Law & Order

A reader writes:

My husband and I have been watching NBC's Law and Order series (up to three versions a week now) for a number of years. We enjoy seeing good prevail over evil in police detective shows.

One series of Law and Order, SVU (Special Victims Unit) featured "Abomination" which turned out to be a whole hour of sympathy for homosexual victims of homophobia. It was complete with an ugly, old hate-spewing preacher and his followers uttering curses at the funeral of the gay victim. It was so "over the top" that I wrote NBC to complain. Do the writers ever consider that they may be creating a backlash against their own pet "victims?"

Two weeks later we watched the Wednesday Law and Order (we had taped it so I don't have the date). It concerned a Geraldo Rivera-type reporter who was shot outside a bar. He was a loud-mouth publicity seeker, who had been embedded in the war and gave away troop movements on TV leading to the death of three US soliders. One of the dead soldiers' comrades was home for a family funeral and was accused of the shooting. It turned out that the reporter had himself shot as a publicity stunt. Yet, he was given many opportunities to insist that he was in the right because he was bringing Americans the truth about the war. The detectives and prosecutors used every occasion to bad-mouth the war and "the Dude at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave."

We now have added "Law and Order" to "The Practice" as shows we will no longer watch. Today I will write another letter to NBC and also to the sponsors of the last show. It may have no effect, but if people begin to turn off politically offensive TV, maybe they will change what they produce. We can hope.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/04/03 08:21:02 PM
Categorized as Media.