To no one’s surprise, the Emmy Awards on Sunday night were a platform for lecturing liberalism. Host Stephen Colbert and several stars made fun of President Trump, actors wore pro-ACLU ribbons, and Alec Baldwin won the Emmy for best supporting actor in a comedy series for his portrayal of President Trump on "Saturday Night Live."
“At long last, Mr. President, here is your Emmy,” Baldwin said, referencing Colbert’s opening monologue in which he reminded the audience of Trump’s frustration at not winning an Emmy of his own for "The Apprentice."
Most shocking was when actress Issa Rae, asked by a Variety reporter who she was rooting for to win, said, “I’m rooting for everybody black. I am!” Rae is the creator and star of HBO’s “Insecure,” which was not nominated for any awards.
Still, this campaign rally was not progressive enough for Variety TV critic Maureen Ryan.
On one hand, Ryan was optimistic: “On Sunday, two different series about the ways in which societies can oppress and constrict women (‘Big Little Lies’ and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’) won multiple awards.” Furthermore, ‘“a woman, Reed Morano, was declared the best director of a dramatic series. An African-American woman, Lena Waithe, was one of the winners in the the best comedy-writing category, and in her speech, she thanked her girlfriend.” Then there was Riz Ahmed of “The Night Of.” Ahmed spoke “problems of the criminal justice system and Islamophobia.” Also, an episode of “Black Mirror” that featured two women in love, won an Emmy. Finally: “Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin, the stars of a landmark movie about women uniting to fight the man who ruled over their sexist workplace, came out on stage together, and Tomlin tartly commented that in 2017, they still would not be controlled ‘by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.’”
Feminism, police bashing, cheerleading for Islam, and homosexuality. That was enough to make Rachel Maddow smile.
And yet Ryan, like all liberals, can’t be satisfied with anything less than The Revolution:
At times, however, it was hard not to feel a disconnect. Not much of the political humor went for the jugular: Trump was the target of gibes that made him seem like an irascible uncle. Even worse, Sean Spicer, who came out on stage with his own portable lectern, was made out to be a goofball. But Trump is not just an aging celebrity with a temper, and Spicer was part of an administration that has disdain for the truth and the rule of law.
The parade of talent across the stage — presenting and winning — looked like America, and that was heartening. But study after study shows that TV is still slow to change and diversify. TV as a whole still depicts women in stereotypical ways and is slow to give them jobs as creators, according to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. The executive producers and directors who tells stories on the small screen, by every statistical measure, are still for the most part straight white men.
Hundreds of channels and YouTube, a digital landscape in which anybody with a phone can create a series and have it get seen, shows about every conceivable time and demographic. None of it will ever be enough for the left’s social justice warriors -- at least as long as there are still straight white men around.
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