Teen idol Justin Bieber appeared on CBS’ hit show “CSI” five days ago, portraying, according to the New York Times, a “domestic terrorist with Tea Party leanings,” but the controversy surrounding the episode is just now heating up. Thanks to right-of-center New Media like the Daily Caller (to which I also contribute), which kicked off this debate on Monday in coordination with Andrew Breitbart, Hollywood can no longer get away with this kind of propaganda without facing blowback. (Full disclosure: I am a Belieber.)
Justin Bieber on ‘CSI,’ being interrogatedThe episode’s ‘right-wing political rally,’ which Bieber’s impressionable character attended, featured a speaker blasting this message from his podium:
Apparently so. In an interview with Fox News, talk show host Leslie Marshall dismissed critics as being unable to see that Bieber was only being used to drum up ratings amongst teenage girls, not to instill a revulsion toward so-called ‘anti-government’ movements into them — as if the two are mutually exclusive. And a commenter rebukes the skeptics thus, expressing the general sentiment of the left:
What ‘CSI’s’ defenders are failing to recognize is that there was no cosmic decree mandating that Justin Bieber be cast as a young “right-wing domestic terrorist.” Given his meager acting skills, it would have been far easier (and more appropriate) to cast him as an entertainer, or a high school student mixed up in a standard crime. There is no legitimate artistic mandate to drag politics into it. If the episode’s plot hadn’t been what it was, would anyone have really lamented to themselves, “Gee, if only they’d cast him as a domestic terrorist instead”? Please.
“Art has been imitating life since Adam and Eve,” said Leslie Marshall, defending the episode. But if there’s no attack on the Tea Party, what exactly is the “life” that’s being imitated? And where is the “art” unless some kind of point is being made? The truth of the matter is that the episode had about as much subtlety as a demolition derby. The point was perfectly transparent: the Tea Party is a band of domestic-terrorists-in-waiting, and their rallies are certainly not appropriate for young people. And by casting Justin Bieber as the boy suckered in by their crimes, the show ensured that teenage girls across America currently associate “right-wing political rallies” with domestic terrorism. Anyone who fails to see that is drunk on the same myths that ‘CSI’ is.
Justin Bieber on ‘CSI,’ being interrogated
“Are you ready for a new America? Where hard work pays off? This country’s been hijacked by profiteers…they have a license to steal at our expense!”These rallies inspired Bieber’s character to plant a bomb at the funeral of a police officer. Can anyone be possibly so credulous as to believe that no smear against the Tea Party was intended?
Apparently so. In an interview with Fox News, talk show host Leslie Marshall dismissed critics as being unable to see that Bieber was only being used to drum up ratings amongst teenage girls, not to instill a revulsion toward so-called ‘anti-government’ movements into them — as if the two are mutually exclusive. And a commenter rebukes the skeptics thus, expressing the general sentiment of the left:
“It’s hilarious that you don’t even have to mention the tea party, just show a bunch of ignorant, paranoid and violent retards and everyone knows who you are talking about.”Not quite. Everyone knows who television screenwriters like to think they’re talking about, though. In their fantastical delusions, the rally and its subsequent violence portrayed in the’ CSI’ episode is exactly what Tea Parties would really be like if it weren’t for valiant liberal watchdogs like them, keeping the fanatics in check. To these people, the Tea Party really is filled with closet racists, militia members, and domestic-terrorists-in-waiting. Because a television show doesn’t have to deal with any annoying little things such as an opposing point-of-view, the episode easily served as a dumpster bin into which the screenwriters could vomit their sordid caricatures.
What ‘CSI’s’ defenders are failing to recognize is that there was no cosmic decree mandating that Justin Bieber be cast as a young “right-wing domestic terrorist.” Given his meager acting skills, it would have been far easier (and more appropriate) to cast him as an entertainer, or a high school student mixed up in a standard crime. There is no legitimate artistic mandate to drag politics into it. If the episode’s plot hadn’t been what it was, would anyone have really lamented to themselves, “Gee, if only they’d cast him as a domestic terrorist instead”? Please.
“Art has been imitating life since Adam and Eve,” said Leslie Marshall, defending the episode. But if there’s no attack on the Tea Party, what exactly is the “life” that’s being imitated? And where is the “art” unless some kind of point is being made? The truth of the matter is that the episode had about as much subtlety as a demolition derby. The point was perfectly transparent: the Tea Party is a band of domestic-terrorists-in-waiting, and their rallies are certainly not appropriate for young people. And by casting Justin Bieber as the boy suckered in by their crimes, the show ensured that teenage girls across America currently associate “right-wing political rallies” with domestic terrorism. Anyone who fails to see that is drunk on the same myths that ‘CSI’ is.