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The lead up to the 2024 presidential election is now officially underway as the midterm elections finalize their votes and come to a close.
If the days after the midterms are any indication, things are going to get nasty on the road to 2024.
With former President Donald Trump already taking aim at his potential rivals within the Republican party, the ever-objective media machine has taken its first swipe at a candidate as well.
The strange part is that it took place within a fictional show, and accused a real-life governor of a crime.
In the Paramount+ series “The Good Fight,” a spinoff of CBS’s “The Good Wife,” a recurring gay character alleges sexual harassment against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Defenders of the show are in full damage control, explaining that the character later admits that he lied and that the allegations were completely made up and false. The show’s reason? A duplicitous scheme for Trump to end up getting the 2024 Republican nomination.
The mainstream news media will have its own field day with candidates jockeying for position to unseat President Biden, but now the entertainment media has opened up a whole different can of worms.
Harry Khacatrian, a contributor for the Washington Examiner, posed the question that was on many people’s minds after the show aired, is it even legal to do this?
Is this kind of thing legal? I realize the whole free speech thing is pretty robust, but can you just insert a real public figure into your fictional movie and make him a sex offender? https://t.co/Dd2v6kvTXs
— Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) November 10, 2022
Whether this type of portrayal can be viewed as defamation will be for the courts to decide. But if it is allowed, it opens up (Republican) candidates to all sorts of smears and accusations from two of the main sectors of the predominantly left-leaning media, entertainment and news.
Although similar fictional material has existed for a long while, what would prevent ABC, CBS, NBC and other media outlets from creating more conveniently “fictional” scenarios utilizing real-life politicians? The psychological effect could be considerable when viewers would be inundated with storylines regarding real people in fictional settings.
How often does the Bible warn Christians to be watchful? To be ‘watchers on the wall’ against the enemy’s schemes?
This type of deception and dishonesty is becoming the new norm for media in America. And it will be defended and even encouraged when a political opponent they do not like is the target.
There must be discernment among Christians during these pivotal times. The more an audience sees fictional accusations about a potential presidential candidate, the more there could be a negative psychological image of that candidate.
Thankfully, the Word of God equips Christians to combat this devious form of suggestive programming. Be watchful and stand firm in faith (1 Cor. 16:13), continue steadfastly in prayer (Col. 4:2) and be sober-minded and watchful (1 Pet. 5:8) so that believers can recognize and call out deceptive content across the media spectrum.{eoa}
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James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
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