NBC leaves a bad “Aftertaste”
The NYPost asked me yesterday to cover the controversy over an episode of NBC’s TV show, “Medium,” in which a character playing an Arizona state senator/POW turns out be a…murdering cannibal. Here’s the column online. Also printing here with hyperlinks. Kristin Fyfe at MRC/Newsbusters has more analysis and clips from the show. Any “Medium” fans out there who want to chime in? Leave comments or e-mail.
***
Lib-TV Cannibal Lecture
Michelle Malkin
Special to the NYPost
What is it with Hollyweird? Is there such a galactic vacuum of talent and creativity in the entertainment world that prime-time TV can’t be produced without pilfering the biography of the GOP presidential contender for empty anti-Republican, anti-military titillation?
I’m talking about the latest episode of the NBC show “Medium.”
On Monday, the “psychic crime drama” set in Phoenix featured a plot involving a senior Arizona state senator and former prisoner of war who turns out to be a murderous cannibal.
The producers should have just gone ahead and flashed “FEAR John McCain” subliminally every 10 seconds throughout the show. Or Photoshopped McCain’s head onto Hannibal Lecter for promos.
Those would have been far more subtle.
The McCain-esque character, a politician named Jed Garrity, as played by actor Gregory Itzin, is suspected of murder by the main character, medium Allison Du Bois. Her psychic flashbacks lead her to discover that “Garrity” enlisted his fellow POWs at a North Vietnamese camp in a morbid scheme to kill a dying American soldier for food and prevent the rest of them from starving to death. The POWs drew straws to pick who would commit the dastardly deed. Garrity had the bad luck.
Decades later, a survivor threatens to spill the beans on what they had done, and Garrity engineers a new plot to kill the whistle blower. The conspirators chop his body into pieces and bury them. Another of the veterans cracks, however, and con fesses to the police. But Garrity escapes accountability because the confessor claims he acted alone.
Kristen Fyfe of the Culture and Media Institute points out the final slur: Garrity justifies the second murder by arguing that he and the other POW killers, unlike the victim, “had all made something of their lives and, by so doing, honored the ‘legacy’ of the man they ate while prisoners of war. The unwritten and unspoken message is clear: The ex-POW Arizona senator is sleazy and opportunistic.”
The episode’s title was “Aftertaste.” And it should leave a bad one in the mouths of viewers of all political stripes.
What was the point of melding McCain’s biographical details into the show? The plot, such as it was, would have worked just as well if Garrity had been a banker or mayor.
The likely effect may be less to persuade potential McCain voters to turn against him than to deepen the existing animosity to the military in pop culture.
Soldier-as-victim and soldier-as-monster narratives dominate TV. NBC’s “Law & Order,” “Las Vegas” and “ER” have all featured vets as torturers or tortured souls driven to murder or hallucinations. So have ABC’s “Boston Legal,” CBS’s “Criminal Minds,” “Jericho” and “CSI: Miami.”
On the boob tube and the silver screen, American heroes in uniform are the exception, not the rule. That “Medium” fell into the same, anti-military drumbeat is troubling and puzzling. The show’s executive producer, Kelsey Grammer, is one of Hollywood’s rare Republicans.
A viewer of “Medium” vented on an Internet message board: “The Monday night episode of ‘Medium,’ charmingly titled ‘Aftertaste,’ was clearly a swipe at McCain, whom I do not support, but this sneaking anti-Republican propaganda into what is supposed to be ‘entertainment’ is getting very old and annoying.
“The producers of ‘Medium’ apparently must think we’re all idiots and can be easily manipulated into hating Vietnam veterans who were POWs and thinking that Sen. McCain is an evil, heartless cannibal. I happen to oppose John McCain on his too-liberal political stands, but I respect his military service, and find this attempt by some Hollywood twerps . . . to pointedly demean that service with a ridiculous plot portraying Vietnam War POWs as cannibals, to be a very good reason to cease bothering to tune in ‘Medium.’ At this point, TV viewing, in general, is becoming a burden I can easily do without.”
For a permanent palate cleanser, click “Off” on the remote control. In the meantime, contemplate this:
What would happen to an executive producer and a network that broadcast a show with a plot involving, say, a blond, hyper-ambitious female New York senator who murders one of her close political confidants to prevent him from spilling the beans on her shady business dealings – and enlists her staff to hide his body parts in their freezers to evade an FBI probe?
You don’t need to be a psychic to anticipate the massive political and media backlash that would ensue.
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Categories: Hollyweird
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This is just part of the smear program the NYT started. Hollyweird stepping in to do their part.
As I posted at Newsbusters:
“Awesome… they should do the other episode about a black Illinois senator named Barney Hoosier O’Donnel who got so screwed up off of cocaine while in college that he raped some poor homeless woman and then after being elected to the state legislature found out she had a kid… So he ends up having both of them killed and to alleviate his guilt went on another coke bender in his limo and picked up a man for oral sex (no chance of having a kid from that).
No one could possibly object to this entirely fictional work, right?”
Two reactions:
1. More evidence that I miss nothing by not watching network TV. Give Michelle a program. I’ll watch that.
2. I wouldn’t worry about any negative impact on voters; anyone who confuses a contrived and trite plot for a TV show with a living person probably isn’t someone who is going to vote, anyway.
But that isn’t outlandish fiction!
Yes, I have seen this again and again.
I actually like Law & Order a great deal and watch it often.
However, they do tend to piss me off everytime they have anything even remotely connected to the military.
The guy that plays “Munch” is especially an a**hat. I understand he is very liberal in RL and I have a feeling he ad-libs, or asks to inject his views into the script.
Unbelievable.
Where’s all of McCain’s news media friends when he needs them? They’d never backstab HIM now, would they?
If there is one opinion that has been reinforced in me this year, it’s that you should not underestimate the stupidity of the electorate.
.. or will vote Democrat anyway. We can only hope they won’t vote.
How sad is it that you can’t even turn on your television and be entertained anymore? Everything has a politicized or liberal message attached to it. Is it because these people behind the scenes aren’t that creative or is there truly a bias out there… somewhere?
I had to fix that headline.
I don’t Regulus, there are some pretty stupid people out there who watch this tripe. When I was in high school my US Government teacher bragged how he took the “dregs of society”-his words to our class-to register to vote in Chicago, of course as a Dim, then would round them up and take them to vote and for a nice hot meal when they were finished at the polls.
For me it’s the constant drum beat of anti-military stories on tv. Fewer people serve today and fewer have any close friends or relatives who do serve so they don’t really have any positive influences about the military in many ways.
I am a bit surprised at Kelsey Grammar myself. But this isn’t one show I ever watched anyway-the only show I watch on NBC is “The Office” and it stinks this year so don’t know how much longer I’m going to watch that.
I remember though they used to do the same thing after the Viet Nam war with crazy, lunatic military person killing people, wreaking havoc on the population at large. I guess it’s the same story again, different war.
Look out. Hollyweird is on the move. While this isn’t out of character for them, it rather bold, even for them. Of course, it is a presidential campaign year and they have to do all they can to help the home team (i.e. Democrats).
Khyris, was the guy he picked up named Zesco?
I agree…
Can someone reading get Michelle on the air?
And I disagree…
It bolsters misguided minds…. makes them think that they were right in their delusional thoughts.
Nah, nobody’d buy that. Now if they found his body in a park someplace……
I never watched medium, and I am certain now that I never will.
To be fair, I don’t like John McCain because of all of his liberalisms, but this went over the top.
#5 On March 6th, 2008 at 11:46 am, zeroangel said:
“The guy that plays “Munch” is especially an a**hat. I understand he is very liberal in RL and I have a feeling he ad-libs, or asks to inject his views into the script.”
Agreed, and I would not be surprised if you’re correct.
Richard Belzer (”Munch”) is spectacularly annoying; and is a singularly unfunny comedian (the way he started, I believe).
…I want to see an episode made about a female New York Senator, who, while first lady of, oh, I don’t know, perhaps Arkansas, orders and partakes in multiple murders of political associates, while trying to coverup her husbands penchant for obtaining BJ’s from dim-witted women, and an addiction to cocaine?
Man, would that be an episode…and hey, no names have to be mentioned! The character could be named “Helena ‘Ramrod’ Clarion” or something like that…
Par for the course. No surprise here. Expect more of this as we get closer to the General Election.
I’d say as soon as the Dems decide which stinker they want to run against McCain, you’ll see a massive increase in Vietnam Vet/POW/Pedophile/Rapist/Criminal episodes out there.
Real subtle.
granite:
Another “Law & Order” story arc that pisses me off is some variation of the following:
1) Bad guy does something bad.
2) It is somehow determined the bad guy is not bad and not at fault because he is crazy or mentally ill.
3) Some health professional of some kind is found to be at fault.
4) A CEO is ultimately arrested / sued.
5) “Munch” makes some stupid comment that makes me want to smack him.
Granite & Zero, a year or so ago that idiot Munch from L & O was on that idiot HBO show with the other a$$hat. Anyway, he said something about knowing more about what’s going on in Iraq then those who were there because “reads the papers”. I believe Newsbusters runs it pretty regularly and it’s in their archives.
Also, Belzer appears in the “Mike & the Mechanics” video of “Taken In” from the 1990’s. I remember when he first showed up on “Homocide-Life on the Streets”, my boyfriend at the time (who was a big Mike & the Mechanics fan) said “that’s that guy from that video”. Sure enough it was.
To paraphrase Monty Python: ” I object! I most strenuously object. I know a number of politicians, and very few of them are cannibals.”
I watched that episode and had the same reaction: why are they depicting an Arizona senator and former POW as a psychopath? The plot did not require it, and it seemed like the same old sad “vets are damaged goods” idea…
Wouldn’t it have been more relevant if the cannibalistic cabal were all former contestants on “Survivor” or “America’s Top Chef”?
NBC is renowned for using liberalism in its weekly television dramas. Recall that Law & Order is ferociously liberal. There was one episode in LAw & Order in which the show featured a gang of Israeli murderers and terrorists. Not Arab or Muslim terrorists. That could never happen in real life. Instead Law & Order presented Israelis as thugs and killers. West Wing has presented every Republican as a goon, bigot and moron. There was one exception however. On one episode, the Republican realized that he could not remain humane and decent and Repubican at the same time so he realized the error of his ways and abandoned the Republican Party.
I’ve given up on several network TV programs I once watched because political propaganda and personal crap seem to be replacing plot lines in most mystery/crime dramas.
It only took me a few minutes of Medium before I said to my spouse, this isn’t a typical Medium plot, it’s a blatant attack on John McCain.
As much as I despise John McCain, the anti-Constitution faux Republican, this episode of Medium was an outrage.
Perhaps someone with more time than I have should start building a web site that catalogs the biases programs like this and their writers and producers so we can focus attention on the propagandists involved.
Ahhhh…at long last the Writers Strike is over…
The more things change… the more they stay the same..
It’s just the leftwing entertainment/media industry bringing out the same old song they used to smear Vietnam Vets, conservatives, and anyone else they didn’t like forty years ago. Same tune… updated lyrics.
You’d think people would wise up and turn that trash off, but there are always those who buy it!
And that was in 1976. My how we have progressed.
Did the Vietnam flashback scene also show the heroic rescue of the doomed POWs by a young, handsome, dashing Navy Lieutenant named Juan Heinz Carey who drove his swift boat all the way into downtown Hanoi .50 cals blazing, subdued all of the prison guards (with non-lethal force), and, despite his nearly mortal wounds, carried all of the POWs to safety? Strange, since was all captured on film by a fearless and intrepid young cub reporter named Don Wather, who just happened to be a stowaway on that sift boat.
I have to admit I have never heard of this show. My television is pretty much cable by choice. Then it is even more limited. The Sci Fi, Discovery, Science, Cartoon Network, American BBC, Altitude Sports (where I can watch the Avalance, Nuggets, And Mamoth). Last is Fox News. I do not even bother to watch local channels for news as the Internet pretty much gets me to local news web sites.
I am not surprised at this however. Any chance the liberals can take and slander or hint of dubious activites by anyone who has a R by their name they will do it.
I wouldn’t worry about it…NBC’s ratings are lower than Air America. Their political bias has been exposed many times recently (even by one of their own programs – SNL). No one with a brain would even watch much less be influenced. Anyone who would is not a conservative anyway.
In retrospect, I’m surprised NBC didn’t broadcast “Fahrenheit 9/11″ right before the ‘04 election!
I find NBC’s actions hard to stomach. After digesting the reports on Medium, I think it is fair to say that it was their intent to crap on McCain.
While many of us will find the program’s theme hard to swallow, there are people out there who will be impacted by its message.
NBC should be probed for airing this bile. At a minimum, they should be required to disgorge any ad revenues they received from airing the program. There needs to be some movement at NBC to stop the running of such programs in the future.
Great column Michelle.
The broadcast networks (and most cable networks) are just disgusting. A bunch of no talent media whores to paraphrase one of them. I haven’t watch broadcast since Moby Dick was a minnow. The rare occasions I do tune in, it’s to watch Steeler football or Formula One and that’s about it.
On cable, FNC (mostly when you give us the “Where in the World” heads up) and Star Trek Enterprise. The Food network every now and then as well. Other than that, weather, local news etc. all comes off the web. To hell with Hollyweird, all their no talent actors, writers, producers and audiences. Most are traitors and have more in common with Adam Yahiye Gadahn than with the rest of us.
Actually it would have been more to real life if Garrity and friends had all turned out to be blood sucking personal injury lawyers, having acquired a taste in POW camp.
More generally, Hollyweird has had open season on white males for about 20 years now. In movies and prime time shows, white men are the bad guys in, what is it, 98% of all shows? Or is it 99%? Or even 100.0%. Michelle’s point applies, for many of those stories if you made a woman or black man/woman the nemesis, it would cause a scandal. But white guys are OK to use.
Similarly, if Hollyweird wants to confer an unambiguously good character in a show, they use a black man, or even better, a black woman. The audience knows these are uncorruptably good characters. In the old days, the good guy wore a white hat, the bad guy black. Today we can judge them by the color of their skin, the good guys have black skin, the bad guys white. Thanks, Hollyweird.
So there is one job sector in which white males still enjoy unchallenged primacy — the role of bad guys in Hollyweird movies and TV shows. When is the ACLU going to step forward and demand an end to this bastion of privilege, and that blacks and women should play these roles in proportion to their actual incidence in real life? Ha!
Here is that Newsbusters link with that idiot Belzer:
http://www.newsbusters.org/node/4503\
Write to NBC and any sponsors you know of and tell them you are through with their anti-American ideology; and will not buy products from companies supporting this behavior.
Bereft of talent, the Hollywood perverts will steal whatever they can and fabricate the rest to impugn their favorite political foil.
Hollywood=Acne of the mind and soul.
medium? Never even heard of the show. Waiting for the MLB ticket to start again.
The true title “Swiftboat Retalitation” would allow the poorly educated liberals know the true reason for producing the show.
By using “Aftertaste” the Hollyweird people know the poorly educated liberals will believe it is a true story and keep it alive until the elections.
Tell a lie, repeat it millions of times, and even some of those that know it’s a lie will start to believe it.
Never heard of the show myself and won’t be in a big hurry to tune in either. Could we ask the writers in Hollyweird to please go back on strike? You think they could do better with all the time off they had during the strike.
It’s no longer just the networks that exhibit this type of bias hate. The cable channels are doing it also. National Geographic channel has produced 3 programs in which mankind goes extinct and the animals flourish while buildings crumble,(they drool over the thought.) The History channel’s Gangland series features outlaw bikers and white supremasist groups along with black gangs such as the Crips & Bloods far more often than Latino gangs which are growing at an alarming rate. The Discovery channel and TLC preach global warming catastrophe scenarios and impending doom as fact.
And to top it all off, Direct TV has moved LOGO, the gay & lesbian channel smack dab inthe middle of the educational channels, where any child flipping through the channels may see acts of perversion.
It’s time for people to quit watching and start reading again.
Not having ever watched a Medium episode I qualify as not being a Medium fan. In addition to that I can say I know nothing of the Medium’s political preferences. But I can ask does McSame remind the viewer of the state senator/POW turned murdering cannibal or does the same such remind the viewer of McSame (could McSame actually be McFaux). Possibly being upset that the episode is disrespectful of the military is a self imposed consternation. What ever, just another Medium episode I won’t see. Another blind spot of mine in this political spectrum is Lost. Shows on my political radar but I can not stand to watch: bald face ugly Bill Maher. What a waste of my HBO dollar. And Press the Meet Tim Russert (he could tame his eye popping stare with a little thyroid regiment).
I don’t believe anyone mentioned it yet [probably because no one watches the program], but I’d suggest we determine who the show’s advertisers are and let them have it with both barrels. The only time the “Hollywood Halfwits” think through their actions is when they take a beating in the wallet. The fact that they’ve marginalized fully half the U. S. population just doesn’t seem to resonate.
I’m happy to say I don’t watch any of the shows mentioned, one of the reasons being that I got fed up way back when I realized that their “theme” was always somehow left-wing and the actors are overwhelmingly liberals.
I started to give a new show a chance a few months ago, but stopped on the first one, when one of the characters referred to another sleazy character (in reference to him groping a boy) “he’s probably a Republican”.
Another fictional show recently had a character recruiting for some fictional position, say something like “no drop-outs, no…this or that, and definitely no Republicans”.
Remember the one O’Reilly pointed out in some show where the father said he would rather have Madeline Albright as a role model for his daughter than Condi Rice?
When I watch a show on the Discovery Channel on the war on terror, I usually end up switching to another channel after a few minutes, because they manage to slant it in the direction of apologizing, appeasing, etc.
Anyone else following the story about NBCs “To Catch a Predator” has resulted in a lawsuit against the network and against Chris Hansen?
Apparently some perv DA in Texas blew his brains out after being caught on camera looking for sex with a 13 year old boy.
Now the sister of the perv is suing for millions, and the presiding judge decided the case had merit and would go to a jury trial.
NothingButCrap
Another reason why we don’t watch regular TV. Nonsensical Bias Crap. Even cable educational channels, like MadChef said, are starting to show very bias, ridiculous shows. And, educational, sport shows are what we watch. Some of those shows are nothing more than “infomercials” promoting someone’s theories to get more grant money or sell a book. It’s the old, “We’re all going to die. Send money” routine. Maybe I’ll teach my wife how to play “gin” or “bridge”, for the evenings.
What would happen to an executive producer and a network that broadcast a show with a plot involving, say, a blond, hyper-ambitious female New York senator who murders one of her close political confidants ?
Manchurian Candidate already did it.
Is “Medium” a TV show? Huh… never watched it, now I never plan to.
Let market forces rule.
C’mon peeee-pulllllll! Let’s get this right. Cash goes in the freezer; bodies go in Ft. Marcy Park. Throw me a bone, people.
The problem there is that it might NOT be all fiction.
Clinton Body Count …google it.
Like many here I’ve never seen the show. But it’s about what I expect from the big 3.
What really kills me is when I see the bias start to show up on my old fave, the History Channel.
Back around President’s Day they were doing a bit on George Washington. The “expert” was commenting on the fact that Washington was offered the post of president for life. He then said that Washington declined it. At that point he HAD to make the comment, and I paraphrase, “…can you imagine Nixon giving up his post voluntarily?”.
Right mojoe, the History Channel just can’t help itself either. They’re really big on pushing th “global warming” hoax, too.
I can live with a senator who chomps down a little “monkey meat” not and then, as long as he isn’t pro-illegal alien.
NBC is the same network that gave us the Dateline program with the fake exploding GM truck. Remember that NBC News put explosives under the GM car and then lied and said the GM cars are prone to explosion. This is the same NBC News whose reporters were apoplectic when the US Supreme Court overturned the FLorida Supreme Court and Bush became prez.
I saw the episode and was appalled. I would not have believed its implications were it not for the steady leftward tilt of the entire series. It’s off the Tivo.
My “favorite” such episode was Cold Case which showed a Japanese-American family in WWII and their son’s best friend, white boy Skippy. Of course Skippy, a military man, ended up murdering his friend while the family languished in camps run by sadistic white soldiers. It’s always the white Skippys, right?
And Jericho is almost laughable now: the teacher all in a tizzy about the new government forcing them to teach that we lost in Vietnam because we were weak.
How have we survived this onslaught of propanda? It’s a miracle.
On March 6th, 2008 at 11:40 am, Regulus said:
Two reactions:
1. ,,,
2. I wouldn’t worry about any negative impact on voters; anyone who confuses a contrived and trite plot for a TV show with a living person probably isn’t someone who is going to vote, anyway.
What is so very amazing to me is that the “filim” industry seems to really, truly, honestly believe that they are so special and inspired that we, the dumb people, will be affected by these shows. They really seem to believe we are all complete morons.
On March 6th, 2008 at 4:55 pm, Pat said:
How have we survived this onslaught of propanda? It’s a miracle.
We have survived it because we are not the complete utter total morons “they” believe we are.
FDR would be a better example..
The only president to have a constitutional amendment tailor made just for him (term limits)
Two thoughts
1. The writer’s strike may be over, but my understanding is we are still watching stories written before the strike. Not that it really changes anything, but the strike doesn’t help.
2. The actor who played the Senator on Medium (which I have never seen) played the only President on 24 to turn out to be a villain.
I watched the show a couple of times and I thought it was boring and dumb. I’m more of a “Ghost Whisperer” type of guy. Yeah, Jennifer Love Hewitt is hot to us guys, but it’s a good show.
Oh goody, I love it when we get Sandy Pants Burglar doing his Hitchcock impression.
dialog:
H: What has it in it’s pockets?
S: I’m just happy to see you.
H: Then what’s in its socks?
S: You don’t want to see… You do?
On March 6th, 2008 at 12:52 pm, rooster said:
Not only that, but write to your local NBC affiliate and their advertisers.
Local stations/affiliates lack NBC’s financial resources and can ill-afford to offend members of the community they serve – especially their advertisers, many of whom are likely to share your views on this issue; I guarantee, a little pressure on the affiliates will get NBC’s attention quicker than a love note from the DNC!
How about somebody compile a list of all the advertisers of the program, and the contact information. And then we flood those advertisers who do not cancel all advertising. At least with that production company, or maybe NBC entire.
Remember their series on Islam and the Crusades? That was one of the most infuriating pieces of pro-Islamist propaganda I’ve ever seen. I didn’t watch the History Channel for about a year after that. Tariq Ali explaining Islam and Christianity? Excuse me while I barf.
…………Remember Vince Foster?,…….anyone?
Prime time television – - and the re-runs that run from day to night just in case you missed the first one – - have been trashing the US and any values that run counter to the leftist ideals for a very long time.
When NYPD begins with the character involving a Catholic priest, you know how he will be depicted before 5 minutes into the show..a pediphile and hypocrit. Never mind that the overwhelming majority of priests or very good men who spend their lives helping the poor and unfortunates of this world. In most cases I could anticipate and write the dialog for these shows.
If the show involves abortion you of course know that it will involve a ‘right wing nut’ that shoots doctors at Planned Parenthood. And, if there are guns involved, it’s almost always the fault of a gun dealer upstate and what a rotten guy he is because he sold the gun that killed the victim.
The Daily show, that so-called ’satirical’ political production, is obvious in their politics. Jon Stewart is no Mark Twain, just a little man who wants to change the US with his irresponsible rhetoric, masked as satire.
Of course, there’s the Lifetime channel — the ‘men are horrible’ channel that blames all the problems of the world on white males. Men are depicted as rapists, murders, violent SOB’s and the women are always victims.
I almost forgot the most important left-leaning network – - PBS – “Public television’ – with ‘no commercials’ funded in part by your tax dollars.
It is time that people recognize propaganda when they see it and turn it off. Let your cable company know that you want ‘choice’ in what you allow into your house; meaning ala carte channels that you choose. And you can leave out those that you find offensive. Maybe then you will begin to see productions that are worth watching.
It’s called “Medium” for a reason. If it was any good it could have been ‘Large’
Like the others, I have never wasted time viewing this. I’d much rather see reruns of Stargate SG-1 or The Dresden Files.
I watched this episode from start to finish and the connection to McCain never occurred to me. So I would have to say that if it was intentional it certainly wasn’t made very obvious.
However, I remember at one point asking my wife if the show took place in Arizona. She’s a fan of the show and watches semi-regularly. I’ve seen probably fewer than 10 episodes. But the point is, there must have been something in the show that made me notice for the first time that it took place in Arizona. Coincidence? I don’t know.
But given the speech that the Arizona senator makes at the end of the show, this idea that it was a McCain smear really makes no sense. It was a thoughtful and, as hard to believe as it may be given what this character was guilty of, a rather persuasive explanation of why he wasn’t much of a villian at all. In fact he ends up coming off pretty well.