Vile Is as Vile Does.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.
• Position: STATE OF THE NATION

I WILL NOT mourn as the careers of liberal icons and moneymen Harvey Weinstein, John Conyers, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, and Al Franken vaporize. Of course, this behavior has been going on as long as men have walked the planet, and conservatives are not immune--witness Roy Moore. However, no leading conservative has defended Moore, save Pres. Donald Trump, who chose expediency over principle.

Liberal cultural elites once defended their own scoundrels with vigor. Nationally known feminists rationalized Bill Clinton's odious behavior because his politics appeared virtuous; fellow celebrities defended film director Roman Polanski's escape to Europe from an underage rape conviction because he was, after all, a great artist; for the same reason film critics ignored Woody Allen's lechery on screen with such teenage actresses as Mariel Hemingway and Juliette Lewis--as well as his scandalous behavior with his partner Mia Farrow's daughter.

Hugh Hefner's so-called playboy philosophy justified his serial affairs with girls a fraction of his age, treating them like his magazine: to be enjoyed and then discarded. No harm, no foul, so the old lecher must have believed--at least no harm, no foul for the recently departed Hefner. The women's voices in these matters never were heard, nor did any of Hefner's high-class friends seem to care.

These men were creatures of the 1960s cultural and sexual revolution--and its beneficiaries. Hefner put the word out to young people: throw off the old restraints, rituals, and taboos. They deny the entitled pleasures of youth. If it felt good, why not do it? Hollywood was ready to accept this adolescent philosophy. The studios discarded the Motion Picture Production Code in the late 1960s and replaced it with a rating system whose standards are as porous as big-shot producers' morals.

A world of public decorum soon was to disappear. What many did in private now could be displayed in public with the money rolling in. The previous Code's standards are sadly antediluvian today and began with the statement, "No pictures shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it." Explicit sex, obscene words, vulgar expressions, and complete nudity, among many other things, were forbidden. There even was the phrase, "the use of our flag shall be consistently respectful."

In those days, lecherous old studio chiefs were the forbearers of Weinstein, Polanski, and Allen. However, they had the good grace not to put...