’s spoke up on Twitter. His name is Daniel Knauf, and he’s a major producer in town: creator of HBO’s Carnivàle, writer on Supernatural and My Own Worst Enemy, writer-producer on Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and the upcoming HBO/BBC American mini-series Year Zero. Here’s what he tweeted:
After receiving a series of hate tweets about Andrew [after this one], Knauf had enough. Here’s what he tweeted:
Continuing with the Big Hollywood post:
Knauf started out as what he calls a “Kennedy Democrat.”
I was pretty much apolitical. The closest I came to studying issues was to pick up one of P.J. O’Rourke’s books for a giggle or two. But then, I also got a kick out of Michael Moore’s first film, Roger and Me. Politically, I was the proverbial wise-ass kid with a permanent seat in the rear of the classroom where I could safely heckle the nuns without collecting too many stripes across the back of my knuckles.
Then, on September 11th, 2001, everything changed.
Knauf quickly found out that standing with America in the war on terror could get you blackballed in Tinseltown. He didn’t stand up, and didn’t say anything – but he saw what happened to those who did:
Over the ensuing years, I continued to remain silent whenever confronted by the toxic, batshit-crazy, knee-jerk, anti-intellectual, when-in-doubt-blame-America Leftism that pervades Hollywood. I saw what happened to others if they spoke up or disagreed with the party line. I actually witnessed one writer, who foolishly expressed his support for the war in Iraq, set-upon and viciously berated by no less than six crew-members for almost 20 minutes straight.
That night, he found his car had been keyed in our secure lot.
Hmm… must’ve been a random vandal.
Incidentally, though he had a storied career, an amazing list of credits and is one of the most versatile, talented writer-producers I know, the jobs gradually dried up for him and now he can’t, as they say, get arrested in this town.
But Knauf still kept his mouth shut. Until he met Andrew Breitbart.
