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Andrew Sullivan has posted an e-mail deriding the liberal bias of HBO shows.
The past two episodes of "Six Feet Under" on HBO (July 18 and 25) included several anti-Bush lines spoken by the performers, plus a prominent product placement for an anti-Republican book. None of these occurences advanced a story line or character; they were gratuitous throwaways.
Here, as best as I can recollect, is what I saw:
In the July 18 episode, Nat is reading the paper, and says (paraphrasing), "Man that Bush just lies and lies and nobody does anything about it."
(snip)
Here's the ironic thing about this kind of stealth political campaigning: it's easier to follow the money behind it than in the more up-front kind."Mr. Sullivan tacitly agrees that HBO is twisting their product to support Kerry, but points out that the Six Feet Under audience is "too sophisticated" to be affected by such machinations. LAist is suprised that neither Sullivan nor his e-mailer bothered to point out the liberal cracks and name-checks that appear on Curb Your Enthusiasm, or the "stealth campaign" that Ali G is waging against on behalf of Hillary Clinton.
Imagine this - perhaps the Six Feet Under producers are just working to re-create what Los Angeles is actually like? Does anyone in L.A. not know any number of people who would say something "Bush lies and lies and nobody cares?" Wouldn't any Six Feet Under fan expect Nate's character to hold such views? Perhaps HBO is throwing a little partisan red-meat to their largely-liberal audience, but "stealth advertising?" It looks like some conservative critics are a little too eager to expose the latest evidence of the Hollywood media-industrial complex.
