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
It is very well written and acted, but it still came off as an extended commercial for the Democrats. In fairness I've only seen yesterday's show, but conservatives were portrayed only as stupid (the GOP candidate), evil (oil companies) or raving extremists (the "how many babies did you kill today" girl). Meanwhile the major failing of the liberals is that they come across as "too smart". I'll give it another chance but I suspect it's going to end up making me yell at the TV too much (the same reason I couldn't watch Clinton's state of the union addresses).
I only see this show sporadically-- nothing else on public stations last night so saw most of premiere... Reminded me why I am not a fan-- this show always ends up chapping my Republican a$$ whenever I see it, the above reason being a primary one...
Yeah Toby et al. were made to look a bit foolish tooling around in the boondocks with Actual Human Beings, but one gets the sense that one is supposed to sympathize with them and their travails about having to deal with uneducated illiterate backwoods hicks who didn't vote fer that feller the last time and prob'ly won't THIS time neither...
I seem to recall some smart blonde ultraconservative chick joining the staff last year or so. She and Rob Lowe were always at each other. What happened to her?
I thought they were supposed to be militant anti-feminists who were insulted by her statement that she was "just" a wife and mother. Although I wasn't paying close attention during that part, so I could be wrong.
Don't worry about its influence on the sheeple. 90% of its audience are already communists anyway (the other 10% -- like me -- just laugh AT it).
Think of it as pornography for the NPR crowd:
"If only -- sniff, sniff -- if only Martin Sheen really was president". Blah, blah, blah.
Oh, and check out the evil Republican "President Sheen" is running against -- Mr Barbra Streisand!!!! LOL!!!
"I invented the internet" - AL GORE
"We'll have the most ethical administration in history" - WILLIAM JEFFERSON XLINTON
"My husband is the victim of a vast, right wing conspiracy" - XILLARY ROTTENHAM XLINTON
And the winner is:
"The West Wing is non-political" - AARON SORKIN
Well at least we both know what we are talking about ;-)
I remember the emphasis on "just" but at the same time I thought the protest made more sense from a feminzai point of view(get out the 'shackles" of housewifery and such).
The Commercials were the best part !
They made the teen out to be a Yahoo that Josh condescendingly tolerated.
And don't forget that old geezer hick in the country store who was anti-Bartlett.
-PJ
During the 5 second exchange where she made her statement and his reaction was to put his hands up and say "whoa"? I may have missed more after that, did I?
Even so, I thought it was great to even have a teenager saying that. And considering the theme seemed to be disconnect with regular Americans(whether intended or not), I thought his smug attitude was appropriate.
One last thiong, anyone else notice the disatorous pipe bombing happened in Cedar Rapids, MI. Isn't that close to the largest population of arab muslims in the US?
Everyone point and laugh....
They have. And -- God bless 'em -- they read us a chapter every Wednesday evening!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.