09x22 - Law & Order

[bunniefuu]

LAST WEEK TONIGHT
WITH JOHN OLIVER

Welcome to "Last Week Tonight!"

I'm John Oliver,
thank you so much for joining us.

We are back,
and we have missed a lot,

from Steve Bannon
being charged with money-laundering,

to Pakistan suffering massive flooding,
to the president of Chile

speaking on the day his country
rejected a new constitution,

and being undermined
by an unexpected guest.

The role that I will play as president
of the republic in our government,

and which we are going to commit
ourselves together with all of you

is to define ourselves as a country,
to advance justice and equality,

and to advance greater development
and growth for all of us.

And know that this historic moment

will surely remain in our memories
for a long time to come.

They're watching us
from all over the world.

They sure are! Maybe not for the exact
reasons that you were hoping for there.

Quick tip for any world leaders:

if you want people
to focus on what you're saying,

do try not to say it next to a
bicycle-riding, fun-sized Superman

having the time of his f*cking life.

But obviously,
we need to start with the U.K.,

which is clearly still reeling
from the shocking death

of a 96-year-old
woman from natural causes.

It is a big moment,
which, for some reason,

absolutely everyone felt
that they had to weigh in on,

from Crazy Frog, which Tweeted out,
"R.I.P. the Queen, candle emoji",

a Tweet that's impossible to read
without mentally adding…

To Domino's U.K., which posted,

"Everyone at Domino's
joins the nation and the world

in mourning
the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Our thoughts and condolences
are with the royal family."

Which I guess is nice,
although if "the world" is mourning,

they should maybe tell
the U.S. Domino's account,

whose most recent Tweet,
as of this taping, is,

"If ur reading this it means
u need pizza. Like to confirm."

Get your f*cking house in order,
Domino's!

A lady is dead!

But the Queen's death is sadly
not the only traumatic event

that Britain has had to deal
with this week.

Because on Tuesday, Liz Truss,
basically, Margaret Thatcher

if she were high on glue,
became its new prime minister.

When we were covering the battle to
replace Boris Johnson a few weeks ago,

we introduced you
to this iconic moment.

In December, I'll be in Beijing,
opening up new pork markets!

Excellent.

I genuinely don't think she could
have gotten a more tepid response

to, "I'll be opening up
new pork markets",

if that audience
was literally full of pigs.

And if you think
she learned anything after that

about the danger of holding for applause
after making a ludicrous statement,

just watch the speech
that she gave to her party on Monday,

where she tried to pay tribute
to her predecessor.

Boris, you got Brexit done.

You crushed Jeremy Corbyn.

You rolled out the vaccine,
and you stood up to Vladimir Putin.

You are admired
from Kiev to Carlisle.

Okay, a couple of things there.
First, the U.K. goes above Carlisle.

That's an admission that everyone north
of this point f*cking hates Boris,

which is not untrue.

And praising Boris Johnson isn't
how you get an audience to love you.

As we all now know,
the way to do that

is to have a Chilean
child Superman ride around you.

That's the only way to distract people
from the stupidity of what you said.

Liz Truss is now facing
a multitude of problems,

with the most pressing
being the fact that,

due to factors like Covid
and Russia's w*r in Ukraine,

British "households face
an 80% increase

on their energy bills
starting next month."

Which is clearly terrifying,
and somehow made even grimmer

by how one daytime show
tried to deal with it.

How are your energy bills?
Are you a bit worried about it all?

- Major.
- Yeah.

I've got one of these prepayment meters
and it's absolutely m*rder.

- God!
- Let's hope it lands on one of those.

You're going to win some money,
so don't worry, here we go.




It is going to be…

It's your energy bill!

My god. Thank you!

We're paying your energy bill
for four months.

- Fantastic!
- No worries.

That is so bleak!

For those of you
who are not familiar with British TV,

that's from a program called "Orwellian
Nightmare Doom Spiral This Morning".

Truss has now proposed
limiting energy prices,

which could cost the government
more than 100 billion pounds.

Many have suggested that, rather than
passing that cost along to taxpayers,

some of it should be recouped
through a new so-called "windfall tax"

on oil and gas companies,
who have made huge profits

during the price spike
for doing absolutely nothing.

But Truss
has no interest in doing that.

One thing I absolutely
don't support is a windfall tax.

I think it's a Labor idea.
It's all about bashing business,

and it sends the wrong message

to international investors
and to the public.

I don't think profit is a dirty word,

and the fact it's become
a dirty word in our society

is a massive problem
because there are, you know,

in this audience today,
we have hundreds of people

who run businesses and make a profit
and I think that's a good thing.

What the f*ck
are you talking about?

I'm going to say this,
and you may not like it,

but it doesn't make it
any less true,

the nicest thing the Queen of England
ever did for anyone

was die the week that woman
became prime minister.

Because for at least a week,
she's not going to be

getting justifiably destroyed
for answers like that.

Things are pretty bleak
in the U.K. right now.

This f*cking guy
is about to be on all the money,

and morning TV is now basically
"The Hunger Games",

but don't worry, Britain,
your future is securely in the hands

of Dollar Store British
Leslie Knope here.

Everything's gonna be fine.
And now, this!

And Now…

Sean Hannity Does the Opposite
of an Ad for Walmart.

They're all aligned, and have been
for 4 years, against President Tr*mp,

and we, the smelly Walmart shoppers
that support him.

They also hate we the people,
we smelly Walmart shoppers.

We, the smelly Walmart shoppers,
irredeemable deplorables.

They know better than we,
the smelly Walmart people.

Tr*mp voters were smelly
Walmart people.

And after all, we're just a bunch
of smelly Walmart voters,

what do we know?

We're smelly Walmart shoppers.

By the way, guilty,
I go to Walmart.

I confess,
I like to shop at Walmart.

I like Walmart. Maybe he probably
shops at Walmart like me

smelly Walmart shopper.

And I like to shop at Walmart, too.

Joe Biden is doing
every single thing right,

and everybody else
is a bunch of Nazis

and fascists
and jerks that suck.

We shop at Walmart.

Turn around and tell everybody,
Sean Hannity said

you're smelly Walmart shoppers
and irredeemable deplorables.

That loves God.

Sean Hannity says
you're smelly Walmart people

that are deplorables
and love God.

We're proud of it!

They say
they're proud of it, Sean!

Moving on.

For our main story tonight, we're going
to do something a little different,

and talk about another TV show.

Specifically, "Law & Order",
the wildly popular franchise

that's been on TV for decades,
treating us to incredible dialogue.

Do you think
that there was a reason

that the k*ller sodomized
your husband with a banana?

Now that is acting right there.

Even if I wasn't listening to the words
coming out of Mariska Hargitay's mouth,

I would know,
based on her delivery alone,

that the k*ller had sodomized
this person's husband with a banana,

and that she was simply
trying to figure out why.

Now, it turns out, the victim's wife
actually answered that question.

And think of the funniest
possible response.

You're wrong, it's this.

Do you think that there was a reason

that the k*ller sodomized your husband
with a banana?

He was allergic to bananas.

Excellent.

I simply love the idea
of a k*ller asking,

"Before I m*rder and s*domize you,
I've got just one question:

do you have any allergies
I should be aware of?"

That exchange is just one
of the reasons why "Law & Order"

is the king of cop shows.

Between all its various spinoffs,
there are over 1,200 episodes of it.

It's been around for so long,
it is genuinely hard to think

of an actor who hasn't appeared
on it at some point,

because it's featured everyone from
Chevy Chase to Samuel L. Jackson

to Philip Seymour Hoffman
to Angela Lansbury

appearing with her lawyer,
Bradley Cooper,

to Adam Driver,
who's on series 13 episode 11 of SVU,

for approximately three minutes
and 32 seconds of screen time,

if you're the kind of person
who counts that sort of thing.

Even politicians have been on it,

like Rudy Giuliani, Mike Bloomberg,
and Joe Biden,

all of whom
guest-starred as themselves.

Which is a little weird.

Although it would clearly be weirder
if Biden appeared as someone else,

like a Times Square Ninja Turtle who
stumbled across a grisly m*rder victim

suffering from bananaphylactic shock.

"Law & Order" is on all the time,
and for many, it is comfort TV.

But it, and shows like it,
have a real impact.

One study found
"viewers of crime dramas

are more likely to believe the police
are successful at lowering crime",

"use force only when necessary,
and that misconduct

does not typically
lead to false confessions."

Which would be great
if it were true,

but if you're watching this show,
you probably know it is not.

And "Law & Order" in particular
has become an American institution,

with huge cultural influence.

Some have argued its formula

shaped a generation's
understanding of the legal system.

You've probably seen people using it
as a go-to reference point, like this.

I'm not an attorney, I watch
"Law & Order" from time to time.

My legal experience is watching like,
"Law & Order" and "Law & Order: SVU".

I think the average viewer
of "Law & Order"

probably knows
that you're not supposed to do this.

I went to a great law school, but most
of what I do on a day-to-day basis

is based off of what I learned
on "Law & Order".

I'm not saying that there is nothing
you can learn from "Law & Order".

I've learned a ton from Ice-T's
Twitter feed alone,

where he drops truth bombs like,
"A real nut feels like

every bone in your body
comes out the head of your d*ck.

Say no more. I'm done.
Fall asleep in two minutes."

The man is a truth teller.

If you can't handle the ice,
stay out of the freezer.

It can be genuinely alarming just how
seriously some people take the show.

Just listen to Warren Leight,

"Law & Order: SVU"'s
former longtime showrunner,

talk about an unexpected group
of viewers that he learned about.

We've also found out over time,

and this is a little
anxiety-provoking for me,

that a lot of cops
aren't trained in how to…

how to do their job in
certain cases of sexual as*ault.

And a lot of cops get a lot of their
information from watching "SVU",

which, a lot of police departments
don't have the time or the money

to put people
through formal training.

Yeah, that's not great, is it?

Nobody should be learning
how to do their job from a TV show.

Unless, of course,
your job happens to be telling jokes

to mask your deep-seated feelings
of emptiness and existential dread,

in which case: keep watching,
you might pick up some tips!

So, if "Law & Order" is being
co-signed by elected leaders,

and everyone from TV pundits
to actual cops

are using it to learn
about law enforcement,

we'd take a look at what this franchise
has actually been teaching us.

Let's start with the fact that the line
between cop shows and actual cops

has always been deliberately blurry.

In fact, the first smash hit
cop show, "Dragnet",

which debuted on TV in 1951,

made a big selling point
of its authenticity,

right from the start
of each episode.

Ladies and gentlemen,
the story you are about to see is true.

The names have been changed
to protect the innocent.

The surprising thing for me is that
it starts with "ladies and gentlemen",

as that sounds like the sort
of voice that would say,

"Letting your wife watch television
could give her notions".

But that claim of verisimilitude
came at a price.

"Dragnet"'s star and creator,
Jack Webb,

"agreed that scripts
would be formally approved

by the LAPD's
Public Information Division",

and in return, the show
could sh**t wherever they wanted,

have cops for extras,
and use police vehicles and equipment.

Which was a pretty good deal
for both sides.

The show
got a patina of authenticity,

and the LAPD got a flattering portrayal
which it frankly needed,

given that,
right after "Dragnet" premiered,

approximately 50 LAPD officers

brutally b*at seven men
in their custody for over an hour,

leaving them "hospitalized with
broken bones and ruptured organs"

in an incident that later become
known as "Bloody Christmas".

So, if "Dragnet"
really wanted to be authentic,

every episode should
probably have started like this.

Ladies and gentlemen, the story
you are about to see is bullshit.

The names have been changed
to protect the LAPD

because they helped us save
a bunch of money on props.

"Dragnet" had a big impact
on viewers at the time,

including one particular little boy,

who later reminisced
about being five or six years old,

and allowed to stay up late
because "Dragnet" was on.

That boy eventually grew up
to become such a household name,

someone once
did this to their own body.

Here it is, the words,
"Executive Producer: d*ck Wolf".

- On his lower back.
- Yes.

The man says he got it because
he's obsessed with "Law & Order".

Yeah. A d*ck Wolf tattoo.

That is real star power,
especially for an executive producer.

Perhaps that is why Ice-T himself
once simply Tweeted,

"d*ck Wolf",
and it got 108 likes.

d*ck Wolf is one of those names,
like Steve Madden or Charles Schwab,

that you see all the time,

even if you have no idea what
d*ck Wolf himself actually looks like.

Case in point: that is not d*ck Wolf,
that's Charles Schwab,

this is d*ck Wolf.

Except it isn't, that's Steve Madden.
This is d*ck Wolf…

is what I would say
if that was d*ck Wolf,

but it's a stock image that came up
when we searched "business grandpa".

This, I promise,
is the real d*ck Wolf.

And d*ck Wolf was the six-year-old
"Dragnet" superfan

who then grew up
to create "Law & Order".

And interestingly,
he started out in advertising,

where among other things,

he helped create this wildly sexist
ad campaign for National Airlines.

I'm Judy, and I was born to fly.

Fly me to Houston.

National has nonstop
DC-10s every day,

or fly me to New Orleans
on the only DC-10s.

You can fly me morning,
afternoon, or night.

Just say when.

I'm Judy, and I was born to fly.
Fly me.

Fly Judy. Fly National.

Holy sh*t.

I can only imagine the target demo
of that were men aged 18 to 40

who live by the motto,
"Can't f*ck it? Don't want it".

The whole "fly me" campaign
was a big, big success,

and d*ck Wolf
later bragged about it

to the least appropriate
person imaginable.

You were in advertising
before as a writer.

As a writer-producer,
I made commercials.

What were some of the commercials?
Would people recognize them today?

Sure. "I'm Cheryl, fly me".

Today, it's sexual harassment,
it's immediately going to prison.

Seven years.

Interestingly enough, it was one of the
most successful airline campaigns ever.

- 'Cause it was aimed at the…
- I'm Cheryl, fly me.

It was aimed at businessmen,
and all the stewardesses

were from the University of Florida
and were 22 years old.

That's why they flew the airline.

I'm surprised
that didn't end your career.

If you've out-misogynied
Roger Ailes,

the man best known for sexually
harassing so hard he d*ed,

you know you've made
an outrageously wrong turn.

It's like someone saying,
"You look lost",

and it turning out
that that someone was Amelia Earhart.

You're in big f*cking trouble.

Now, after leaving advertising,
Wolf worked on cop shows

like "Hill Street Blues"
and "Miami Vice",

and in 1990, he had his monster hit,
"Law & Order",

which he even gave his own version
of the "Dragnet" preamble,

one that I'm guessing
you can basically recite by heart,

'cause you know how it goes.

In the criminal justice system,
the people are represented

by two separate
yet equally important groups.

The police who investigate crime

and the district attorneys
who prosecute the offenders.

These are their stories.

The "these are their stories" part
is really important.

Because a big selling point
for "Law & Order"

is that, similar to "Dragnet",

it draws inspiration
from real-life cases.

In fact, as Wolf recounts,
when the network asked him,

"What's the Bible for the show?"

he said, "The front page
of the New York Post.

No writers are going to do better than
'headless body found in topless bar.'"

Which is a catchy thing to say,
but I'm not sure it's true.

"Assless corpse
found at bottomless brunch."

There, I just did it.

And like Jack Webb in LA,
d*ck Wolf cultivated

a close behind-the-scenes
relationship with the NYPD,

employing officers as consultants,
and boasting about the access he had.

I've spent more time with cops than
anybody who doesn't carry a badge.

When you meet people,
you meet cops,

you meet whether it's Bill Bratton
or Ray Kelly or Sheriff Baca,

there is a shared interest
in putting bad guys away

and having cops,
shown in a decent light.

I am kind of unabashedly
pro-law enforcement.

d*ck Wolf is the most enthusiastic
chronicler of blue lives

since James Cameron.

And while not as formal
as "Dragnet"'s arrangement,

"Law & Order" has similarly benefited
from its relationship with the NYPD.

One writer who's worked on the show
has said, "There was always the sense

that if we told stories that reflected
too badly on the police,

the NYPD could make it very
difficult for us to sh**t in New York."

Which does make sense,
doesn't it?

The NYPD is famously anti-sh**ting
unless they're the ones doing it.

For as much as d*ck Wolf

brags about how the show
is written in shades of gray,

or how it'll show
both sides of an issue,

there is one side that it's always on,
and that's the police.

Because however flawed
his characters may be,

they're all fundamentally
pursuing justice,

and cops love being portrayed
that way,

as actors on the show
have attested over the years.

Police around the country,
I must say, are big fans of the show

because they feel it's authentic.

A couple homicide cops
came over to visit.

They just had wonderful things
to say about the show,

and they said thank you and they
were thanking me, which was weird.

They felt like they were
being well-represented.

My favorite quote from the police
is, "Keep making us look good",

which is a nice compliment.

They're very, very kind.

Yeah, I bet they are!

Although, for what it's worth,
there is a pretty major difference

between "they feel it's authentic" and
"they feel it makes them look good".

And it's the same difference
between these two photos.

One is a mirror of reality,
and the other is a lie.

And look, thanks to "Law & Order"'s
close collaboration

with its police consultants,

the show does get
a lot of smaller details right,

like specific laws, jargon,
and crime scene procedures.

But crucially,
it also makes a lot of choices

that significantly distort
the big picture of policing.

For instance, most episodes arrest
the right perpetrators at the midpoint,

and then convict them at the end.

And it's structured
like that for obvious reasons,

it is a self-contained
episode of TV,

and those need satisfying
narrative arc fulfillment.

But as we know, in reality, not only
do many cases simply go unsolved,

almost none of the ones
that do get solved go to trial.

Prosecutors put massive pressure
on defendants to take plea deals,

meaning that 97% of criminal cases
don't go to trial.

And obviously, "Law & Order"
cannot reflect that reality.

It would be unwatchable.

Nobody wants to watch a show
where 97% of episodes

end with two lawyers
striking a deal in a windowless room,

and then you get to watch the defendant
serve six months,

then struggle to get a job
at their local Jiffy Lube.

But the courtroom
half of "Law & Order"

actually represents a significant
departure from TV tradition.

Because historically, lawyer shows
centered defense lawyers

like "Perry Mason",
who tried to work against the system

as the underdog
and free innocent people.

But "Law & Order" is different,
and that is very much by design.

d*ck Wolf has said,
"I believed that the heroes

weren't the defense attorneys
who were getting these scumbags off.

The heroes were the prosecutors."

And you can see that on his shows,

where defense attorneys
are usually presented

as an impediment to convicting
obviously guilty suspects,

and they're the target
of lines like this!

If a cold chill
just ran up your spine,

it's because a defense attorney
just walked in here.

Defense attorneys distort the facts.
They twist evidence.

I believe in monsters and things
that go bump in the night, Jack.

May they rot in Hell,
along with their attorneys.

The devil's errand boy, otherwise
known as a defense attorney?

Couple of things there. One, yes,
that is a post-"OC" Mischa Barton

doing some award-worthy
eyebrow acting there.

But two, defense attorneys
are a vital part of the justice system,

so it's a bit weird that "Law & Order"
can sometimes go out of its way

to present them like the Babadook.

And you can absolutely justify
those decisions by saying,

"Come on, they're making fiction,
not a documentary.

Not everyone wants to watch
hyper-realistic portrayals

of our ever-desiccating society".

And I do understand that.

But it's not just the portrayals
of defense lawyers

where big editorial
decisions are being made.

One study found that offenders
on "Law & Order"

were disproportionately white,
male, older,

and from the middle
or upper classes.

d*ck Wolf's
explained his reasoning

for why the show's criminals skew
that way, saying,

"There are no rich
white guy pressure groups.

You can do anything you want to rich,
white guys, and nobody cares."

And you can see why he might
not want to make a show

in which his good-guy cops

are disproportionately targeting
communities of color.

He wants people to like them.

But the result
of all of these creative decisions

is that, instead of depicting a flawed
system riddled with structural racism,

the show presents
exceptionally competent cops,

working within a largely fair framework
that mostly convicts white people.

And while it is true that
they have occasionally done episodes

focusing on individual bad cops,
or referenced real-world criticisms,

especially recently, with discussions
of anti-police sentiment

sometimes being shoehorned
into conversations,

in general, police reforms
are often portrayed

by the main characters
as at best a nuisance to them,

and at worst
a thr*at to public safety.



They cut back on the stop and searches,
people start carrying.

You two had him yesterday,
and you let him go?

There wasn't probable cause
for an arrest.

You create probable cause.
You push him around, you provoke him!

After Eric Garner
and the stop-and-frisk lawsuits,


Don't make a scene.

Like it or not, Nolan, the big bad
police department is our partner.

And in case you haven't been
paying attention, they're under att*ck.

Every decision,
every arrest is scrutinized.

There are people trying
to defund them, for God's sake.

And here you are,
asking me to castrate them?

No! Scrutinizing arrests?
How awful!

It's pretty telling that,
even in this fictional universe,

basic police accountability

is treated as an equivalent
to getting your balls cut off.

The best expression of the disparity
between "Law & Order" and real life

is in its most popular spinoff, "SVU".

It is a show built on the appeal
of having cops who will stop at nothing

to cr*ck horrific cases.
Cops like Elliott Stabler,

who, before getting a spinoff show,
routinely did sh*t like this.

Sorry to keep you waiting.

I get a little clumsy
around scumbag pedophiles.

- Why you gotta be so rough?
- You got one good arm left to break.

I should put you in pigtails,
you little bitch.

I want you to cry for me.
Come on, tell me!

Come on! Cry for me!

I don't know
what the hell you're talking about.

Do you think
I am some dumb cop?

You think you're smarter than me?
You're gonna need a morgue, pal.

Leave Will Arnett alone!

I admit, as a viewer, it is something
to see Stabler chew up the scenery

and spit it out directly
into Matthew Modine's face.

Is it the model of good police
behavior? Absolutely not.

Is it compelling to watch?
For sure it is.

Is it hot?
Reasonable people can disagree.

But generally,
the thesis on "SVU"

is that the cops deeply care
about getting justice for victims,

and their gut instincts mean that
they almost always get the job done.

In one episode, we learn that Stabler
has a 97% case closure rate,

and people love this show.

Christopher Meloni is the internet's
zaddy, and you can see why.

His ass alone is a pop culture icon.

And Mariska Hargitay
has a huge cult following, too.

Fans have tattoos of her,

Taylor Swift has a cat named
for her character, Olivia Benson,

and there are
even TikToks like this.

Diddle you when you were a kid?
Daddy's little girl?

This my sh*t, all the girls
stomp your feet like this.

I've been around that track,
so it's not gonna happen like that,

'cause I ain't no holl*back girl.

I think I've made my position
on police brutality pretty clear.

But even I will admit,

it is hard to resist
the sight of Olivia Benson

slamming an assh*le's head on a table
to the b*at of "holl*back Girl".

In which case, go off, girlboss!
Lean in to state-sponsored v*olence!

There is something incredibly appealing
about the idea of a world

where survivors of sexual as*ault
are taken seriously by the police.

Hargitay's spoken openly about some of
the show's positive real-world impacts.

I have so many times

encountered people that have said
because of this show

they knew what to do
after their as*ault.

Because of this show,
they had a r*pe kit done.

Because of the show,
they reported and had faith in that.

And because of the show, most of all,
they didn't feel alone anymore.

And to me,
when I started hearing those stories

is when I knew that it wasn't
just a TV show anymore.

It was so much more.

That is obviously
genuinely moving.

And I don't doubt the show is doing
important work for some of its viewers,

in between, that is, showing her
slamming a suspect's face into a table

like she's a toddler
making two Barbies kiss.

And to her real credit,

Mariska Hargitay has tried
to parlay her fame into advocacy,

founding an organization
which advocates

for survivors of sexual as*ault,
domestic abuse, and child abuse.

But if, as Hargitay says,

the show encourages people
to avail themselves of this system,

it is worth knowing what that system
can look like in practice.

Because it's not good.

Government and press reports
have repeatedly shown

that New York's
actual sex crimes unit

is set up to fail
victims of sexual as*ault.

And its case closure rate is a long way
from Elliot Stabler's fictitious 97%.

The NYPD's official figures

show that they only close
about a third of sexual as*ault cases.

But one analysis of cases
handled over a two-year period

found they had
a closure rate of just 6%.

Also, a damning 2018 investigation
quoted multiple prosecutors

describing improper handling of cases

by overloaded
or inexperienced investigators,

who until recently were only given
"5 days of specialized training".

Is it any wonder that some cops
are watching "SVU" for tips?

Which honestly
may not be a bad thing

when you get
justice crusader Olivia Benson,

but it gets a little hairy when you get
Use of Excessive Force Zaddy here.

And while the NYPD insists that they've
since improved staffing and training,

the DOJ recently announced
their own investigation,

citing reports
that the unit's officers were

"failing to conduct
basic investigative steps

and instead shaming
and abusing survivors

and re-traumatizing them
during investigations."

And yet, the portrait "SVU"
paints of the division

is so convincing that when
a new commander took it over in 2020,

and did an interview discussing that
scathing internal report I mentioned,

here is how the anchor
wrapped up their conversation.

I ask this because I'm obsessed
with the TV show "Law & Order: SVU".

How real is the TV show
to real life?

I can tell you this, the dedication
you see on TV with the investigators,

that's the same dedication that we have
within the real special victims unit

and the cases are very, very similar.

As heinous as you see them on TV, we
are seeing the same thing in real life.

So many of them
are ripped from the headlines.

What are you doing? Why stop your
fawning there? Just keep it going!

"Are you really
as cool as you seem on TV?

Do you make the car go wee-woo even
when it doesn't need to go wee-woo?

Is Ice-T nice?
I follow him on Twitter!"

And it's worth knowing,
some survivors have spoken

about what it is like seeing
these detectives valorized on TV,

with one saying, "'Law & Order: SVU'
gave me the false impression

that this squad cared deeply
about victims and their jobs",

and another saying, "If I had
a dollar for every time I heard,

'This can't be true. Olivia Benson
would never let this happen,'

I would have enough

to cover my hospital bills
and therapy for my trauma."

And you should know,
even the real-world inspiration

for the tenacious,
uncompromising Olivia Benson,

and the show's tough ADA, Alexandra
Cabot, has a significant asterisk,

because an early model for both
characters was Linda Fairstein,

the woman now infamous
for prosecuting the Central Park Five,

or as they're now known,
the Exonerated Five.

And I will say,
some behind the show are keenly aware

of its role in perpetuating
a false narrative about police.

In fact, in 2020, at the peak
of the Black Lives Matter protests,

Warren Leight reflected on the role
that the show plays

in our discussion of policing.

So, individually, am I contributing,
mis-contributing to society?

I don't know.
Collectively, are we? Yeah.

So, how do you, what do you do?
Can you go into the network?

I have pitched the… by the way,

every writer has pitched the Innocence
Project series to the networks.

I've made that pitch. I bet it has
a better chance of going now.

Within the d*ck Wolf
"Law & Order" universe,

it won't be likely that they're going
to do a show that reveals,

that bases itself
on cops behaving illegal.

That's not part of d*ck's brand.

Exactly! Even if the people
working on the show,

the actors, the writers,
and the showrunners,

have really good intentions
about correcting the record,

there is only so much they can do.

"Law & Order"
is never going to grapple

with the reality of policing
in a meaningful way,

for the same reasons
that Daniel Tiger won't do it.

It's never gonna happen, and honestly,
you'd be weirded out if it ever did.

Because fundamentally,
the person who is responsible

for "Law & Order" and its brand,
is d*ck Wolf.

And he knows exactly what he wants
he wants his shows to do,

and, importantly, not to do.

Here he is invoking
one of the most notorious cases

of police abuse
in New York City,

Abner Louima, who was beaten by
NYPD officers and sodomized in 1997.

We're not there to do
Abner Louima.

That's a terrible thing that happened

but that represents
one or two bad apples

in a police force of 35 000 people.

We're certainly, I think the show,
over the last…

all three shows are probably
the best recruiting poster

you could have
for being a New York City cop.

Right. Because a recruiting poster
is always going to be

a propagandized,
hero-washed version of the truth.

A truth which is more often
than not, very ugly.

And for the 300th time, I know
"Law & Order" is just a TV show.

I know it's meant to be
entertainment.

And honestly, I'm not even
telling you not to watch it.

It's completely fine to enjoy it,

and it's completely understandable
to want Olivia Benson to exist.

But it is important to remember
just how far it is

from representing
anything resembling reality.

As one critic of "Law & Order"
has put it,

"If a medical show was giving us
inaccurate information,

we would say it's dangerous."

Which is true,
because think about it.

"Grey's Anatomy" doesn't depict
what happens inside an actual hospital.

Those doctors are ridiculously hot,
none of them are nearly tired enough,

and it needs about 5 000%
more discussion of insurance.

But if those medical professionals
were routinely claiming

that vaccines cause autism
and herbal remedies cure cancer,

we'd probably be having
a conversation about it.

Because that's essentially
what "Law & Order" is doing.

It's presenting a world where the cops
can always figure out who did it,

defense attorneys are irritating
obstacles to be overcome,

and even if a cop roughs up a suspect,
it's all in pursuit of a just outcome.

And it blasts that fantasy at you
in endless reruns and marathons,

in the guise of very well-produced,
extremely entertaining TV.

But underneath it all,
it is a commercial,

and a commercial produced
by a man who is, in his words,

"unabashedly pro-law enforcement",
and he is very good at selling things.

And in this instance,
he's selling a complete fantasy

that many people in this country
are only too happy to buy.

Which is fine,
as long as we don't lose sight

of the fact that it's an ad
for a defective product.

Because, if I may quote
one last time

from the Library of Alexandria
that is Ice-T's Twitter account,

"You gotta know who the F you're
dealing with. Could be the cops."

That's our show.
Thank you so much for watching.

And given tonight's story,
there's only one way to end this,

and it's like this!