Washington Post Opinion PIece: Shut down all police movies and TV shows. Now.
Opinion in the WP from a loony named Alyssa Rosenberg:
"Like many other industries, entertainment companies have issued statements of support for the protests against racism and police brutality now filling America’s streets. But there’s something Hollywood can do to put its money where its social media posts are: immediately halt production on cop shows and movies and rethink the stories it tells about policing in America.
For a century, Hollywood has been collaborating with police departments, telling stories that whitewash police shootings and valorizing an action-hero style of policing over the harder, less dramatic work of building relationships with the communities cops are meant to serve and protect. There’s a reason for that beyond a reactionary streak hiding below the industry’s surface liberalism. Purely from a dramatic perspective, crime makes a story seem consequential, investigating crime generates action, and solving crime provides for a morally and emotionally satisfying conclusion.
The result is an addiction to stories that portray police departments as more effective than they actually are; crime as more prevalent than it actually is; and police use of force as consistently justified. There are always gaps between reality and fiction, but given what policing in America has too often become, Hollywood’s version of it looks less like fantasy and more like complicity.
There’s no question that it would be costly for networks and studios to walk away from the police genre entirely. Canceling Dick Wolf’s “Chicago” franchise of shows would wipe out an entire night of NBC’s prime-time programming; dropping “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and a planned spinoff would cut even further into the lineup.
But the gap between what some companies and executives have promised this week and what they have done in the past cannot be ignored. As reality television critic Andy Dehnart points out, at ViacomCBS, cable networks chief Chris McCarthy pledged “to leverage all of our platforms to show our ally-ship.” One of those platforms also airs “Cops,” a decades-old reality show with a troubled history of participating in police censorship and peddling fear of black and brown criminals. If McCarthy means what he says, canceling “Cops” would be a start.
But simply canceling cop shows and movies would be easier than uprooting the assumptions at the heart of the problem."
It goes on, blah, blah, blah. Total insanity.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | June 5, 2020 2:12 AM
|
Um no. Policing art (pun not intended) is a toxic first step toward killing it. It's bad enough what's happening in Hollywood (pre the recent movement) with its out-of-whack wokeness/virtue signalling (everyone desperately trying to writing trans characters, no white (such a generic term for people of many different backgrounds) allowed to make anything, anyone but a white creator over-celebrated and pushed to the front of the line. There is a hive mind trying to dictate who can write what, what kinds of characters you can't write. It's gross and anti-art. And I say this as a liberal who is starting to lose it... not because a loss of privilege but because it's just racism of a different color. EVERYONE deserves a seat at the table. It shouldn't be about removing one type of person (based on a sweeping generalization of type/skin color) to make room for another.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | June 4, 2020 11:59 PM
|
"And I say this as a liberal who is starting to lose it... not because a loss of privilege but because it's just racism of a different color."
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 2 | June 5, 2020 12:04 AM
|
Next time you're in trouble call Angela Lansbury.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | June 5, 2020 12:07 AM
|
Don't fuck with my ID network, HGTV, or Netflix. Otherwise so whatever. But, I'd sooner start with the music industry which glamorizes drugs, guns, and violence. And don't forget video games. Both of which children are more likely to be exposed to.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | June 5, 2020 12:31 AM
|
Well let's face it, the police shows are nothing like real life. I mean, c'mon, a New York detective shows up at your apartment to see if "you're okay"? Give me a break? That's NOT how it works. I got robbed and the pigs basically accused me of dragging home a bad trick. I hate them. There is nothing more corrupt than a cop.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | June 5, 2020 12:39 AM
|
Why even have police? I'm ok with the gangs on the street handling everything.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | June 5, 2020 12:44 AM
|
" I hate them. There is nothing more corrupt than a cop."
You sound like a real asshole. Well, if you hate cops, don't call them. If you get robbed or attacked, don't call them. Deal with it yourself. That's my advice to anyone who has a psychotic hatred towards the police: you don't like them, don't ever call them, no matter what happens to you.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | June 5, 2020 12:50 AM
|
OP, if you're concerned about "loony" op eds, why aren't you complaining about what Tom Cotton wrote in the New York Times?
by Anonymous | reply 8 | June 5, 2020 12:54 AM
|
I seem to recall CSI, CSI Miami & CSI NY having more white murderers doing the crime than the real life stats would suggest.
I wonder how she feels about that false representation being put on white folks.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | June 5, 2020 12:58 AM
|
I called the cops when I was robbed and they berated me for hooking up on Grindr and didn’t do a fucking thing r7. I gave them the guy’s address etc and they didn’t do a fucking thing. Stop acting like they are heros who protect anyone other than rich, straight, white people! Fuck you!
by Anonymous | reply 10 | June 5, 2020 1:09 AM
|
fuck you, you filthy piece of trash r7. you still have to use the cops just like the nasty cashier at the checkout. I spit on the piece of shit grave that will be yours.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | June 5, 2020 1:13 AM
|
I don't want every cop show cancelled.
But the mix of TV shows has leaned HEAVILY into darkness and cop/military shows, especially on network TV.
I'd love to see a little more of a better balance. We've had 20+ years of various Dick Wolf shows, forensic shows, and the military/paramilitary stuff (JAG/NCIS/SWAT).
There's a media theory about this called Mean World Syndrome. When all the boomers watch nothing but that shit and then follow it with a Fox News chaser, which is alarmist bullshit, no wonder they're such paranoid fools.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | June 5, 2020 1:15 AM
|
I've had good encounters with cops and bad ones. The worse one was when they actually did their job. My crappy car was stolen and my insurance was going to pay me double what the car was worth in its actual present condition. Then the day before the insurance was going to cut the check, the stupid police actually found my car.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | June 5, 2020 1:18 AM
|
I wonder if she’s seen The Wire? One of the greatest shows of all time with a comprehensive look at all sides of the drug war as well as the political machinations of major American city.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | June 5, 2020 1:19 AM
|
Pre quarantine, if I visited a friend’s apartment and saw a bass guitar, I would attempt to play that funky bass lick from the Law and Order theme.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 15 | June 5, 2020 1:55 AM
|
"fuck you, you filthy piece of trash [R7]. you still have to use the cops just like the nasty cashier at the checkout. I spit on the piece of shit grave that will be yours."
Well, aren't YOU the psychotic piece of shit. I shit in your mouth and fart in your face. No, wait! I take that back. You'd probably LIKE that.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | June 5, 2020 2:06 AM
|
"Stop acting like they are heros who protect anyone other than rich, straight, white people! Fuck you!"
Cops certainly do protect people who AREN'T rich, white and straight. You sound nuts. Get help.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | June 5, 2020 2:07 AM
|
I agree with this 100%. Cop shows are just propaganda for the cops. Make them pay for their own propaganda. Fuck thugs with badges
by Anonymous | reply 18 | June 5, 2020 2:12 AM
|