No dehumanization here, mates! New show will follow Navy’s pirate hunters

[EFerrari]

Source: MSNBC/AP

NEW YORK - Barely a day after the daring rescue of an American sea captain, a US cable TV channel announced a deal Monday to produce a show about U.S. Navy pirate hunters.

Two crews for 44 Blue Productions hope to be on board Navy vessels patrolling in the pirate-infested waters off the coast of Africa within two weeks. The company is aiming to have a series ready to put on the air by September, said Rasha Drachkovitch, 44 Blue's president and founder.

He'd been talking to the Navy about the idea for three months, but it was finished late last week while the standoff with pirates who had taken Capt. Richard Phillips hostage was going on.

"We had no idea if last week's events would actually kill the deal or seal the deal," said Sharon Levy, the Spike TV channel's senior vice president for original series.

Drachkovitch said he thought the Navy would put the project on hold, yet instead the Phillips incident seemed to accelerate things. Commander Robert K. Anderson, Navy spokesman on the deal, said the agreement had essentially been made before the U.S. ship was attacked.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30191814

All you people who think this is a bad idea, just go out and join Al Qaida, already. We're sick of you malcontents!

[moez]

1. Cool!

Sounds like it will be an interesting show...

[EFerrari]

3. Definitely. Maybe we can put a pool together on how many pieces

these guys wind up in. Can't wait!

[moez]

17. if one of those bastards had an AK-47 at the back of my head...

I'd hope they end up in a lot of pieces.... a WHOLE lot of pieces.

That would make me pretty cheery.

[EFerrari]

22. But no one did. So, what is your excuse?

[moez]

30. It's nice to know those guys are out there

protecting us if we need it.... I'm proud of them.

[H2O Man]

31. It may be possible

to distinguish between: (a) recognizing the people in the Navy are doing their job, and respecting that; and (b) thinking that it would make a very entertaining television show.

[moez]

32. I guess we just differ there....

I'm very interested in the dedication and training that goes into the making of a navy seal. I've watched similar shows on army rangers and the like and have always been in awe of their skills and courage. I find this much more interesting and entertaining than American Idol, etc.... but, like I said - I guess we just differ.

[H2O Man]

33. Yes, we do.

But, as I said, people can distinguish between respecting the Navy, and being consumers of violence and death. Your being a consumer does not change that.

[arcadian]

2. ...and who was it who called the pirate episode, "Bread & Circuses"?

Oh yeah, it was me and I was called a pirate sympathizer/apologist for it. Thanks for making this an OP EFerrari. I am vindicated. Suck it, warmongers!

[Junkdrawer]

Wait. There was a TV show PLANNED showing off the Navy chasing the Somalia pirates...

BEFORE the first US flagged ship was hijacked?

OK....

[EFerrari]

5. I just post 'em, I don't write 'em.

Is there anything that comes out of the MiC that isn't polled or focused grouped? :shrug:

[Junkdrawer]

10. And, of course, there's an ad for Deadliest Catch, in the middle of the article....

You just can't make this stuff up....

[Junkdrawer]

4. Dupe...

[MADem]

6. If they handle it the way they handled the CARRIER multi-part series on PBS, it will probably be a

good program.

It will certainly work to dispel a lot of these fantastic Ramboesque myths that a few people--malcontents or naifs, call them what you will-- seem to have about service in the military. It's sort of hard to characterize people as robotic murderers when they're shown typing up orders on the computer, serving chow, playing video games, calling home, using a webcam to sing happy birthday to their youngest, etc.

[EFerrari]

7. Humanize our guys in uniform, dehumanize their targets. Good thinking.

That will really straighten us out!

[MADem]

8. Ah, the binary mind at work... nt

[EFerrari]

9. Is there some part of your post that I missed?

:)

[MADem]

11. Yeah, you missed the part where I did not say anything about the pirates.

But your binary mind colored between the lines of YOUR world view.

[EFerrari]

12. Right. I missed the part where you stopped humanizing our guys

and started humanizing the other guys.

Oh, my big fat "binary mind".

lol

[MADem]

13. There you go, coloring between the lines of your binary mind again.

What part of "I said nothing about them at all" is too tough to digest?

You have no idea how this film crew will "cover" pirates, assuming they ever get to see any even perrched aboard a vessel plying those waters. The ship the film team is on could spend their entire deployment steaming around in a box or a circle on the map, and never run into any pirates who are willing to challenge them.

It's presumptive to presume how they'll do it. I don't know anyone on that production crew, and I doubt you do either.

It must be tiresome, always having to gear up to assume the worst.

[EFerrari]

14. The premise of the show speaks for itself.

And it must be exhausting to presume the worst. As I don't do that, I wouldn't know. :)

[MADem]

18. No it doesn't.

Everyone "expected" that CARRIER show to be all "Rah-rah, USA fight team fight" and gee were they shocked when it was about a guy losing his pregnant girlfriend to another guy, and a young girl missing her family, and the tough, lonely road a deployment can be on people....to say nothing of the brutal work schedule. There wasn't a lot of "Rah rah"--it was personal.

But hey, your mind is made up. And you do presume the worst--see, you just "presumed" that "the premise of the show speaks for itself."

I'll wait and see it first, before I pass judgment.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TahitiNut]

34. Y'know, I can understand the aversion to dehumanizing anyone ... even people called 'targets.'

Sadly, however, I can't understand the implied aversion to humanizing "our guys in uniform" ... I suppose since I was one, once upon a time. Indeed, I think it's important that we're constantly reminded of our common humanity, both for the good and the bad.

Whatever. That's just my $0.02 at the start of a subthread that's a waste of bandwidth (IMHO).

:hi: On with the show.

[EFerrari]

35. My dad was Navy.

:hi:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. They didn't let the algae form under the hull before coming up with this idea

:shrug:

[EFerrari]

16. Another humanitarian crisis being militarized and marketed.

I don't even know why it should be surprising in any way.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

20. You would think that the human race would be more evolved by now.

[MADem]

19. They've been working on the idea for three months, now.

There was a bit of convergence with the finalization of their negotiations and this incident.

Those DOD access contracts are pretty specific. Many I's to dot and T's to cross.

[bridgit]

23. Spike TV, perfect! And right when you thought 24 just wasn't enough...

Maybe they'll team up with Hallmark or Oxygen with a bottle of glycerin tears for a movie-of-the-week sponsored by Armed Forces Network, or better yet an after school mini-series for the kiddies when Americans keep falling cause the world is still a dangerous place in spite of their summer line-up

This commercial project is usury, I reject it

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. TNT's new show about Straight of Malacca pirates is shit out of luck.

[EFerrari]

25. One of my best friends is the creator and producer of "Cops".

He can't be too happy, either. Unless he has another pitch in the works. lol

[Stevenmarc]

26. Can we have a special episode where the pirates make the Dugger's walk the gang plank

[EFerrari]

27. If we do, there will be 25 posters here drooling over how much it hurts to be chewed up

by sharks.

[bridgit]

28. Don't see why not, seems pirate'y enough to me...

[leftstreet]

29. ...

:spray:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

36. "America's Next Supersailor?",. "SEALS Gone Wild"?, "Dancing with the Pirates"?