"The Good Fight" Challenges the Liberties Afforded Internet Behemoths

There is so much to praise it is difficult to begin Should I start with the bestinclass acting by its uniformly bluechip cast led by the luminous Christine Baranski pictured at top in a commanding performance as liberal attorney Diane Lockhart that39s often as ferociously funny as it is daringly dramatic and that of recurring player Gary Cole as her very conservative husband and bigtime Second Amendment supporter Kurt McVeigh The chemistry between these two and the wise unsparing dialogue they are given combine to make Diane and Kurt one of the most interesting couples ever seen in a dramatic television franchiseOr how about the storytelling itself led by Robert and Michelle King the couple who created Good Wife Good Fight and another hot Paramount series the consistently unnerving Evil They are scary smart writers who are among the few people working in television I believe to be gifts from a higher power to the American viewing public It was their aheadofitstime idea to have Lockhart be jettisoned from the Chicago law firm that bore her name in Good Wife and land as a name partner at a lowerprofile allBlack firm as a quotminority hirequot on Good FightIndeed Good Fight now in its fifth season has never for an episode shied away from exploring what it means to be a Black professional or simply to be Black in today39s turbulent society any more than Good Wife moved boldly forward with its take on the cumbersome demands made on modern women seeking to balance marriage motherhood the demands of a highpressure career and the desire for personal fulfillmentBut it39s Good Fight39s unfailing intent to explain in terms we can all understand how technology and its masters are manipulating us every day of our lives in such a way that we either don39t notice except when we do or don39t care except when we decide to that elevates it above so much of the restThis season the show is exploring and explaining the power of social media and its role in the destruction of journalism as we know it Should I use the past tense at the end of that sentence The Good Fight is making clear that it might not be wrong to do so In a recent episode a man who owns a bike shop sought to sue a woman who following a minor disagreement created a fake online news story about him in which he was singled out as a child molester She also created several social media accounts quotpopulatedquot by people of the imaginary variety accusing him of same As a result his reputation was destroyed along with his businessIt turns out the real culprit in this appalling situation is something called Section 230 a part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 which allows internet giants including the show39s fictional search behemoth Chumhum first heard about on Good Wife to thrive unencumbered while newspapers and the true journalists employed by them suffer and die It39s explained in more detail in one of the terrific animated musical shorts for which The Good Fight is known To sample the lyrics quotHere39s the good news everybody has a voice Here39s the bad news everybody has a voicequotquotThe government has placed its finger on the scales in favor of internet platforms over newspapers and other press outletsquot the shop owner39s attorney and Lockhart39s partner at the firm Liz Reddick Audra McDonald pictured above left exclaims to the sympathetic Judge Claudia Friend Bebe NeuwirthIt39s the testimony of a career newspaperman that further clarifies the issue He explains that he spent two weeks chasing down the rumors about the bike shop owner only to conclude that they were grounded in baseless gossip That didn39t stop the internet though He then reveals that his paper conducted a survey to learn where its readers turn for news The top four responses were quotFacebook Twitter Google and Chumhumquot he saidquotNone of which can be sued for defamation libel or fraud under Section 230quot Reddick addedquotGawker was sued out of existence by someone who wanted to shut it downquot the editor exclaimed quotThat can happen to a newspaper or a website But it can39t happen to FacebookquotNext on the stand is a former Chumhum content moderator who is no longer working there because he developed PTSD He was traumatized by what he referred to as quotthe churnquot he said quotThat39s the constant turnover of bad content some of it sad homicidal political amp8230 it never stoppedquot He blocked the churn he added but he also quothighlighted repositioned and featuredquot certain itemsquotIt felt like I was an editorquot he admittedquotIn that you were blocking violent or pornographic contentquot Reddick askedquotIn that we featured clickbaitquot he replied quotIf it sparked anger or outrage we featured it That39s how the site made moneyquotI won39t reveal how Judge Friend ultimately ruled You can probably guess and you would probably be right But I will add that this story had another layer to it A very wealthy Republican named David Cord Stephen Lang puts Reddick Lockhart on a retainer in the amount of 12 million to keep fighting ahem the good fight against the internet titansThe depths of his motives are as yet unknown but for now as he explained to Reddick his goals are clear quotI want to save the countryquot he said quotJanuary 6 changed everything Too many people take America for granted I don39tquotThis storyline along with the one about the FBI coming after Kurt for potentially if unknowingly aiding one or more of the insurrectionists with their actions at the Capitol building on that fateful day are powering this season of The Good Fight with the formidable gusto fans have come to expect This is the kind of timely topical instructive infodrama that the prolific David E Kelley used to bring us in his legal dramas exploring issues that impact us all that we may not know anything about or understand even if we think we doNew episodes of The Good Fight premiere Thursdays on ParamountClick the social buttons to share this content 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"The Good Fight" Challenges the Liberties Afforded Internet Behemoths

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"The Good Fight" Challenges the Liberties Afforded Internet Behemoths

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