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television hit of last season and so far this season is West Wing,
an intense fictional display of the U.S. federal government in action.
Martin Sheen, real-life agitator and activist, plays the role of the
President of the United States. In November of 2000, Mr. Sheen was
arrested in Fort Benning, Georgia, for demonstrating against the School
of the Americas. He was also arrested for supporting the United Farm
Workers union in a 1997 protest in California. In a recent interview,
Sheen said, "My chief concern is the ongoing proliferation of
weapons and the militarism that this country has opted for and [the
extent to which it has] disregarded the poor and the marginal."
During the Emmy ceremonies last year, Dick Clark asked Sheen if he
had any political ambitions. His answer was no. However, for millions
of Americans who ogle over his highly rated TV program, Martin Sheen
is the president. And he's getting his left-leaning message out.
West Wing has
made an interesting transition this season: the once-fictional program
has taken on more than a passing similarity to current political
developments in Washington, D.C. Recent debates regarding major
tax reform, specifically the repeal of the estate tax, is playing
a pivotal role in more than one episode of West Wing this year.
While Democrats and Republicans argue vehemently over the advantages
and disadvantages of the estate tax in Washington, the powers that
be in Hollywood are lobbying the West Wing's audience to think "beyond
the box" in regards to this real-world political debate.
The not-so-coincidental
abhorrence to the repeal of the estate tax on the show adds another
dimension to biased lobbying. Unfortunately, Hollywood dominates
the media stage so that there will be only one side of the story
told - the one it wants you to hear. There won't be a fair presentation
of the other side, the conservative side. You won't be given the
opportunity to consider the real reasons for the elimination of
the estate tax because that would compete with the liberal bias
of this show.
We've seen
this before from Hollywood, although not on a weekly basis. There
was the movie Dave, starring Kevin Kline, a story about a man who
gets the job of impersonating the president after the real chief
executive has an almost-fatal stroke. The new Dave challenges all
of "his" previous conservative positions, and becomes
"loved" by both the audience and his estranged wife (Sigourney
Weaver). This imposter becomes the nice guy who takes care of the
poor and undermines the big, bad capitalists.
Then there
was American President, starring Michael Douglas. Although there
is an overall romantic theme to this film - he is a widower who
falls in love with a lobbyist played by Annette Bening (the wife
of real-life liberal and wannabe presidential contender Warren Beatty)
— the undertones of left-wing liberalism permeate virtually
all of the non-romantic scenes. Of course, the director goes out
of his way to make Democrats look like they care and the Republicans
look like they don't.
Recently, in
the movie the Contender, Jeff Bridges, a very talented and attractive
actor, plays the president. Of course, he is the good-guy Democrat
who outwits the bad-guy Republican - for good reason. The Republicans
are portrayed as being out to undermine the appointment of a female
vice president by using baseless accusations of sex activities in
college. How could Republicans recover after that fiasco?
All of these
movies were entertaining. But beneath the surface there was another
agenda being promoted. Indeed, we cannot underestimate the subliminal
message that is being driven into the minds of unsuspecting American
moviegoers: being liberal is good and being conservative is bad.West
Wing remains an exciting political drama that lives up to it's billing,
but it shouldn't be used as a tool to influence the voters. The
bill to eliminate the estate tax is under consideration in Congress,
and lobbying for keeping the estate tax now takes place every Wednesday
night on NBC. More than one legislator could receive mail from constituents
asking that he votes against estate-tax repeal based solely on the
biased dialogue that takes place during these West Wing episodes.
Telling stories
about the political process is okay, but when a program's themes
have the potential of influencing or manipulating current political
debate, then fairness is gone. Do we have to wait until Martin Sheen,
as President Josiah "Jeb" Bartlett, comes out against
fighting terrorism in the name of humanity or some other far-fetched
reason? Of course, at the point, the show's producers will respond
that the storyline is just coincidental reflection of real-world
events. I won't buy it and neither should you.
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