You can almost count upon op-eds and editorials written in favor of keeping North Carolina’s film incentives to cite popular, well-known North Carolina productions such as “Bull Durham” (1988), “Dirty Dancing” (1987), “Last of the Mohicans” (1992), “Dawson’s Creek” (1998-2003), etc. in making their case. Even though those examples preceded the incentives by years, even decades.
— Yours truly, The Locker Room, 7/14/2014

The News & Observer urged today for state leaders to “Bring back NC’s film incentive program.” The op-ed naturally used the hopelessly discredited Handfield industry survey (see below) as it was intended, and it also tried to suggest by inference that film incentives are why NC has historically had the industry. It relied on other arguments that are easily dispatched.

I’ve shown time and time again how pro-incentives editorials use favorite, pre-incentives films made in NC to argue for keeping or increasing film incentives here. Why? As I wrote in 2014, “They probably expect you don’t know we didn’t have film incentives until 2005.”

On that score, the N&O states that “The state has been a location site for scores of Hollywood productions, from ‘Dirty Dancing’ to ‘Bull Durham’ to ‘Iron Man 3.'” That would be:

  • “Dirty Dancing” (1987) — before film incentives
  • “Bull Durham” (1988) — before film incentives
  • “Iron Man 3” (2013) — after film incentives

It later states that “This state has welcomed the film industry for 30 years now.” It doesn’t add that only in the last 10 years has it used film incentives.

Nor would they add that now over one-fourth of U.S. states are no longer involved in film incentives’ race to the bottom.