-By Warner Todd Huston
On October 15, the Whodunnit/Psychic series “Medium,” which is set in Phoenix, Arizona, featured a character obviously based on tough-on-crime, real-life Sheriff Joe Arpaio. But instead of presenting him as a tough, but serious lawman, this TV show depicted its Arpaio-like character as a rapist of teen girls as well as a murderer.
I guess CBS couldn’t possibly present its Sheriff Arpaio-styled character as a good man. Their Arpaio-like character had to be seen as a sicko, rapist, and murderer. It is just another example of how Hollywood and the TV industry can’t stand it that there are real men out there that the voters love because they are public servants that are tough-minded, but fair. No, to TV, anyone that isn’t a liberal must be a rapist, a murderer, or a mentally deranged cretin.
In this episode titled “How to Kill a Good Guy,” main character Allison, a psychic detective of sorts working for the District Attorney’s office, saw a crime committed in her trance state. She saw the murder of a young girl. Then the murdered girl appeared to psychic Allison and told her exactly where her rapist and murderer buried her body.
The dead girl told Allison that she was buried in a shallow grave in the desert, an area that happened to be in the jurisdiction of a character named Sheriff John Guillory of Yucca County, Arizona.
Allison then goes into the DAs office to tell him that they need to look for this dead girl’s body in Yucca County. But the DA is not too keen to go to this county. Why? Here is how the DA character explains his reticence:
I’m not going to lie to you. Yucca’s not my favorite place. I’m not crazy about the way the do things there.
Well, gosh. What could be so bad? How do they “do things there”?
The next scene shows us this Sheriff Guillory for our benefit. Guest star Tom Wopat portrays a sheriff that is dismissive of the health and welfare of his prisoners, he’s a man that snickers at them, and treats them as less than human. This sheriff makes his prisoners wear — gasp! — pink jumpsuits and work on chain gangs! Oh the horrors.
After we are introduced to this callous character, the main characters have a scene in the car on the way back to their own office. Here another conversation occurs.
Allison: I didn’t even know that there were chain gangs anymore.
District Attny: Huh, that’s because you haven’t spent any time in Yucca County. Around here you’re convicted of a crime, Sheriff Guillory fits you for a pink jumpsuit and assigns you to a work crew. The ACLU hates him but the voters love him. (He says this last bit obviously disdainful of those voters.)
The next scene has the Allison character in bed that night at home telling her husband about meeting Sheriff Guillory.
Allison: This whole experience was so unexpected. I mean on one hand you look at him and he seems so awful and cruel having prisoners wear those pink jumpsuits and parade around in a chain gang.
Gosh, who could this Sheriff John Guillory character mean to invoke in the minds of the viewers of “Medium”? Could writers and producers of “Medium” mean to invoke in viewer’s minds the real-life, tough-minded sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio? The same man that instituted volunteer chain gangs and forced his prisoners to wear pink underwear?
Don’t you think the similarities are too much to ignore?
Only there is one major difference between the real Sheriff Joe and this fictional Sheriff John. This Arpaio-like character is a rapist and murderer of teen girls. This TV character is meant as no less than a slur on the person of Joe Arpaio.
Once again we see the hatred that the leftists in our American entertainment industry have for all things conservative. Has there ever been the slightest hint that Joe Arpaio might be as much of a sicko as this character, John? Not a one. But that won’t stop the leftists of the TV show from creating a character obviously based on a real-life person and turning that person into a monster simply because he’s conservative.
For the record, I’d like to state that I am otherwise a fan of this series. I think I’ve seen every episode on both networks upon which it has aired. My wife got me into this show and I’ve followed it ever since. So this review isn’t born of hate for the show.
But the fact is that this episode and its murderous Sheriff John Guillory character reveals the amount of contempt that Hollywood has for millions of Americans.
(Originally posted at Andrew Breitbart’s BigHollywood.com)
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.