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Special Report
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The season premiere of the long running television drama Law and Order showed that Hollywood is still more than willing to use its bully pulpit to promote left wing views.
As we all know, in the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
Last night’s episode of television’s longest running drama — NBC’s “Law & Order” — featured District Attorney Jack McCoy prosecuting a John Yoo-esque Bush administration Justice Department attorney for writing a legal memo authorizing the torture of detainees.
“Jack, you want to prosecute a member of the Bush administration for assaulting suspected terrorists?” McCoy is asked in the season premiere episode, titled “Memo from the Dark Side.”
“The word is ‘torturing,’” says McCoy, played by Sam Waterston. “And yes — it’s about time somebody did.”
The episode has been embraced by some of the most vocal advocates for prosecuting actual Bush administration officials for torture.
Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote on the Huffington Post that “[w]hat McCoy understands is that in America, the rule of law applies to everyone. No one is above the law, not even (and some might say especially) the most powerful. … In real life, there has yet to be an investigation into the high-level authorization of torture, a crime that has stained the reputation of our nation at home and abroad.”
Writes Romero: “Toward the end of the episode, the assistant D.A. declares, ‘[I]t is not disloyal to hold our officials to the highest standards of conduct.’ Indeed. In fact, it is the epitome of loyalty and patriotism to do so. Now the question is, in real life, will Attorney General Holder rise to the occasion?”
Over at Salon, Glenn Greenwald interviews the show’s executive producer and lead writer René Balcer.
“Three specific aspects of the episode impressed me most,” Greenwald writes, “(1) its depiction of torture and those who authorized it is deliberately realistic, so it’s crystal clear exactly which Bush officials they are indicting (it contains the infamous Yoo endorsement of presidential testicle-crushing); (2) it focuses on the deaths caused by the American torture regime, not merely some ‘water poured down three people’s noses’; and, most of all: (3) it develops a plausible and thoughtful theory for how criminal liability could be imposed on the DOJ lawyers who authorized Bush’s torture. If nothing else, this depiction of the brutality of America’s torture and the need for accountability will likely reach at least some who haven’t been previously exposed to such arguments, and provides a good counterweight to the standard depiction of torture in American entertainment as something employed by heroic protectors.”
Don’t be surprised if the Obama adminsitration feeling emboldened by this episode does attempt to prosecute Bush administration officials for their role. It won’t be the first time that the liberals have used Hollywood depictions as an excuse to pursue an agenda against those they don’t agree with.
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Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.
14 Comments for ACLU Cheers ‘Law and Order’ Premiere
(A)merican
(C)riminal
(L)iberal
(U)nion-lovers
This is absolutely outrageous. This is one of my favorite shows. We watch it regularly. I did not see this episode…but I will never watch it again. This is TV not politics. I am outraged. I think it is a dirty deal and all involved should be totally ashamed. I hope the ratings for this show start to plummet and they take a huge hit just like the MS Media news outlets.
I can’t wait until Republicans take back control and prosecute the Obama Adminastration for mass murder of unborn children. He also signed an executive order to assassinate a terrorist in Africa. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that against the law? How about the drone attacks on Pakistan killing civilians. Obama’s hands are drenched in blood and wants to pretend he’s better than Bush. I guess in a way he is since he can claim more murders than Bush could have in a lifetime. Beware Liberals………..what you do will come back to haunt you in the 2012 elections. We forgive, but we don’t forget.
Fox News showed the brief clip of the Law & Order episode, where Jack asks, “Do you really think we should prosecute the Bush Administration?” I have no idea about the rest of the show, we always watched it on satellite (cable) channels, but stopped when Fred Thompson left the show as the D.A…In fact some of the people who have watched recently are making a list of sponsors to boycott, that I will be involved in…
In fact, much of what Obama and his cronies are doing, I am sure are not legal, and are unconstitutional. I wasn’t one of the “so called Birthers”, but when a person (BHO) spends $1.4 million of his own money to keep his Birth Certificate, older Passport, both of his College Essays and other school work a secret, that piques my interest. That and the fact that a Federal Judge has agreed to hear the relevantly discovered a Mombasa Certified Copy of his Birth Certificate. Unlike his “Certification Live Birth” he posted as his original Birth in Hawaii, it is a document anyone who moves from another country to obtain. It has no delivery doctors, no Notary singing, no Hawaiian Seal. Not to mention that his mother was too young to confer his birth once she moved to Hawaii.
As to ACORN, he (Obama) said he would not de-fund ACORN, partly because he gave them $800 Million Dollars to get him elected, and that he has ties to the many arms of ACORN itself, and the SEIU, the Apollo Alliance (who actually wrote the Government run Health Care then turned it over to Congress. Which explains why when it was introduced, no one either House knew what was in the Bill.
The latest poll on Universal Health care shows 57% are against it, with 41% for…but I firmly believe that is due to the fact they do not really know what is in the Bill, or the against number would be much lower. Even Black people are now coming out against his Government run plan.
What goes around, comes back around.
Law and Order has long done shows that are related to current events. I was particularly interested in the two shows that depicted homeschooling families, and of course, the parents were shown to be out of touch with their children’s needs, and were eventually shown to be child abusers. I was extremely angry over this, but what do you really expect from Hollywood????
Now, about the “absolutely outrageous” L&O show about torture. I would contend that the absolutely outrageous fact here, is that Americans are torturing. No matter who does it, under which President, it is still torture. The Republican supporters would have a hey-dey if Obama was the one authorizing it, but somehow, it’s OK if it was done with Bush’s approval?
I find it really funny how liberals are outrage at water-boarding. Where was the outrage when Pelosi repeatedly lied about what she knew. It’s really ironic how you defend harsh interrogations, but are fine with abortion killing millions of unborn children. Lets not discuss morals as liberals have none. Liberals care more about dogs, cats, and terrorist than unborn children. By the way, where is all the anti war protest now that Obama is continuing the war he promised to end. When liberals are doing the killing it’s all good. Democrats have blood on their hands and will need to be prosecuted when the next administration comes into power. What a slippery slope Obama has opened.
Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote on the Huffington Post that “[w]hat McCoy understands is that in America, the rule of law applies to everyone. No one is above the law, not even (and some might say especially) the most powerful. …
So he is stating what a fictional character is saying——???
Also—does that mean they are going to after BoBo’s criminal friends??—afterall the law does apply to everyone!!!
I am so sick to death of these a**h****!!!!
Water-boarding is out abortions are in. If per chance the entire country was against Obama’s healthcare…they would still ram it through? What is wrong with this picture?
As I have said, I watched Law & Order several times with my wife, I always thought Sam Waterston played a pretty good character. But the show only showed me the injustices on justice. One show I saw was when the DA (Fred Thompson) fired the blond A.D.A., and she asked out of the blue, “Is it because I am Gay?”. Where did that come from? There was never a doubt that she was a Liberal, but a Homosexual…gimme a break.
What really got to me, was when my nephews come to visit, naturally they watched cartoon shows, I could not believe how political so many of them are. I am aware the kids had no idea of what the political comments were about, but the fact they were even in the show is what got to me.
For their next visit, I had ordered six DVD’s of the older Warner Brothers cartoons, Dafffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner/Wilie Coyote, Yosemite Sam…ect. While with the newer toons, they just sat quietly and watched. When I showed them the older toons, they laughed wildly. We could here the laughter all the way from the Master Bedroom where they were watching.
I am a big reader, both fiction and non-fiction. I read all the Robert Ludlum books, such as the now famous Bourne Trilogy. In the movies, the “CIA to the top itself” who were the bad guys, in the books it was a rouge element working in the CIA who Bourne Exposed.
The Bourne Deception, The Bourne Sanction, The Bourne Legacy, The Bourne Betrayal, but they only made movies with “The Bourne Identity”, “The Bourne Supremacy”, and “The Bourne Ultimatum”.
The truth is, “The Matarese Circle” was most likly the best book Ludlum ever wrote. Ludlum got the idea of the Bourne Series of novels, in which an American counter-assassin and his nearly superhuman opponent, Carlos, confront in different parts of the world. The character of Carlos was partly based on the Venezuelan-born terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who in real life was captured in 1994 in Sudan. Carlos the Jackal has been linked to the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 and other acts of terrorism.
I just heard something on the news that just floored me, every time I think it cannot get worse, it does.
Tonight the Empire Stated Building, Communism will be honored by lighting up the building in Communist Red and Yellow, the lighting will stay up until Thursday. How utterly disgusting for allowing this to even be considered, much less that it actually is going to happen.
‘Writes Romero: “Toward the end of the episode, the assistant D.A. declares, ‘[I]t is not disloyal to hold our officials to the highest standards of conduct.’ Indeed. In fact, it is the epitome of loyalty and patriotism to do so. Now the question is, in real life, will Attorney General Holder rise to the occasion?”’
Here is an idea for an episode that you will never see. Jack and his minions clammer for AG Holder to hold Dodd, Frank, Wrangle, Clinton, ACORN, etc. to the highest standards of conduct.
What a joke.
American
Communists
League and
Union
Laws need to be changed to where the ACLU gets nothing for it’s illegal lawsuits. Make the liberals and Dems fund them from their own pockets. They need to be taken out under RICO statutes and prosecuted just like their ACORN counterparts.
The Patriot Act is what led to the capture and arrest of Najibullah Zazi and his father (airport shuttle driver), who has admitted receiving weapons training from al-Qaida, played a direct role in an a terror plot in N.Y. and other cities, the Cells goal was to kill more people than the 9/11 attack.
The Patriot Act is due to expire on December 31, 2009. It would be up to Obama to renew it for another 10 years before that deadline. He has said before, he does not think we need the Patriot Act, that all it does in to insult Muslims and the Islamic Faith.
“Stupid is, as Stupid does…”
As far as I am concerned, the ACLU should be completely disbanded.
And all those people who ACORN fired due to those five videos, why have there been no charges filed against them or ACORN. The de-funding of ACORN is expected to be Vetoed by Obama.
A very small background on ACORN:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104842
There are 361 Organizational ties to ACORN and SEIU.
Just another in a long list of left -leaning bias on this show. Not at all unexpected.