Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center has been whining for months that TV cop shows are covering racial justice issues based on what's actually happening in the world instead of blindly parroting the right-wing narrative that the police are always right and it's unfair to make them out to be victims, like its favorite show "Blue Bloods" does. That hasn't stopped. Dawn Slusher served up a typical rant on March 6:
CBS’s Magnum P.I. reboot teased viewers in Friday night’s episode, “The Long Way Home,” by making it seem like they might follow in the footsteps of their fellow cop drama Blue Bloods and depict the unfair treatment police and their loved ones are facing in today’s anti-cop culture. But sadly, they not only dropped the ball, they kicked it out of the park by instead stating, “the system is broken,” and defending BLM activism, which has led to violence and riots, as “a form of patriotism.”
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I guess it was too much to hope for there to be more than one show in Hollywood willing to defend the hard work, dedication, and sacrifice of the majority of good police officers.
On March 12, it took both Karen Townsend and Alexa Moutevelis to complain that an episode of "Chicago P.D." featured how "a black cop accuses his white partner of being racist while they work together on a police shooting case." They then attacked the actor who plays the black cop for stating that his job was to "his job is to "make black people look good" to white audiences," insisting "That was liberal-speak for convincing white people that they are all racists who must be re-educated.
Julia A. Seymour went after a hospital drama, "New Amsterdam," on March 24 for an episode in which a nurse said that police were “just a different kind of unsafe” than violent patients, declaring this to be "anti-cop." Four days later, she groused: "In order to show Chicago cops in the worst possible light, Showtime’s Shameless made up a rule observed by the police force – "We're here to serve and protect the rich," going on to sneer, "This is the last season of Shameless. Frankly, I don’t think it will be missed."
Lindsay Kornick complained on April 15:
Anyone who thought Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was finished with kowtowing to Black Lives Matter will be severely disappointed. The latest episode of the NBC drama reminds that there’s always time to scold the police, just like there’s always time to call new voting laws racist.
[...]Funny how when Portland and Minneapolis are set on fire by BLM and Antifa activists, Law & Order still finds time to have not one, not two, but three episodes warning viewers about white supremacists and other conspiracy groups. NBC does know they can criticize both, right?
Elise Ehrhard served up a full-on anti-BLM screed on April 20:
Network television has officially jumped the shark in its desperate efforts to defend the domestic terrorist organization Black Lives Matter. This week on CBS's court drama Bull, an earnest defense attorney actually said with a straight face that BLM is "not opposed to the police."
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Black Lives Matter protest slogans include "ACAB" ("All Cops Are Bastards") and “Fuck 12” ("Fuck the Police"). If those slogans are not "anti-law enforcement," I do not know what is. And considering that in 2019 the number of unarmed black men fatally shot by police in the United States was a total of 14 people in a country of 330 million, BLM was never really about addressing a supposed epidemic of evil cops targeting black men. BLM was a corporate shakedown operation that used terror to rake in billions for its founders and Democrat Party [sic] entities.
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Violence does indeed follow BLM wherever it goes. Its "mostly peaceful protests" have left a tragic trail of billions of dollars in damage, dozens dead, and many more injured. Such violence is likely to continue in the coming months, especially with the George Floyd murder trial wrapping up and people like Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) encouraging more violence.
But Hollywood cannot dare let that truth come out of the mouths of its shows' main characters. The role of television heroes in 2020 and 2021 are to keep pushing the same lies that legacy media pushed all last year about BLM protests being "mostly peaceful." And as the gaslighting continues, more innocent communities will be terrorized while BLM founders buy more mansions.
Ehrhard returned to grouse on April 22 that "CBS's cop drama S.W.A.T. signaled to its audience this week that those who question critical race theory and the Black Lives Matter agenda are really white supremacists. ... As long as Hollywood continues playing these sort of games with their messaging, Americans will feel afraid to speak up about real issues that harm all Americans for fear of being lumped-in with genuine villains. This twisted media and entertainment tactic makes authentic dialogue in our country impossible." Of course, the MRC's knee-jerk binary narrative that all cops are good and all protesters against police brutality are violent and evil (see above Ehrhard screed) isn't exactly encouraging authentic dialogue.
But the MRC did find a couple shows in its normal (for right-wing activists) pro-cop, anti-BLM propaganda. Ehrhard gushed on April 8:
Could common sense actually be returning to network television cop shows? Are some Hollywood scriptwriters waking-up to the insanity of the left's radical anti-police activism?
CBS's normally BLM-friendly cop drama S.W.A.T called out the anti-police crowd's woke hypocrisy and unfairness in this week's episode, 'Sins of the Father,' on April 7. In the episode, quintessential good guy Sgt. Deacon Kay (Jay Harrington) was excited about his son's school career day. Deacon planned to speak to the kids about his work as a police officer. Then he got a call from his son's teacher telling him the parents do not want a cop presenting to their kids.
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So while a show like S.W.A.T. has too often pushed BLM propaganda to placate the woke Hollywood powers that be, they deserve credit for sneaking in certain truths this time around.
Four days later, Ehrhard was back in her "Blue Bloods" safe space:
Throughout the 2020-21 television season, Blue Bloods has been the rare network cop show that has refused to kowtow to the woke BLM mob.
The show did it again this week with an episode that called-out politicians and media for condemning cops based on civilian complaints devoid of any context.
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Wow, a show that asks the public to see the full picture and try to see the complex and dangerous situations police officers face every day. That is radical in an age when Black Lives Matter torches cities, vilifies officers and demands communities defund police departments.
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Blue Bloods is a unique network show with a conservative star in which a close-knit family regularly gathers around the dinner table and says grace before eating. If it is not renewed, network television will mostly be left with woke cops shows that are now prone to seeing the boys in blue ;as the villains.
That's the kind of propaganda the MRC loves.
