5 ms·

Failure to walk away from the show over this has lost the writers any moral high ground they might have once held.

by iandanforth 7y ago

creaghpatr 7y ago
Oh they lost that with the "Assassinate Trump" wink wink moment.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
Do you seriously think they should've cancelled a series they've been working on for the past decade due to 120 seconds of content? Let me be the first to say I'm glad the writers didn't do that. If you watch the show, you'll quickly discover that the writers have been given an immense amount of creative freedom. The Good Fight makes a lot of strong political statements that I don't think would fly on many other platforms. Furthermore, the writers responded in a way that draws very clear, explicit attention to CBS's censorship, as opposed to sweeping it under the rug.
- swebs 7y ago
  >The Good Fight makes a lot of strong political statements that I don't think would fly on many other platforms. Such as?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    Lots of stuff! Off the top of my head, for both The Good Fight and its predecessor show, there was: • A story on how large media companies use broad copyright laws to exploit independent artists. • Multiple stories on data surveillance and privacy. • Stories depicting injustices in the immigration court system. By the way, the episode containing the censored segment also had a woman explaining how she was tortured by the Chinese government. There's nothing on The Good Fight that would be off limits in, say, HBO's Last Week Tonight, but there's plenty I was surprised to see in a CBS drama.
joezydeco 7y ago
The fundamental principle of Hollywood: there's no such thing as bad publicity.
- babypuncher 7y ago
  I had never even heard of this show until today, and it sounds like something I would really enjoy. On the flip side I do not want to give CBS any money as a result of this censorship
  - joezydeco 7y ago
    You'll want to watch the original series The Good Wife first. The Good Fight is a sequel series after the main character finishes her arc. It was a really great show. It's a typical law firm drama but it was very well written and surprisingly tech-savvy. Some of the topics and cases in the show dealt with things like the NSA, Anonymous, fugitives from justice (like Snowden), the haziness of the Constitution at the border, social media, FBI investigations, Bitcoin and lots more. https://www.wired.com/2013/09/screen-smarts/ https://www.wired.com/2013/09/screen-smarts/ I wouldn't get all upset over a bit of 'censorship', real or imagined. CBS is not the government. It's an entertainment corporation.
    - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
      Just echoing the above—watch The Good Wife! I think it's my favorite TV show, and I'm really picky. Don't be put off by the title—this is absolutely not "the real housewives" or the like. One addendum, however: I would greatly encourage skipping the last two seasons of The Good Wife (6 and 7), which constitute a massive and sudden drop in quality. There are a few good episodes, but not enough. You'll hear tidbits about what happened when you watch The Good Fight, and it's better that way.
Cthulhu_ 7y ago
The same happened to South Park where the network ended up censoring a depiction of Muhammad - well, in the one episode, in an earlier one it was still up. And thankfully they didn't quit, they ran with it because it points out the hypocrisy, double standards, and weird morals that the US networks have.
- creaghpatr 7y ago
  Lives were literally at stake in that particular instance.
  - 50656E6973 7y ago
    That's an inherent risk if you care about human rights and social progress.
- redwall_hp 7y ago
  The crazy thing with South Park was it wasn't just censoring Mohammed. There was a 5 minute monologue from one of the characters about the importance of not giving in to people who make threats of violence...which had a continuous tone censoring the whole speech. (A network decision, due to having received such threats.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/201_(South_Park) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/201_(South_Park)
  - UnFleshedOne 7y ago
    Why did they censor the closing speech though? Kyle: That's because there is no goo, Mr. Cruise. You see, I learned something today. Throughout this whole ordeal, we've all wanted to show things that we weren't allowed to show, but it wasn't because of some magic goo. It was because of the magical power of threatening people with violence. That's obviously the only true power. If there's anything we've all learned, it's that terrorizing people works. Jesus: That's right. Don't you see, gingers, if you don't want to be made fun of anymore, all you need are guns and bombs to get people to stop. Santa: That's right, friends. All you need to do is instill fear and be willing to hurt people and you can get whatever you want. The only true power is violence. Stan: Yeah. — The closing speech, which was censored by Comedy Central[2]
CharlesColeman 7y ago
> Failure to walk away from the show over this has lost the writers any moral high ground they might have once held. No. This kind of thing is far more effective. I'd probably have never even heard about this unless they'd stayed and gone on-air with a notice like this. If they walked they'd have been replaced and new writers would have made substitute content.
- iandanforth 7y ago
  There will be no effect. No one took a stand, this will be forgotten immediately.
  - CharlesColeman 7y ago
    > There will be no effect. No one took a stand, this will be forgotten immediately. That's a bold assertion, and seems to reflect a (false) underlying assumption that small effects are totally meaningless.
    - JetSpiegel 7y ago
      There are no effects. If you only watch the show but don't read NYT, you don't even know there was a controversy because of the censure. That's why censure is effective.

Failure to walk away from the show over this has lost the writers any moral high ground they might have once held.

creaghpatr 7y ago

Oh they lost that with the "Assassinate Trump" wink wink moment.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

Do you seriously think they should've cancelled a series they've been working on for the past decade due to 120 seconds of content? Let me be the first to say I'm glad the writers didn't do that. If you watch the show, you'll quickly discover that the writers have been given an immense amount of creative freedom. The Good Fight makes a lot of strong political statements that I don't think would fly on many other platforms. Furthermore, the writers responded in a way that draws very clear, explicit attention to CBS's censorship, as opposed to sweeping it under the rug.

swebs 7y ago
>The Good Fight makes a lot of strong political statements that I don't think would fly on many other platforms. Such as?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  Lots of stuff! Off the top of my head, for both The Good Fight and its predecessor show, there was: • A story on how large media companies use broad copyright laws to exploit independent artists. • Multiple stories on data surveillance and privacy. • Stories depicting injustices in the immigration court system. By the way, the episode containing the censored segment also had a woman explaining how she was tortured by the Chinese government. There's nothing on The Good Fight that would be off limits in, say, HBO's Last Week Tonight, but there's plenty I was surprised to see in a CBS drama.

joezydeco 7y ago

The fundamental principle of Hollywood: there's no such thing as bad publicity.

babypuncher 7y ago
I had never even heard of this show until today, and it sounds like something I would really enjoy. On the flip side I do not want to give CBS any money as a result of this censorship
- joezydeco 7y ago
  You'll want to watch the original series The Good Wife first. The Good Fight is a sequel series after the main character finishes her arc. It was a really great show. It's a typical law firm drama but it was very well written and surprisingly tech-savvy. Some of the topics and cases in the show dealt with things like the NSA, Anonymous, fugitives from justice (like Snowden), the haziness of the Constitution at the border, social media, FBI investigations, Bitcoin and lots more. https://www.wired.com/2013/09/screen-smarts/ https://www.wired.com/2013/09/screen-smarts/ I wouldn't get all upset over a bit of 'censorship', real or imagined. CBS is not the government. It's an entertainment corporation.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    Just echoing the above—watch The Good Wife! I think it's my favorite TV show, and I'm really picky. Don't be put off by the title—this is absolutely not "the real housewives" or the like. One addendum, however: I would greatly encourage skipping the last two seasons of The Good Wife (6 and 7), which constitute a massive and sudden drop in quality. There are a few good episodes, but not enough. You'll hear tidbits about what happened when you watch The Good Fight, and it's better that way.

Cthulhu_ 7y ago

The same happened to South Park where the network ended up censoring a depiction of Muhammad - well, in the one episode, in an earlier one it was still up. And thankfully they didn't quit, they ran with it because it points out the hypocrisy, double standards, and weird morals that the US networks have.

creaghpatr 7y ago
Lives were literally at stake in that particular instance.
- 50656E6973 7y ago
  That's an inherent risk if you care about human rights and social progress.
redwall_hp 7y ago
The crazy thing with South Park was it wasn't just censoring Mohammed. There was a 5 minute monologue from one of the characters about the importance of not giving in to people who make threats of violence...which had a continuous tone censoring the whole speech. (A network decision, due to having received such threats.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/201_(South_Park) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/201_(South_Park)
- UnFleshedOne 7y ago
  Why did they censor the closing speech though? Kyle: That's because there is no goo, Mr. Cruise. You see, I learned something today. Throughout this whole ordeal, we've all wanted to show things that we weren't allowed to show, but it wasn't because of some magic goo. It was because of the magical power of threatening people with violence. That's obviously the only true power. If there's anything we've all learned, it's that terrorizing people works. Jesus: That's right. Don't you see, gingers, if you don't want to be made fun of anymore, all you need are guns and bombs to get people to stop. Santa: That's right, friends. All you need to do is instill fear and be willing to hurt people and you can get whatever you want. The only true power is violence. Stan: Yeah. — The closing speech, which was censored by Comedy Central[2]

CharlesColeman 7y ago

> Failure to walk away from the show over this has lost the writers any moral high ground they might have once held. No. This kind of thing is far more effective. I'd probably have never even heard about this unless they'd stayed and gone on-air with a notice like this. If they walked they'd have been replaced and new writers would have made substitute content.

iandanforth 7y ago
There will be no effect. No one took a stand, this will be forgotten immediately.
- CharlesColeman 7y ago
  > There will be no effect. No one took a stand, this will be forgotten immediately. That's a bold assertion, and seems to reflect a (false) underlying assumption that small effects are totally meaningless.
  - JetSpiegel 7y ago
    There are no effects. If you only watch the show but don't read NYT, you don't even know there was a controversy because of the censure. That's why censure is effective.