Posted on 12/26/2011 11:10:30 AM PST by Junior_G
After watching just one episode of Showtime's 'Homeland', I was hooked. It was intelligently written and didn't appear to be riddled with the anti-American bias that is so often evident in mainstream entertainment these days. By all appearances it was a show that was going to portray America as basically good and Al Qaeda as, well, not good.
I was so naive.
My first warning that something was rotten in Denmark came in the next two episodes when MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell made a couple of cameo appearances, playing himself. He was interviewing Sgt. Brody, the American war hero who had just been rescued after 8 years of captivity at the hands of Al Qaeda (the main plot revolves around the question of whether Sgt. Brody has been turned by Al Qaeda leader Abu Nazir and become a terrorist himself). There was still no anti-Americanism detectable in the plot, but I had to ask myself why on earth Lawrence O'Donnell would appear in a production that was in any way pro-American? For that matter, why would he appear in a television show that portrayed Al Qaeda as evil? Well the answer is he wouldn't.
As the season progresses, we learn that Sgt Brody and Abu Nazir are justified in their desire to kill the American Vice President because he was part of a team of top U.S. government officials who knowingly ordered a drone strike on an Iraqi school because they believed Abu Nazir was in hiding there. One of the 84 school children killed was Abu Nazir's son, loved by both Nazir and Sgt. Brody. In one scene, Nazir is watching the evil American Vice President on a televised news conference, lying about the drone strike. Nazir mutters, "...and they call us terrorists". Nazir could have been any one of my left-wing liberal acquaintances at that moment.
As the season nears its end, 'Homeland' has portrayed the VP as such a vile bastard, and Nazir as such a sympathetic and mournful figure, that it seems they want you to wish Al Qaeda success in their attempt to assassinate him. Furthermore, the character of Saul Berenson (the CIA Middle East Division Chief and conscience of the show, played by Mandy Patinkin) discovers evidence that the school was deliberately targeted and threatens to go to the New York Times (like so many other noble "patriots" before him). He also threatens to share evidence of widespread torture sanctioned by the US.
Few shows have pissed me off as much as this one did. But I got what I deserved for continuing to watch it even after knowing it had received the Lawrence O'Donnell stamp of approval.
Unsurprisingly, in an interview with People Magazine published on December 14, Barack Obama listed this show as one of his two “must-see” television shows.
I’d be cheering for the VP.
WE NEED to kill the families of terrorists. In Islam, including Islamic terrorism, leadership seems to run in family lines - no family line - no leadership.
It's well done, you have to give it that.
Yet another example of President Omoslem “not being an obvious moslem.”
When people challenge my assertion that Omoslem is a tricky moslem, I blast them with about 50 examples of him blatantly being a moslem, until they just sit there quietly (realizing he’s a moslem).
Exciting and well done, but definitely anti-American, pro-muslim. The hated VP is probably supposed to represent the “evil” Cheney.
Well done or not, I’ve given up on television as a source of anything positive.
how is it that we don’t have a conservative channel for entertainment, i wonder???
I can't disagree. One of the things that really frustrates me is that there is so much well done anti-American messaging in the popular culture. Knowing the viewpoint they're trying to push, I'd rather it was poorly done.
What I wrestle with constantly is that scumbag Brody was Major Winters of the Band of Brothers.
If it's entertaining, it is doing what it is supposed to do.
It's not going to change my mind about anything, so I can just enjoy it as entertainment.
The one-dimensional portrayal of Abu Nazier as a wronged saint who happens to torture prisoners of war doesn't ring true.
I suspect that in the second season we are going to start seeing other things about him.
I suspect that if the series is allowed to survive to a conclusion that the end result will have a lot more balance.
Kelsy grammer is associated with a “right side” cable channel.
with about 50 examples of him blatantly being a moslem, until they just sit there quietly (realizing he’s a moslem).
...have you posted your list of examples, so we can duplicate the response in naive thinkers? Can you post or refer us to a thread? tia,
ymmv
I haven’t compiled a printed list, but others have.
Usually, I just start blurting out dozens of examples, and it gets funny, b/c if you look, the list of examples of OMOSLEM BEING A MOSLEM goes on and on!
It’s almost comical. Yet tragic.
Omoslem could ride his camel to the airport, then hop aboard Air Carpet One, and the Socialists would still deny he’s a moslem.
What?
Showtime?
Whom?
“WE NEED to kill the families of terrorists. In Islam, including Islamic terrorism, leadership seems to run in family lines - no family line - no leadership.”
Remember the civil war in Lebanon? Western diplomats were being kidnapped daily. Then, they kidnapped a lower level Soviet diplomat. The KGB found out what group and grabbed several members. The KGB castrated them, put their testicles in a baggie pinned to their shirts and dropped them where their compatriots could find them all tied up with a note that if the diplomat wasn’t returned immediately the KGB would be out hunting and castrating until he was returned. The diplomat was returned and after that the Soviets were able to move freely without guards.
Now, the only reason I couldn’t endorse that as a tactic for our side is I’ve seen who we hire. I’m not at all sure they’d even be able to find men, let alone the right enemies. Oh, I think the individuals in the field are competent, but not the bozos directing them in the front office.
If it's entertaining, it is doing what it is supposed to do.
Second of all, it's PROPAGANDA.
If it's nudging people toward a more left-wing worldview, it is doing what it is supposed to do.
We won't really know that until the story ends.
Or are you the Minister of Information who decides these things?
Dexter?
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