Apparently in 1970 there was a popular comedy show in the USSR patterned off of Laugh-In. So Laugh-In dedicated an episode to making fun of the Soviet version of the show, creating a Soviet "party room", Soviet jokes about the past and lack-of future, and a crappy looking wooden wall that they told Soviet knock-knock jokes from. Hilarious stuff. They were poking fun at the bad guys in WWIII. It's too bad times have changed; we're not even supposed to suggest that there is an enemy in WWIV. Apparently in the show 24, the terrorists were portrayed as...horrors...Muslims.
CAIR said it called for the meeting Wednesday -- which included representatives from CAIR's Southern California office and from the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council -- to "address the depiction of a 'Muslim' family that is at the heart of a terror plot in the popular program."
The Washington, D.C.-based group said it was concerned that the portrayal of the family as a terrorist "sleeper cell" may "cast a shadow of suspicion over ordinary American Muslims and could increase Islamophobic stereotyping and bias."
CAIR's statement today said that in addition to distribution of the PSAs, "FOX also gave meeting participants assurances that the program will be balanced in its portrayal of Muslims. Network representatives said that they had already reviewed existing episodes and removed some aspects that could potentially be viewed as stereotypical."
Thirty-five years ago, Laugh-In made the joke "Vy is the chickenk crossing de road? To defected to Poland, but he'll be back!" Today we're not even allowed to make-believe that the people we've been fighting for four years could be the bad guys in a drama. Heaven help us.
Posted by Sarah at January 16, 2005 02:58 PMCAIR doesnt get it. In WWII, the Germans (and Japanese and Italians) were the enemy. We had loads of naturalized germans in america but we didn't mow them down in the streets and in their homes. Lots of Germans came to America because they knew that Facism was not going to make their country a place they could live. In WWIII lots of Russians came to America because they knew that Communism was not going to make their country a place they could live. Now, in WWIV, lost of Muslims come to America because they know that Theocracy is not going to make their country a place where they can live. CAIR needs to get off their high horse and start doing something constructive other than kvetching about how America hates Islam.
Posted by: mdmhvonpa at January 16, 2005 06:13 PMConstructive solution: Portray Muslim Americans actively fighting terrorists and terrorism.
I wrote about the general subject (not specifically the TV show to-do) in the Spec and re-posted my column in ThankMyRecruiter.com:
The Power of Diversity
http://thankmyrecruiter.com/index.php?p=36