The conservative tycoon’s grip on media and cinema is unhealthy. An EU fund could protect democracy in perpetuity The conservative tycoon’s grip on media and cinema is unhealthy. An EU fund could protect democracy in perpetuity T he shadow of Joseph McCarthy’s “red scare” loomed over the storied steps of this year’s Cannes film festival. Echoing the mid-20th-century blacklist, which shut out about 300 suspected communists from Hollywood, the French media group Canal+ announced an effective ban