Comments on: When Doing ‘Inspired by True Events’ Stories, You Have to Punch Up, Not Down https://popculturereferences.com/when-doing-inspired-by-true-events-stories-you-have-to-punch-up-not-down/ Brian Cronin takes a look at interesting pieces of pop culture history from the worlds of TV, film, music and more. Wed, 10 May 2023 08:00:36 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 By: Brian Cronin https://popculturereferences.com/when-doing-inspired-by-true-events-stories-you-have-to-punch-up-not-down/#comment-9742 Wed, 10 May 2023 08:00:36 +0000 https://popculturereferences.com/?p=4870#comment-9742 In reply to Fraser.

Great point, Fraser.

]]> By: Fraser https://popculturereferences.com/when-doing-inspired-by-true-events-stories-you-have-to-punch-up-not-down/#comment-9700 Tue, 09 May 2023 09:55:30 +0000 https://popculturereferences.com/?p=4870#comment-9700 I have similar thoughts about the musical Ragtime. It’s mostly great but it portrays Evelyn Nesbit — a rape victim who then married, and her unstable husband went and shot the rapist — as just a naughty little minx and that pissed me off.

]]> By: Xander https://popculturereferences.com/when-doing-inspired-by-true-events-stories-you-have-to-punch-up-not-down/#comment-9603 Fri, 05 May 2023 16:19:11 +0000 https://popculturereferences.com/?p=4870#comment-9603 And a happy Friday to both of you, as well.

(Just because you’re both correct doesn’t mean I have to like it.)

]]> By: Alex Widen https://popculturereferences.com/when-doing-inspired-by-true-events-stories-you-have-to-punch-up-not-down/#comment-9601 Fri, 05 May 2023 15:11:37 +0000 https://popculturereferences.com/?p=4870#comment-9601 See also: a vast majority of the “based on true events” stories from LAW & ORDER (and all spinoffs, including and especially SVU), BLUE BLOODS, at times CSI (and its own spinoffs), and a large chunk of the “cop shows” on network TV (but especially CBS and NBC).

If you tried to count all of the “based on true events” stories from those shows which muddied the waters more than the real events did and “punched down,” you’d have no time to do anything else.

This is one reason why the term “Copaganda” has arisen. It is easy for a cynic to see many of these shows, and films like “STILLWATER,” as laundering operations meant to enforce the status quo that “all cops are right if they’re pale” and “women and ‘those people’ are always as guilty as we say they are somewhere.” And like many laundering operations, are actually profitable regardless of the core objective. Now, I think a chunk of this is good old fashioned ignorance mixed in with a “we want to tell an interesting story and we’re both too lazy to come up with one whole cloth yet too proud to just summarize a script from an AP article” vibe, but the end result is the same, unfortunately.

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