Actor Kevin Spacey, who plays the ruthless President Frank Underwood in the Netflix series “House of Cards,” argued Monday that Americans are getting exactly what they deserve in the presidential race.
The 56-year-old Academy Award winner made the comments in Washington while attending the show’s fourth-season premiere at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, The Hill reported.
“It’s sort of silly to compare the two,” Mr. Spacey said of the fictional political drama and real-life politics. “They’re both a little bit unpredictable in that audiences have no idea where we’re going to go and what we’re going to do, and I think that’s part of the enjoyment that an audience has — they don’t really know. At the same time, I happen to believe that we get what we deserve.
“Edward R. Murrow warned us in 1964 that when news divisions decide that the news has to make money, and has to get ratings, it’s no longer news — it’s entertainment,” he told reporters gathered along the rope line, The Hill reported.
“So if people are bothered by the fact that we seem to be having entertainment as news, it’s because the news divisions decided that money and ratings were more important than reporting,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Mr. Spacey has added his two cents on the presidential lineup. Speaking at last month’s CEO-packed World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he said Donald Trump’s campaign reminded him of that of George Wallace, the former segregationist Democratic governor of Alabama.
“It’s exactly the same campaign. I mean, exactly the same,” Mr. Spacey said at the time.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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