Coming into the Thanksgiving holiday, TV turns to the usual: The Detroit Lions being inflicted on a national TV audience, Charlie Brown reminding us of the holiday’s origins, wall-to-wall Black Friday sale ads… and the sanctification of abortion.
Wait — say what?
That’s right. Television’s hottest producer, Shonda Rhimes, creator of the overrated Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder, jumped her 10th shark in Scandal’s last episode before Thanksgiving. But this one was bigger than Bruce from Jaws.
[SPOILER ALERTS GALORE]
Rhimes not only had the main character, who was impregnated by the president of the United States, get an abortion, it was presented as a sacramental experience.
As scandal-fixer Olivia Pope went through the procedure, “Silent Night” was played as the soundtrack. You know, killing the president’s bastard is akin to the birth of Christ, right? Later, she is sitting satisfied, relieved and happy in her apartment, sipping wine to “Ave Maria.”
This did not go unnoticed in either the conservative or liberal media, with justified outrage on one side — including this petition drive by Live Action demanding an apology from ABC/Disney — and rapturous praise from Planned Parenthood.
The show also stacked the deck by piling on the storyline of a righteous Republican stand-in for Texas fraud Wendy Davis filibustering against her own party against the funding of Planned Parenthood being “moved to discretionary spending” (even though in real life it is, of course) — because life is just like an Aaron Sorkin fantasy. My mind was reeling on this point. So, Planned Parenthood spending is an entitlement? Like Social Security? (Alexa Moutevelis fisks this very nicely at Newsbusters, here.)
But while Scandal spends its time reinforcing the world view of the Hollywood elite — even at the expense of the facts — prime time TV’s other show dealing with politics — The Good Wife — takes great delight in having its upper-crust Chicago Democrat characters confronted with the contradictions in their ideals.
Courtesy AP Images
The Good Wife has tackled abortion before. In season two, a pro-choice activist sued her insurance company to do an expensive and experimental surgical procedure on her unborn baby. The show questioned the idea that the fetus was granted personhood by the mother, not by its inherent nature, and ended with the breathtaking image of a tiny hand gripping the surgeon’s finger during surgery.
Later, culturally and reflexively pro-choice Alicia was also stunned to find out that her son’s girlfriend had an abortion — parental notification laws do not extend to the parents of the father.
In Sunday night’s episode, Diane Lockhart, a prominently liberal attorney, is put in the position of defending a pro-life group which secretly taped an abortionist selling baby parts. (Only South Park has been more up to date than The Good Wife this season.)
Diane, who almost became an Illinois Supreme Court justice backed by the Democratic Party, is actively pro-abortion. But she is also passionate about the Constitution (and married to a Tea Party activist/firearms/forensic expert. The feminist got weak in the knees when she met the Marlboro Man).
On a hunting trip with her husband, she met a conservative billionaire (who funds landmark lawsuits), who loved their arguments so much he hired her to play devil’s advocate to his cases.
After an opening argument where Diane and the attorney from the conservative groups played by Peter Gallagher have a spirited, fair and intelligent argument over abortion and what the videos mean (shocking enough on television today), Diane is sucked into personally arguing the case when a judge tramples all over the First Amendment to stop the showing of the videos.
And it doesn’t stop there. Throughout the show, Diane is pressured by allies, clients, friends and even the judge in a blatantly illegal ex parte conference, to drop the case. But while she is opposed to her client’s aims, the more she is pressured, of course, the harder Diane fights for her client’s right to speak.
In light of Black Lives Matter and the University of Missouri, the only thing more relevant to puncturing the veil of liberal fascism than the selling of baby body parts is the suppression of speech by illiberal liberals.
Outrageously, CBS decided in a show about how liberals are willing to sacrifice the First Amendment to further the cause of unlimited abortion rights, to warn people their sensibilities might be hurt if they watch the show!
In a barely PG chapter of The Good Wife, CBS ran a content warning about “Content intended for a mature audience.”
Caution: This program contains truth that might make liberals squirm!
They did not do this the week before when a fairly explicit husband and wife quickie happened in the middle of the show, nor last year when a main character was killed in a bloody shootout in a Chicago courtroom.
But a re-creation of the undercover videos taken of Planned Parenthood “doctors” casually discussing how they harvest baby parts and manipulate abortion procedure to get a better grip? Even though it was far less explicit and graphic than many of the original tapes? We better warn people about that!
This had nothing to do with sensibilities. This was cowardice, pure and simple. CBS execs folded in advance to the kind of pressure that Diane Lockhart stood up to in the show.
Near the beginning of the show, the conservative lawyer tells Diane that Americans only support abortion if they don’t have to face the fact of it.
Diane’s reply: “The majority of Americans only support anything if they don’t have to face the fact of it.”
The CBS standards department proved her point.
So, if you liberals seeks a “safe space,” Scandal is the spot for you. The Good Wife is apt to hurt your feelings — especially since the developing back story is leading to a showdown about Chicago Democrats stealing a statewide election.
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