NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" has consistency working in its favor: the biggest "victims" are its depictions of conservatives and Christians.
Part of "SVU's" appeal is its ripped-from-the-headlines storylines, but the program's writers frequently use these storylines to promote liberal agendas and to bash Christians.
Three different episodes have aired since February 10 and all promoted a liberal agenda. In the past month, audiences saw Christians portrayed as kinky sex addicts and murderers, heard propaganda that supports the idea of special punishment for hate crimes based on sexual orientation, and heard the detectives on the show refer to the abortion debate as "pro-choice or no choice."
"Law & Order: SVU" is a spin-off of the long-running "Law & Order" series. Actress Mariska Hargitay and actor Christopher Meloni star as Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler in the program, which follows the cases of the NYPD's Special Victim Unit. Detectives in this unit focus on sex crimes. According to NBC, the show "has received numerous citation from community-based organizations for the social issues it tackles."
Just like its sister programs, which have repeatedly slammed businessmen and conservatives, "SVU" takes its shots at traditional values and promotes liberal solutions to the "social issues it tackles."
Christians in Hollywood: Closet Perverts with Murderous Tendencies
On March 3, NBC aired back-to-back episodes of "SVU," for double the liberal bias.
One of them, "Savior," focused on a killer who left prayer cards on the bodies of the prostitutes he murdered, and who's final words to the victims were, "Are you ready to meet your Father?" Ultimately, the killer turned out to be a lay minister.
This story arc allowed "SVU" writers to portray Christians as hypocrites, perverts and murderers.
In solving the case, evidence led Benson and Stabler to Mike Gallagher, a man whose wife claimed he had turned his life around after finding God. Viewers found out how far from the Christian life he had strayed after DNA evidence linked him to a murdered prostitute. His outward religious beliefs increased the scrutiny of him because of the prayer cards present at the murder scenes.
Gallagher first revealed in an interview with Stabler that he had a "thing" for young girls. Later, he told Stabler his wife was a "prude" and that "it's not a crime to want a little variety in [his] sex life" before admitting to trolling the Internet to find women who would satisfy his desires, which included "toys, role play and threesomes." And apparently, choking women and putting guns to their heads while having sex.
The portrayals of Christians got worse once Benson and Stabler tracked down the real culprit, Billy Skaggs.
During an interrogation, Skaggs told Stabler "There is a better life waiting for girls like her [the murdered prostitute] in heaven," that "God put [him] on this earth to fight Satan's grip on these girls' souls" and "Sometimes dying is better than living."
"Whoever did this isn't a murderer," Skaggs insisted. "Whoever did this sent these girls to heaven out of love."
Just to reinforce the notion that Skaggs was a lay minister, the character spouted Scripture verses during a line up and a court hearing that he believed justified his murderous actions.
"What more shall by done to you? Sharp arrows of the warrior, deliver my soul to my father from a lying deceitful tongue," he paraphrased from Psalm 120 while in the line up. He continued from Hosea 13:16, "They shall fall by the sword, their infants dashed to pieces, and their women with child ripped open."
During the court hearing, this "Christian" man screamed at the young prostitute who identified him, "Satan has penetrated you 13,000 times you whore! God demands your repentance, not mine!
To the judge, he spouted from Psalms 11, "He who sitteth on high, upon the wicked, he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest: This shall be the portion of their cup!"
"P.C.:" Politically Correct Crimes
The other March 3 episode of "Law & Order: SVU" focused on a serial rapist who targeted lesbians, including a "Jane Doe" who died during the assault. Kathy Griffin, vulgar comedian and outspoken gay rights activist, guest starred as a militant lesbian named Babs Duffy intent on tracking down the culprit. A much hyped teaser showed Griffin kissing Benson in a scene that did not air during the show's broadcast.
But even without the lesbian kiss, the show's writers were able to use the story line to highlight same-sex marriage and push for stricter punishments for crimes against homosexuals by portraying lesbians as victims of unfair "discrimination."
During an interview between Dets. Benson and Stabler and the victim's girlfriend, Sharon Harris, Harris told them the victim "was the love of my life. And my fiancée ... we were gonna get married in Connecticut in May."
After Duffy tried to kiss Benson, the detective consoled her by simply saying, "The heart wants what it wants," effectively saying that homosexuality is a genetic trait.
Other sound bites from the episode tried to show the "unfair" discrimination lesbians and gays face, even when the "discrimination" in question was a direct consequenceof their actions that had little to do with their sexuality.
When Stabler arrested Harris after she punched him, Duffy immediately claimed "police brutality," apparently because Stabler was arresting a lesbian, never mind the fact that the woman had just hit him.
Harris also fulfilled the role of mouthpiece for the gay agenda by claiming it's all about her sexuality to Benson after her arrest. "Straights never understand people like me," she claimed, before accusing Benson, "You want to put me in jail because of who I am."
Duffy was also the spokesperson for gay rights activists who claim police do not do enough to protect gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders.
"This woman's name is Alisa Davies, just one more lesbian who's dead because of the NYPD," Duffy exclaimed after bursting into the station.
The captain's insistence that "Special Victims is uniquely sensitive to the needs of the LGBT community," along with Benson's account of how attuned the division is to the needs of the gay community, were not enough to satisfy Duffy.
"All a bunch of beuraucratic suck-ups, co-opted by the dominant heteronormative paradigm," she labeled the division's work with an anti-violence project and its gay officers action league.
And through Duffy, the writers were also able to throw in a couple zingers that blamed men for any violent acts women commit.
In Harris's defense after she hit Stabler, Duffy told him, "Women resort to violence only when provoked by male oppression." She had noted Stabler's "piss poor patriarchal attitude" in an earlier exchange.
As the plot unfolded, viewers eventually found out that Babs Duffy was in a romantic relationship with a man.
But even the pointed remarks about same-sex marriage and the "discrimination" gays and lesbians face wasn't enough to satisfy the folks at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
GLAAD expressed its disappointment over the episode because producers cut the lesbian kiss between Griffin's character Babs Duffy and Benson. Producers not only cut the kiss, but included a line from Benson that warned another female detective to keep her distance from Duffy. GLAAD also found "the unoriginal victim and man-hating lesbian stereotypes" to be "offensive."
The organization also claimed that NBC "discredited" the message of Babs Duffy - that lesbians face an epidemic of hate - by making her "just another stereotype: the confused, sex-crazed bisexual."
We weren't aware that "confused, sex-crazed bisexual" was a stereotype, but will be sure to look out for it from now on.
Abortion Debate According to Hollywood: "Pro-Choice or No Choice"
The Feb. 10 "SVU" episode, which first ran in October 2009, focused on the case of a murdered woman who turned out to be an abortionist, which gave the writers the opportunity to frame the abortion debate as "pro-choice or no choice."
Ultimately the doctor's profession had nothing to do with her death but the twist allowed writers to call pro-life activists "fanatical nuts" and portray her as an unsung hero committed to her job.
Detectives John Munch and Tutuola, played by Richard Belzer and Ice-T, questioned the lead suspect, Dalton Rindell, about his beliefs regarding abortion.
"Which are you, pro-choice or no choice?" asked Tutuola.
After Rindell claimed abortion was "not even on [his] priority list," Belzer insisted "abortion is the one subject everyone has a strong opinion about."
Benson and Stabler visited the doctor's ex-husband and a colleague at her clinic, who both confirmed threats against Hale by pro-life activists. Hale's ex also spoke of the friction her career caused in their marriage.
"You can't imagine the screaming matches - me begging her to leave her job at the clinic, and her saying she had a commitment to uphold a constitutionally protected service," Mr. Hale told Benson and Stabler.
"A few years ago, an anti-abortion group posted hundreds of doctors' names, their home addresses and telephone numbers on the Internet. Then we started getting hang-up calls in the middle of the night and nasty letters," explained Hale.
He continued by alluding to the real-life murder of abortionist George Tiller, "And once that doctor was shot in his own church in Kansas this summer, I petitioned the court for sole custody but lost."
Asked about his ex-wife's connection to the lead suspect, Dalton Rindell, Hale responded, "Who's that? One of those fanatical nuts?"
Benson and Stabler encountered a pro-life activist from the group Operation Save and Deliver (ostensibly a nod to the pro-life group Operation Rescue) while visiting the clinic who first claimed that she was not happy about Audrey Hale's murder, but later conceded, "It is a blessing there's one less mass murderer out there."
Hale's unnamed colleague was the mouthpiece that offered "national stats" regarding violence against abortion providers.
"Since the 70s, there have been 175 arsons, 41 bombings," he told Benson and Stabler, after explaining that the bulletproof glass in the clinic was necessary due to a 1993 "sniper attack" in which the receptionist "was shot in the arm."
Liberal Propaganda
"SVU" is in its 11th season and is the highest rated program of NBC's "Law & Order" franchise.
Its relevance comes from its "ripped from the headlines" storylines, but its constant liberal pandering perpetuates the notion that there is only one side to the debates surrounding the social issues it likes to tackle.
In 2008, the "SVU" episode that aired on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade portrayed a couple associated with a pro-life organization stealing frozen embryos from a fertility clinic in a fruitless effort to save them from destruction. Ironically, the theft resulted in the death of all the embryos when the liquid nitrogen used to keep the embryos frozen evaporated.
"Bad Company," a 2006 Business and Media Institute analysis of how businessmen are portrayed in the entertainment media, revealed that in the "Law & Order" franchise, 50 percent of the felonies (13 of 27) were committed by businessmen.
"Law & Order" (the original series) featured a story arc based on the torture memos from the Bush Administration in its 2009-2010 season premiere. An executive assistant DA asked DA Jack McCoy, played by Sam Waterston, "You want to prosecute a member of the Bush administration for assaulting terrorists?"
McCoy answered, "The word is torturing. And, yes, it's about time somebody did."
