Posted on 12/26/2002 12:23:10 PM PST by mrustow
Toogood Reports [Christmas Weekender, December 29, 2002; 12:01 a.m. EST]
URL: http://ToogoodReports.com/
My previous column detailed a number of network TV series' campaign to demonize white men and romanticize black men, in the depiction of crime. But without a doubt, TV's champion white-baiter is persistent felony offender Dick Wolf, the producer of Law & Order, two Law & Order Lite spin-offs, and a pseudo-documentary crime show. This column has previously detailed a fraction of Wolf's offenses against decency and verisimilitude, and will no doubt return to him; criminals are creatures of habit, and Wolf has a long-term contract with NBC through the 2004-2005 season.
In one episode this season, Wolf re-created the May 10, 2001, execution-style, Carnegie Deli Murders ("Tragedy on Rye"). In the real case, Sean Salley and Andre Smith robbed genteel drug dealer Jennifer Stahl, who lived in an apartment above Midtown Manhattan's Carnegie Deli, and murdered Stahl, Stephen King, and Charles Helliwell. Salley and Smith also shot Rosemond Dane and Anthony Veader, both of whom survived. In June, Salley and Smith were convicted on multiple counts of murder, robbery, and weapons charges; in July, they were both sentenced to 120 years to life.
In the L & O version, the black suspects who were slated to be up for the death penalty for the killings, turned out to be innocent. The killer was white. This episode, written by William N. Fordes, was set up to be an object lesson on the dangers of racial profiling, via the "conscience" of the character of black NYPD "Lt. Joyce Van Buren" (S. Epatha Merkerson), but was actually a shameless exercise in propaganda: The real Carnegie Deli killers WERE black men!
Taking real crimes committed by blacks, and giving them the "ripped from the headlines" treatment, but with the killers' races changed to white, is a Dick Wolf trademark.
In the recent episode, "Open Season," a William Kunstler-like criminal defense attorney gets a black man acquitted, who was guilty as hell of shooting a white police officer, and is murdered the lawyer, that is as he is celebrating the acquittal. The killer is a white supremacist, who conspires with other supremacists to murder defense attorneys notorious for handling such cases.
This episode's story line resided entirely in the fantasy world of Dick Wolf and writer Richard Sweren.
One secondary aspect of this episode was, however, based on a true case. At one point, the jailed white supremacist, who has been forbidden from all contact with the outside world, except for his defense attorney (Tovah Feldshuh), uses her as an unwitting conduit to pass along the address of someone he has targeted for murder to an associate, who carries out the killing. However, Dick Wolf's creative team made a slight adjustment in the story. The subplot was based not on a white supremacist, but on the case of radical attorney, Lynne Stewart. Stewart has been arrested and charged with deliberately passing along instructions from one of her clients, Islamic terrorist Sheik Abdul Rahman, who was convicted of masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, to his confederates. Stewart was taped laughing about what she was doing.
In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that on occasion, Wolf crosses over, and abuses white women, too.
In an episode created last season by writers Terri Kopp, Aaron Zelman, and Eric Overmyer, and re-run on December 4, Myth of Fingerprints, the forensics chief from hell (Diana Scarwid), is caught after having spent years falsely testifying against innocent men (even white men!), all of whom were convicted based on her perjured testimony. Eventually, she is convicted of manslaughter, based on the prison murder of one of the men whom she'd framed.
That episode was based on the very real case of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma forensics chemist, Joyce Gilchrist, who was caught having falsified evidence for years. Based on Gilchrist's testimony, 23 men have been sentenced to death, and eleven have been executed. Unlike the fictional forensics boss on Law & Order, however, Joyce Gilchrist is black.
Dick Wolf and his creative team apparently see TV drama as an opportunity to create non-stop propaganda, and get paid handsomely for it.
If I were married to Tovah, I would wear Krispy Saltine pajamas every night!
I've had a crush on Tovah every since I saw her guest starring on some forgettable 70's cop show. Whatta face!
BTW, Tovah turns 50 tomorrow.
This is one of the reasons that over all these years of Law & Order in so many different incarnations, I have only watched the documentary-style Crime & Punishment version more than twice. It drives me crazy when I see a real-life story gutted of its actual lessons so the creators of the TV show can substitute their own irrelevant ones.
I don't watch television anymore (except for The Weather Channel and old movies through the VCR).
Similarly, I don't go to the movies anymore. Haven't been inside a movie theater in years. Again, I prefer older films, and either view them from my home archives, or rent one if need be.
Since there is relatively little that can be done to counter the left-wing media and art-content creators, perhaps the only thing left to do is to _ignore them_ .
Cheers!
- John
But of course! I have seen many courtroom scenes presided over by white female judge characters. And I have seen a few white male judge characters -- but they were often corrupt or openly biased.
I dunno; why don't you contact EAIF, and ask 'em?
No, that was NBC. In a recent USA Today article, Wolf slammed the network for buckling under that pressure because "we insult everybody".
He has also gotten in trouble for a couple of episodes of Law and Order criminal intent for making the African American ADA look "disrespected by the white officers," "sleazy" and "out of the loop."
Well, A.D.A Carver is dumber than Detective Goren, who happens to be a white heterosexual male. But EVERYONE ELSE on the show is also stupider than Goren, so it sure isn't racism.
Its clear that Dick Wolf is liberal, but its also clear that left wing and liberal groups are more poised to protest any slight whether real or not that they perceive.
Oh, totally.
He is responding in the most politically correct and safest way. When law and order portrays pro-lifers as "kooks" (which, every single episode dealing with abortion has done).
I beg to differ. On Criminal Intent, both Carver and Goren are pro-life; it's the redheaded chick who is the pro-abortion Nazi as she demonstrated in an episode last season. Plus, on the original, if you go waaay back, there was a first season abortion episode that had Greevy and Stone on the pro-life side and Logan and Robinette on the pro-choice side.
There is no outcry, there is no protest, anything that trashes conservatives is generally left alone without much expressed anger or protest. However this does not apply to liberals. Maybe Wolf feels that conservatives have thicker skin, or that liberals are just overly sensitive. Either way, he is always going to play it safe and not risk offending the more vocal and sensitive groups.
Not really. Last season classic L&O featured an anti-environmental episode that was so against tree huggers I laughed my butt off for a half an hour straight. It featured such classic lines as "When will they grow up?" and "Ah Democrats, I've had problems with them before."
Bottom line, Law and Order really does insult everyone equally. You just have to watch enough episodes.
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