Frank Rich thinks he "gets it", but he doesn't...

NY Times "Media Critic" Frank Rich uses the new book "South Park Conservatives" to rant about the recent Terri Shiavo situation.

First of all let me say that I am currently reading "South Park Conservatives" (the full title of which continues "The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias") and not only is it an awesome book but Frank Rich seems to totally miss the point. The book's title refers to a phrase coined by Andrew Sullivan to describe those young conservatives who grew up watching the disembowelling of Liberalism over the last twenty years and have made a conscious decision to flip the finger at Liberal media bias and the culture of political correctness that has come from it.

I'll save more of the book for my upcoming review. But suffice to say that Rich uses a recent episode of South Park that involves a Schiavo-like situation to illustrate that the creators - Trey Parker and Matt Stone - of the series are not in agreement with the (cue "imperial theme") evil theocratic Christian conservatives who are attempting to overthrow the government and impose their philosophy on squishy morally-relative liberals like Rich. (end music).

First of all, the book goes so far as to put as asterisk after the title to make sure people understand that the show's creators have no connection to the title. Second, the book's author, Brian C. Anderson is not saying that the show is an exact representation of the phenomena he is describing. The point of the book is that today's Conservatives, especially the younger ones, see through Liberalism's waning influence in the media and are unabashed in their enjoyment of making fun of it.

But that doesn't stop Frank Rich from taking the opportunity to "warn" social conservatives of overreach:

But in this crusade, too, few on the right seem to recognize that they're overplaying their hand; they keep upping the ante. One powerful senator, Ted Stevens of Alaska, has proposed that cable and satellite be policed by the federal government along with broadcast television - a death knell for even the Sirius incarnation of Howard Stern, not to mention much of Comedy Central. A powerful House committee chairman, James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, topped that by calling for offenders to be pursued through a "criminal process." Last week President Bush signed a Family Entertainment and Copyright Act that allows "family-friendly" companies to sell filter technology that cleans up DVD's of Hollywood movies without permission or input from the films' own authors and copyright holders.

Rich of course doesn't go on to explain that Stevens' proposal went over like a fart in church and fell by the wayside. And who but the most rabid family-hostile Liberals would have a problem with giving parents the power to control what their children watch. Where were these idiots when Bubba was advocating the "v-chip" or when Tipper was calling for warning labels on Guns 'N Roses albums?

Rich is simply trying to advance the idea that the social conservatives in the Republican party are attempting to intimidate the nation and impose a set of values on those that do not already subscribe to them.

What he doesn't "get" is that "South Park Conservatives" is lampooning another group of people that try to intimidate the nation and impose a set of values on those that do not already subscribe to them - they're called "politically-correct" Liberals.

Posted by: Gary at 02:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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