Law and Order geekage

[kellinator]

Wow, do you think Dick Wolf's letting Fred Thompson write the episodes as well as act in them? Take some opinions about the war shared by a lot of intelligent Americans, and put them in the mouth of a total piece-of-scum reporter who gets soldiers killed by revealing troop locations and then has himself shot in an attempt to frame an innocent soldier and get more ratings? Arrrrgh!!

That reminds me of something I really fucking hate about television: the constant demonization of certain professions. Journalism is a big one. But I think the biggest is social workers. I've lost track of the number of times I've seen social workers portrayed as uncaring, lazy, closed-minded, and incompetent, on well-respected shows such as Law and Order, ER, and even my own beloved Homicide. And I've frequently seen these shows while sitting beside my mother, the secretary of our county's Department of Children's Services.

Obviously, I've known a lot of social workers. Some weren't so great, yes; one needs only look at the news to know that some fail miserably. But a great many are good people toiling ceaselessly in a job that's low-prestige and low-pay, not to mention with an enormous burnout rate. Is it really so much to ask that they not be constantly demonized by popular culture?