mad anthony

Rants, politics, and thoughts on politics, technology, life,
and stuff from a generally politically conservative Baltimoron.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Didn't really CAIR for that character...

I didn't watch the fourth season of 24 when it aired. However, one of my coworkers "aquired" it from a P2P service. I was initially impressed with the portrayal of the terrorists - finally, a show that admits that Muslim extremist terrorists do exist! Of course, I had heard that CAIR had complained about their portrayal, but I had to admit Fox had guts to make an acurate, if politically incorrect, presentation of religious-fueled terrorism.

Then I got further into it, where we encounter 2 middle eastern brothers who run a sporting goods shop who help Jack (the hero) out. They can't shut up about how much they love America, how much they hate terrorists, ect. We're talking sappier than a Vermont maple tree in fall. They make Toby Keith look like an unpatriotic bastard.

Now, I don't have a problem with making a point to put a Muslim character in there who is a good guy, as a reminder that most Muslims aren't terrorists. But this was laid on way too thick. It was totally preachy on a show that is never preachy. It totally ruined the experience, because it was obvious what political group the show producers were trying to appease, and that broke the third wall and destroyed the fiction of the show.

My other problem with shows in general is their general antibusiness slant. It's not bad enough that WalMart, McDonalds, and the rest are often vilified in the real world for everything from trash to unemployment to fat people. In TV and the movies, companies and their corporate leaders are willing to kill for a buck. How many episodes of Law and Order did they go after a company either for some sort of horrid negligence that resulted in death, or for flat out having someone killed? 24 stretches this even more - a defense contractor is not only willing to sell weapons to terrorists to make money, but have their own army on hand that tries to kill multiple federal agents.

So how come when 24 has the nerve to portray the existence of radical Muslim terrorists, CAIR gets on their case, but when businessmen are shown time after time as evil cold-blooded murderers, nobody bats an eye? Maybe it's time for the Chamber of Commerce to take a page from the Council on American Islamic Relations and start protesting some TV shows. Maybe we'll get a pair of sobbing corporate execs talking about how much they love their customers, not like those jerk CEO's who are murders but are a small portion of CEO's.

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