The new ABC tv series Eli Stone deals with some serious issues—most importantly the question of whether our time is a congenial one for religious truths. Central to the story is the premise that the title character may actually be a religious prophet.
The Fox TV series House made an interesting, rather subtle comment on religion and unbelief last night, but the scene reaches so many levels of irony most viewers won’t know what to make of it.
ESPN2 morning co-anchor Dana Jacobson is back at work after a week’s suspension for her drunken, foul-mouthed tirade at a public dinner. At the beginning of the Jan. 28 program, the first since her suspension, Jacobson offered a rather cryptic apology: I want to once again say how truly sorry I am for my poor choices and bad judgment that night. I’ve taken responsibility for what I did say and do that night. What’s cryptic about it, of course, is the phrase "what I did say and do". Certainly no one should expect her to apologize for anything she did not do, so the use of the word ‘did’ is redundant and indeed confusing. Evidently her intent was to imply that she did not say the most offensive thing attributed to her: "F— Jesus!" Yet neither Jacobson nor her ESPN bosses has denied that she said it. Hence the use of the word ‘did’ is obviously intentional dissembling.
The first half of Rambo, Sylvester Stallone’s contemporary remake of his 1982 film about an ultraviolent action hero, deals with largely the same themes and motifs as Francis Coppola’s acclaimed Apocalypse Now—a trip up a jungle river into a mysterious and savage Asian place of violence and horror providing a means to contemplate the darkness in the human heart and what it takes to defeat it—and actually does so more effectively than Coppola’s film. Yes, I mean that: the first half of Rambo is better than Apocalypse Now.
National Review Literary Editor Mike Potemra expands on the thoughts quoted yesterday on this site, in an article on today’s National Review Online. I think that Mike’s point is a good one—that there is a better way to react to offensive speech than exaggerated outrage and calls for revenge. The better way is for us to press for what I call a free culture, as noted in my article on this site yesterday. Christianity is in fact the great foundation of individual freedom in the West, and as Mike points out, it’s incumbent upon Christians to use this opportunity to press for a free culture that will benefit both Christians and others.
In all the controversy over the Dana Jacobson issue, I suspect that it is all too easy to lose sight of what actually is important about it. What happens to Jacobson as a result of what she has done is important to the general public, but not because Jacobson is any serious danger to society. Of course not. It is important because the response to her by her bosses and the elite in general represents what kind of society and culture we live in and whether we can cause positive changes in both. It is not obvious that we can do so without much struggle.
The BBC America sci-fi series Torchwood, a spinoff of the most recent revival of the long-running series Doctor Who, will show an explicit sexual clinch between two men in tonight’s season opening program on the basic cable network. The scene depicts polymorphously perverse series protagonist Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) with guest star James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I was not impressed by the first season of Torchwood, as it is rather too cute and the special effects too cheap to make up for the snarkiness of the whole affair. The short-lived U.S. series Firefly was far superior. Not recommended. For additional information about the series, visit the BBC America Torchwood page. Update: In the original version of this article I used the words ‘sex scene’ to describe the sequence, which may have been technically accurate but certainly had the unfortunate effect of suggesting that the scene includes pornographic effects. That is an inaccurate impression, according to reports. Hence I have changed the term to avoid any potential confusion. As it happens, it took me rather a long time to figure out a phrase that wouldn’t sound too creepy or would too weakly describe the scene, and I’m not
Chicago Sun-Times writer Greg Crouch asks in his column today whether ESPN personality Dana Jacobson really did say the offensive words attributed to her that resulted in a one-week suspension. (See story below.) That’s a good question. Crouch points out that the original report of Jacobson specifically saying "F— Jesus" came from a blog and has not been confirmed by a particular eyewitness at the event, Scott Cronick of the Press of Atlantic City, whom Couch asked about it yesterday. Cronick said that he does not believe she said "F— Jesus." Couch’s point is that mainstream journalists should not quote information from blogs because bloggers are not responsible journalists and not reliable news sources. Real journalists—which Couch appears to define as people working for corporate newspapers, magazines, TV shows, radio stations, and websites—check their facts and are "reliable." If I ever see any responsible journalism in the mainstream media, I’ll check on that contention.
Providing further proof that America’s elites are delighted when people of low mental ability use Christians and Christianity as punching bags, ESPN has suspended sports-show anchor Dana Jacobson for one week after she indulged in a drunken, foul-mouthed public tirade that included an astonishingly vulgar curse directed at Jesus Christ. The one-week suspension is very revealing of the mentality of the management team at the Disney-owned sports network, given that the same behavior would have gotten anyone not in the media fired, and it would have gotten a media person fired had it been delivered against an accredited victim group—cf. the termination of radio host Don Imus and basketball commentator Tim Hardaway last year.
Correspondent Mike D’Virgilio reviews the musical film Once. Or is it more than a musical?
Dutch politician Geert Wilders is back in the news for daring to say what few in the West will admit: that Islam is not a religion of peace. Wilders is about to release a ten-minute film that shows Islam to be “a source of inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror.”
One of the greatest difficulties in the West’s confrontation with Islam in the past decade has been our failure to recognize the true nature of Islam. This is a direct consequence of our failure to recognize the true nature of our own civilization, and the great good that is inherent in it.
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