CBS Trigger Warning
"The Good Fight" encourages presidential assassination

Remember when cable news-panels insisted candidate Trump's shouted swagger might engender violence?

For all that foam and fuss, though, they never got around to criticizing Madonna's "I've thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House" prepared declaration. Nor is Chris Matthews likely to now censure "The Good Fight" star Christine Baranski.

"The One Where Diane Joins the Resistance" was the title of the latest episode of her CBS show. According to IMDB, it was written by Jonathan Tolins. Other credits IMDB lists for him include screenplays, a New York Times article, and various stage writings for Bette Midler. He is also credited as having written two 2018 "The Good Fight" episodes. 

Jonathan Tolin (Twitter)

"The Good Fight" Executive Story Editor Tegan Shohet

(The present writer hasn't viewed this new "The Good Fight" episode in its entirety. So, no critiques of its scenery, lighting, or pacing will be rendered. To address an excerpted dramatic item, review of the whole program is unnecessary.) 

At one point, a list of words is shown."Assassinate President Trump" tops the first column. "Eliminate Mar-A-Lago" heads the second. 

Apparently feeling waggishly ghoulish (or ghoulishly waggish) , the CBS show tweeted an incriminating shot:

(From Breitbart)

Numerous Twitter denunciations of CBS and the show quickly appeared. Reportedly, calls were made to the Secret Service. And many were the commentators who rightly savaged the long-fallen, former Tiffany network's effective call to traitorous arms.

CBS was said to have deleted the post without explanation. The network in no way suffered, though; its bratty attention-getting work was done.

Show creators Michelle and Robert King

(This writer recalls his toddler years in which the assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy, and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., were not celebrated by show business. Even reminding of such events meant career end. See: Vaughn Meader.)

Perhaps the notoriously anti-Trump program's viewers had finally become inured to its formulaic bashing of our president. Like so many addicts, they may no longer find the old fix sufficient. (Screenplays as works?)

To indulge that heightened desire, CBS now explicitly communicates that politically motivated violence and even assassination are morally acceptable. The customer is always right, unethical producers seem to feel, even when he becomes homicidal.

It may also be that "The Good Fight's" willingness to promote political barbarism typical of less-civilized countries gives Baranski and her comrades opportunity to undrape the inhumanity they may already have harbored.

Sometimes, shows are said to have their fingers on the popular pulse. CBS and "The Good Fight" apparently prefer that theirs be on the trigger.