TV portrays protesters as faceless rabble while police are bestowed with humanity - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 06-06-2020, 06:24 AM

https://www.salon.com/2020/06/03/pro...r-cbs-nbc-hbo/

Portrayals of protesters in scripted shows play a big role in viewers dismissing real-life demonstrations as chaotic and violent, says Melanie McFarland. That's why peaceful protesters are often seen in a negative light, indistinguishable from rioters and looters, even when it's the police who are rioting. McFarland points to Edie Falco's recently canceled CBS freshman drama Tommy, which kicks off with her hard-nosed chief of police character calmly and authoritatively asserting herself amid protesters "who are basically the human version of a house fire into which Falco's character can bravely charge." Shows like Westworld and Mr. Robot have also portrayed protesters as threats. "Contrast this to how recent days have filled our screens and our eyes with visions of armored and armed police officers spraying protesters with rubber bullets, running into them with vehicles, flinging them to the pavement like rag dolls or yanking them from cars as they taser them into submission," says McFarland. "The world witnesses this alongside buildings burning, corporate logos vandalized, and faceless looters of indeterminate identity breaking into chain boutiques and big box stores and helping themselves to merchandise. Predictably in uninformed conversations about these acts of civil disobedience disrupting life, it is the protesters and the movements associated with them that take some reflexive blame for any destruction that accompanies their demonstrations. It doesn't take a SpaceX engineer to come up with reasons as to why that is, besides years upon years of quick-hit, slapdash TV news coverage of protests and the movements that inspired them. But a portion of blame rests in how protests and protesters are portrayed within scripted series, be they comedies or procedurals. If the audience can't define a peaceful act of civil disobedience turned violent by outside agitators from a mindless riot, that may be due to the fact that our primetime dramas and the odd half-hour comedy fails to find much of a distinction between one and another. On prime time, TV demonstrations are unruly obstacles for heroes to exploit to their own ends or navigate in order to discover their main mission. They're dangerous distractions from workaday normalcy or an excuse for aimless kids to break glass or deface property."

06-06-2020, 06:24 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 124,453	TV portrays protesters as faceless rabble while police are bestowed with humanity https://www.salon.com/2020/06/03/pro...r-cbs-nbc-hbo/ Portrayals of protesters in scripted shows play a big role in viewers dismissing real-life demonstrations as chaotic and violent, says Melanie McFarland. That's why peaceful protesters are often seen in a negative light, indistinguishable from rioters and looters, even when it's the police who are rioting. McFarland points to Edie Falco's recently canceled CBS freshman drama Tommy, which kicks off with her hard-nosed chief of police character calmly and authoritatively asserting herself amid protesters "who are basically the human version of a house fire into which Falco's character can bravely charge." Shows like Westworld and Mr. Robot have also portrayed protesters as threats. "Contrast this to how recent days have filled our screens and our eyes with visions of armored and armed police officers spraying protesters with rubber bullets, running into them with vehicles, flinging them to the pavement like rag dolls or yanking them from cars as they taser them into submission," says McFarland. "The world witnesses this alongside buildings burning, corporate logos vandalized, and faceless looters of indeterminate identity breaking into chain boutiques and big box stores and helping themselves to merchandise. Predictably in uninformed conversations about these acts of civil disobedience disrupting life, it is the protesters and the movements associated with them that take some reflexive blame for any destruction that accompanies their demonstrations. It doesn't take a SpaceX engineer to come up with reasons as to why that is, besides years upon years of quick-hit, slapdash TV news coverage of protests and the movements that inspired them. But a portion of blame rests in how protests and protesters are portrayed within scripted series, be they comedies or procedurals. If the audience can't define a peaceful act of civil disobedience turned violent by outside agitators from a mindless riot, that may be due to the fact that our primetime dramas and the odd half-hour comedy fails to find much of a distinction between one and another. On prime time, TV demonstrations are unruly obstacles for heroes to exploit to their own ends or navigate in order to discover their main mission. They're dangerous distractions from workaday normalcy or an excuse for aimless kids to break glass or deface property."