Posted on 09/26/2002 2:47:26 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
Just six weeks or so before a real mid-term election, NBCs The West Wing returned to the air Wednesday night with its fictional President Bartlet campaigning for re-election six weeks before a presidential vote. West Wing creator/writer Aaron Sorkin who has Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, facing off against a dumb Republican Governor from the South, used NBCs prime time to advance the liberal agenda.
The September 25 episode opened with a campaign rally set at an Indiana farm. Bartlet proclaimed: We need to find energy alternatives....The Republicans are busy. Theyre trying to convince us that they care about new energy and that theyre not in the chest pockets of Big Oil. And thats a tough sell.
Later in the two-hour season premiere, in a scene set in the Oval Office, Bartlet lectured his Commerce Secretary about a global warming treaty: I think whats lunacy is a nation of SUVs telling a nation of bicycles that they have to change the way they live before well agree to do something about greenhouse emissions.
The season premiere opened with the crowd on an Indiana farm chanting four more years!
Sheen, as President Bartlet, related a joke he subsequently used to slam Republicans: You know the story about the guy whose car gets stuck in a muddy hole. Farmer comes along and says hell pull the car out of the mud, but hes going to have to charge fifty bucks because this is the tenth time hes had to pull it out of the mud today. The driver says, 'God, when do you have time to plow your land? At night? The farmer says 'no, no, night time is when I fill the hole with water.
We need to find energy alternatives. Were getting our cue [cue? Hard to understand what he said], were getting it right now. The Republicans are busy. Theyre trying to convince us that they care about new energy and that theyre not in the chest pockets of Big Oil. And thats a tough sell. I dont envy them because their only hope is that we dont notice that theyre the ones who are filling the hole with water every night. And I think Americans are smarter than that. I think we noticed.
This isnt a time for people whose doomsday scenario is a little less at the pump for Texaco and Shell. This isnt a time for people who say there arent any energy alternatives just because they cant think of any. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars.
A very nice in-kind contribution from NBC to liberal Democrats, the very kind of political promotion that the media will still be able to advance under campaign finance reform.
Later, in a scene set in the Oval Office, Bartlets Secretary of Commerce warned him about a global warming treatys impact on the United States: It is shear lunacy to suggest America take unilateral steps while exempting 80 percent of the worlds nations from the same obligations.
Bartlet shot back: Developing nations. And I think whats lunacy is a nation of SUVs telling a nation of bicycles that they have to change the way they live before well agree to do something about greenhouse emissions.
In an interview with the New Yorker in March, even as he claimed The West Wing is non-political, Sorkin boasted of how he would use the program to re-play the 2000 campaign. The New Yorkers Tad Friend wrote:
President Josiah Bartlet is up for re-election this November. 'Bartlet is going to be running against Governor Robert Ritchie, of Florida, who's not the sharpest tool in the box but who's raised a lot of money and is very popular with the Republican Party, Sorkin said. If this sounds familiar, it should. 'It was frustrating watching Gore try so hard not to appear smart in the debates -- why not just say 'Here's my fucking résumé, what do you got?' We're a completely fictional, nonpolitical show, but one of our motors is doing our version of the old Mad magazine 'Scenes We'd Like to See.'
As recounted in the April 3 CyberAlert, on the March 27 episode President Bartlet took a shot at Sorkins stand-in for George W. Bush: Governor Robert Ritchie of Florida, the Republican presidential candidate. After an interview with the fictional Philadelphia station ends, but while still live with the anchor, President Bartlet is asked about Ritchies book in which he advocates drilling in ANWR. Bartlet replied: I think we might be talking about a .22 caliber mind in a .357 caliber world.
That episode also featured a lot of liberal environmental advocacy. For details: http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020403.asp#6
As for the show being non-political, the March 6 CyberAlert contained a rundown from past CyberAlerts of liberal pronouncements and advocacy promoted on The West Wing over the shows first three years. For links to fuller CyberAlert articles, some of which feature RealPlayer clips of the scenes: http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020306.asp#4
This is the fictional part, right?
Know your enemy and his strategery. Ahem.
Michael
At the end of the show, Toby and Josh are beginning to SERIOUSLY re-think their premise that positioning Bartlett as "the world's most intelligent candidate" is the way to go. Especially after Hoosier upon Hoosier serially tells them, "Didn't vote for him th' first time, not likely to vote for him this time."
Yes, all the liberal policies are there - but Bartlett seems to be the only one that truly truly believes them. Everyone else keeps bring up reason, facts, etc...and he shoots them down with jingoistic remarks.
The show is worth watching so that you understand your enemy and what he is being fed.
Michael
And don't forget the rolling pin and apron women who were portrayed as crazy loons. As I said on the other thread, you're absolutely right. Shows like this are exactly why liberals love campaign finance reform, it cripples conservatives while not interfering with the loads of free propaganda delivered by Hollywood leftists like Sorkin.
I watch the show because it's excellently written and acted, and the RATS do not come off nearly as well as Bozell is claiming. Yes, the show contained blatant DNC talking points in Bartlet's big campaign speech, but it was an episode about a Democratic candidate campaigning! What was he supposed to say? The GOP candidate was nowhere to be found in this episode; he'll have to get some major face time somewhere down the road. And I have a feeling he's going to come off looking a lot better than we're being led to believe.
Strange, I really didn't expect much and was almost pleasantly suprised how badly they came off. I loved it when the IN teen asked "how many unborn babies did they kill today" and Josh's(?) reaction was retreat.
They don't seem interested in using fictitious names for the "bad guys". Why don't they come clean and just name the character that Sheen plays, Al Gore.
I thought those were feminazis mad at the first lady?
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