Most Offensive Cable TV PR Moment of the Day: "Screw the Constitution"

I know, there are so many promos I could choose from with a headline about the most offensive cable TV PR moment of the day, what with the new fall schedule in rotation. In recent days we've seen on repetitive loop:

-- "hot chicks are dumb as rocks" promos for the WB's Beauty and the Geek

-- clips hyping the umpteenth season of ABC's interchangable Barbies wallowing in The Bachelor's harem, and

-- kid-sploitation commercials in which sobbing toddlers wail that they're too young to cope with temporary residence inside CBS's Kid Nation.

But as crass, misogynist and exploitative as those reality shows and their promo plug are, there's something predictable and trite about these always-disgusting reality shows and the ads networks use to promote them.

Not nearly as predictable is this civil-liberties-violations-are-so-funny tag line USA Network is using to drum up viewers for their upcoming Law & Order: Special Victims Unit marathon:

"If you like coffee and donuts, late nights and a little flexibility with constitutional rights," [narrated over a scene of cops drowning, kicking and beating the hell out of suspects] "then USA has a marathon for you!"

USA's motto is "characters welcome." Too bad their network's advertising department is so low on ethical and legal character.

Have you seen other particularly problematic network ads for fall TV shows? If so, please share them with Women In Media & News -- to post your feedback, leave comments here or email info[at]wimnonline[dot]org.

I welcome your tips for action alerts, blog posts and articles that are media criticism related -- let me and WIMN know when you see examples of bias in entertainment media and inaccuracy in news media.

This post originally appeared at WIMN's Voices: A Group Blog on Women and the Media , a project of Women In Media & News, the national women's media analysis, education and advocacy group. To bring Jennifer L. Pozner to speak to your campus or community group, or to send WIMN blog tips, email info [at] wimnonline [dot] org. To subscribe to WIMN's free media alert list, see the Action Center at http://www.wimnonline.org/action/.

Comments

[Guitarsandmore]

Next to Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck is perhaps the most offensive person on TV today but I am not going to watch it for you to report on his idiocy.

Getting worse is the Sarah Silverman show and South Park. Both of those shows offend me and I refuse to watch either one. Anyone who sticks their tongue in a dogs butt has something seriously wrong with them.

[ZingoBonMot]

You gotta admit, a promo promising "a little flexibility with Constitutional Rights" on the 'USA' Network is pretty damned ironic.

[jpozner]

I have actually reported on Glenn Beck's bigotry previously... not sure your point?

[Ramirez]

I saw that ad and I was shocked as well. Unfortunately this is all too common in our entertainment options, as the cop who "bends the rules" and strikes fear in the criminal community has become a fixture of our culture.

It all started with Dirty Harry, I think. Remember the scene in the stadium when he shot a fleeing suspect in the leg and then tortured him by twisting and poking the wound? Sure, he was trying to find the location of a kidnapped child who was buried alive or something, but I think we can all agree that his action was wrong, wrong.

Hillary should propose having an Entertainment Czar to enforce the adherence to constitutional rights in our TV shows and movies. To do less would mean the terrorists have won.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

Entertainment Czar? You mean to FURTHER censor our media? Constitutional rights? What country do you live in?

We have NO constitutional rights right now... and they are bieng stripped away every day.

Our news and entertainment is ALREADY being censorced... like Bono's acceptance speech criticizing torture... which was cut out.

NO, we do not agree. Dirty Harry was not wrong. I'm all for torturing MURDERERS... especially those who prey on children. It would dissuade a lot of pedofiles...and some people in the Senate too.

Innocent people or those who have yet to be convicted.....YES, that is wrong.

If you want to be shut up, shut down and censored.... MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY... perhaps further south or somewhere in the mid-east?

I enjoy the few freedoms I have and choose NOT to watch USA if it upsets me.

[Ramirez]

I think if you re-watch Dirty Harry you will realize that the suspect that Det. Callahan so callously shot and tortured was merely SUSPECTED, and not convicted of the kidnap/murder of the child. And perhaps you noticed that the accused did not have a lawyer present when the out-of-control "lawman" did his worst to make him talk? Shocking, I say.

And it's only a short and slippery slope from the excesses of Dirty Harry to the ridicule of Constitutional rights as illustrated in the ad for the "Most Offensive Cable TV PR Moment of the Day"! Ms. Pozner is right when she criticizes the ad for SUV, a crime "drama" which glamorizes the out-of-control conduct of TV detectives.

Ads such as these should be banned without hesitation or remorse. And please do not argue about the First Amendment. Surely we can agree that the First Amendment should not provide cover for our media to ridicule the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment.

We may reach a time when we have to curtain our Constitution in order to save it.

[Parducci]

SVU is fiction not a reality show. I think you have the two mixed up.

[dadw5boys]

When kids are plaing with New Technology you then know that Technology has been totally ASSIMLATED into your Culture.

When People JEST about bending the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights you know that has become ACCEPTABLE in your Culture.

There is no fool greater than one who belives him self to be free.

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin

[SevereTireDamage]

"The Bachelor" is still on the air?

[akhmed]

Since a major recurring plotline in Law & Order: SVU is whether Christopher Meloni's character will snap regarding his hatred for the people he chases, I think the ad's totally appropriate.

[CriminallySane]

The real problem is, the viewers actually like this stuff.

TV is a symptom, not a cause.

[jvarga]

Yeah it is hard to believe people want to watch the shows they do. I am so angry that there isn't a tv network that shows realistic programming like "An evening of paying bills" "doing laundry and dishes" or "jvarga goes to work" in which the main character goes to work, does his job, wastes some time on the internet and goes home. it could also feature a spinoff "jvarga drives to work" where we follow the character as he drives to work, sings with the radio, picks his nose, etc.

[wagadog]

Thanks, Jen. Send a heads up to Feministing too.

I Blame The Patriarchy.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

Really? You blame the Patriarchy?

How about Ann Coulter spewing and hissing as she usually does... and spitting out... "if we took away women's right to vote, we wouldn't have to worry about a Democratic president."

How's THAT for masoginystic scumb? She must still be trying to please 'daddy' somewhere in that deranged head of hers.

[ZingoBonMot]

Didn't I see on HuffPo that NBC was negotiating to buy the USA network...hmmmmm?