Debbie Schlussel: "Law & Order" Quota: Show's Producer Mandates 83% of Criminals Must Be White Rich People
Are 83% of criminals in America, wealthy White people? Are they 83% of the murderers (the crime "Law and Order" focuses on)? No, not even close in real life, but they are on "Law and Order."
My late father always hated when my mother would put "Law & Order" or one of its spin-offs on the TV. In addition to being a show that frequently vilifies Jews and conservative causes and people--such as evangelical Christians, pro-lifers, and the Minutemen--it mostly elevated Muslims and left-wingers, portraying them as victims and those wrongfully accused of crimes. My father would always say that the show was "pretentious"--drivel written by lessers who want to think they're intellectuals. I share his opinion, by the way, and have said so on this site before.
Now, we have more evidence of the slant of the show, from its creator/producer, Dick Wolf. Saturday, the Wall Street Journal ran a long front page piece on the story of our day: How multi-millionaire Wolf is fighting gazillionaires at NBC/Universal for more than the $750 million fortune he is set to earn from the show. I call it, "Death Match of the Selfish and Self-Important."
But there was this one interesting nugget of info from the story, which backs up what we conservatives, including my Dad, have been saying about this show for years:
The show has remained almost exactly as Mr. Wolf envisioned. A former advertising copywriter, he sees "Law and Order" as a brand. He tells his writers that the series should be like Campbell's Soup: many different flavors, all of which are of consistent quality and predictable taste. "Episodic television is the triumph of the familiar," he is known to say. One way Mr. Wolf maintains this consistency is by making most of the victims wealthy white people, which he believes viewers are more interested in watching. He limits the number of shows containing minority victims, including blacks and Muslims, to four or five episodes a season out of 22 to 24.
That means, under Wolf's mandate, up to 83% of the criminals on L&O in a 24 episode season will be rich Whites. The lowest figure, based on the Wolf formula, can be 77%.
But--since "Law and Order" focuses on murders--here's a reality check, courtesy of the Manhattan Institute's Heather McDonald:
In 2005, the black homicide rate was over seven times higher than that of whites and Hispanics combined, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. From 1976 to 2005, blacks committed over 52 percent of all murders in America. In 2006, the black arrest rate for most crimes was two to nearly three times blacks' representation in the population. Blacks constituted 39.3 percent of all violent-crime arrests, including 56.3 percent of all robbery and 34.5 percent of all aggravated-assault arrests, and 29.4 percent of all property-crime arrests.
"Law & Order"? More like, "Politics of Envy & Racism."
Sound the "Law & Order" double chime here. Because a crime is taking place, and the villains are show creator/owner Dick Wolf and NBC.
Posted by Debbie on July 14, 2008 09:31 AM to Debbie Schlussel