NBC crime procedural Law & Order: Special Victims Unit featured a “ripped from the headlines” theme in its latest episode, which smeared the Covington Catholic kids by pitting them against an Ilhan Omar-styled character who is portrayed as a hero. The plot centered on a poor, put-upon Islamic city politician being confronted by a red ballcap-wearing crowd of young men who scream at her and taunt her. But the episode also throws in a big dollop of male oppression and lesbianism for good measure, Newsbusters reported. The Law & Order: SVU episode entitled, “Assumptions,” opens with a pair of teenaged boys running away from a vandalized mosque in which we soon see that Muslim Councilwoman Nahla Nasar (Nazneen Contractor) has been raped. We later find out that the teens who supposedly vandalized the mosque are Jewish… because there are lots of Jews running around New York vandalizing mosques, apparently. And minutes later we see a Jewish teen named Ari (Ted Sutherland) leading a group of teens who are clearly modeled after the left’s version of the Covington Catholic kids who were maligned by the media for “confronting” a Native American group in Washington D.C. early this year. The tip-in for that characterization is that Ari wears a MAGA-like red ballcap on his head in every scene as he screams spittle-specked hatred into the Muslim woman’s face. Early in the episode, the SVU team is not only investigating the rape reported by the Muslim councilwoman but a supposed “hate crime” when Ari was seen to be grabbing the woman’s hijab off of her head. “his boy grabbed my hijab and spat in my face,” Nasar says of the Jewish teens. “These people are Islamophobes. It’s in their blood. One of these boys must have raped me.” Nasar accuses the Jewish teens of raping her as well as vandalizing the mosque and makes public pronouncements that the boys and the police both are oppressing her because she is a hijab-wearing, traditional Muslim. Nasar also parades around defiantly poking fingers in people’s face for their supposed Islamophobia. From there, the politically-charged episode takes a few twists and turns and moves away from the Jewish Covington teens by depicting the SVU team finding a longer video that proves that it was Nasar who provoked the teens and the “hijab grab” didn’t actually occur. However, unlike the real Covington incident, the longer video did not exonerate the kids entirely as in the SVU episode the Jewish teens are still clearly filled with hate and are very confrontational and anti-Muslim. As the episode leaves the Jewish teens behind, the plot takes a few odd twists that layers on a few more social justice tropes. As the SVU investigators dig into the case, they soon discover that Nasar’s ex-husband has been stalking her and we find that he is a raging sexist. The ex’s male chauvinism is compounded by his traditional Muslim ideals and the fact that Nasar is far from a traditional Muslim woman because … *big reveal* … she’s really a lesbian. The episode comes to a conclusion that seems to satisfy every social justice criteria. It finds Nasar’s ex-husband convicted for raping her and sends her traditional Muslim parents to falling at her feet and accepting her as their newly outed lesbian daughter. Oddly, she doesn’t even lose her political base despite that she lied about the Jewish teens and hid the fact that she’s lesbian by pretending to be a traditional, observant Muslim. Meanwhile, attorneys representing real-life Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann have filed a lawsuit aimed at NBC for $275 million over defamation. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.<doc-sep>Popular NBC police drama “Law & Order: SVU” is facing backlash from critics who say Thursday night's episode included a character wearing a red cap who seemed too similar to real-life Covington, Ky., high school teen Nicholas Sandmann. Another character in the same episode resembled embattled U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., some critics also said. The episode on the NBCUniversal series comes a week after Sandmann’s legal team filed a $275 million defamation lawsuit against NBC over its coverage of a Jan. 18 controversy involving the teen and a Native American man named Nathan Phillips outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. “It’s probably not the smartest idea to mock a group of people as bigots as they are currently suing you for $275 million dollars [sic] in a defamation lawsuit,” wrote a film critic on the “conservatarian” Society Reviews website. COVINGTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS CLEARED OF ANY WRONGDOING IN VIRAL INCIDENT AFTER INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION Initial reports suggested that Sandmann and his Covington Catholic High School classmates initiated the January confrontation with Phillips. Subsequent reporting and video evidence contradicted that version of events. During the encounter, Sandmann wore a red “Make America Great Again” cap. While the long-running series often lifts plots from the headlines, Thursday’s episode differed from the real-life events surrounding Sandmann. The character resembling Sandmann -- named Ari -- was one of several angry Jewish students who accuse a Muslim councilwoman named Nahla Nasar of anti-Semitism. Two of the teens are then accused of raping her. The real suspect turns out to be Nasar's husband, who was angry that she was a lesbian, in defiance of Sharia law, according to the Times. KENTUCKY TEEN IN VIRAL VIDEO SAYS HE DID NOTHING PROVOCATIVE: 'I HAD EVERY RIGHT' TO STAND THERE “Much like with the Covington Catholic kids, the situation was a hoax, but in the show the full video doesn’t exculpate Ari’s aggressive and hostile interaction,” said an analysis by the NewsBusters.org website of the conservative Media Research Center (MRC). “Does 'Law & Order: SVU' know that Nick Sandmann, who Ari is clearly based on, didn’t do anything but stand quietly in place?” The Nasar character at one point says, “It’s all about the Benjamins,” a line once tweeted by Omar, the freshman congresswoman who has been accused of anti-Semitism. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The MRC also accused the NBC show of letting the Muslim councilwoman character off the hook too easily for her false accusation against the teens. The suit against NBC is the third major lawsuit Sandmann’s legal team has launched. Also being sued are the Washington Post for $250 million and CNN for $275 million.<doc-sep>Law & Order: SVU films on April 15, 2019, in New York City. (Photo: Bauzen/GC Images) The long-running show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on Thursday marked its 457th episode, which means it’s now been on longer than any other show in the hit franchise. However, much of the talk on social media following the episode titled “Assumptions” was less than celebratory, as people criticized the show’s take on some controversial recent events. Viewers easily spotted references to U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), Kentucky high school student Nick Sandmann and former Empire actor Jussie Smollett in the penultimate episode of the season. A controversial comment that Congresswoman Omar said in a February tweet that she’s since deleted was quoted by the episode’s main character, a Muslim city council representative. A high school student accused of sexually assaulting that character was initially said to have worn a “Make America Great Again” hat, which is what happened in the ongoing case of Smollett, who’s been accused of faking a hate crime against himself. It also featured a video clip depicting a student in a confrontation with the councilwoman that was found to have been taken out of context, which proved to be the case in a January video first circulated by the Washington Post. (The family of the student depicted in that video is now suing the newspaper for $250 million, CNN for $275 million and Law & Order: SVU’s network NBC for another $275 million, all for defamation.) In the episode, when the councilwoman is assaulted, the students are accused. It’s revealed in the end that the students are innocent and that the character, Nahla Nasar, had not been completely honest. Yahoo Entertainment has reached out to NBC for comment. While the show often takes inspiration from current events, this time it just didn’t work, according to social media reviews. Viewers accused the show of trying to do too much at best and, at worst, inciting hatred. @nbcsvu Today’s #SVU episode totally racist and shameful. Saying Islamophobia is a hoax. That Muslim men, are barbarians. That Muslim women aren’t strong enough to be themselves, and need permission from white people to speak their truth. Oh and let’s just smear Islam too. — Omar Haroon (@omarharoon) May 10, 2019 This episode of SVU aint it. Being pro-Palestine is not equal to be anti-Semitic. I’m not also loving these fake similarities between this woman and Rep. Ilhan Omar. Im hoping this fixes itself — Kellee Terrell (@kelleent) May 10, 2019 Oh god is #SVU ALREADY at Jussie Smollett? AND a dash of Ilhan Omar? Yikes. — Maura (@Mauracarney1) May 10, 2019 @LawandOrderSVU1 @SVU_Fanpage1 Tonight’s episode was extremely offensive to me. Both Jews and Muslims were portrayed with stereotypes in obnoxious behavior and having the Omar character say All about the Benjamins was dangerous for Ilhan. What were you thinking? — Cindy Davis (@cdopera) May 10, 2019 Tonight’s episode was disgusting- transparently tried to portray Rep Omar as a person who manufactured a rape crisis. You even used one of her quotes, “all about the Benjamins”. Shame on you - you’ve lost me as a viewer. You exacerbate the problem you don’t try to help solve it https://t.co/8e4Z3tuAtF — LePimpernel (@LPimpernel) May 10, 2019 I’m really not sure where tonight’s Law & Order SVU episode is going but right now it feels very anti-Palestine/islamaphobic and they seem to be making Ilhan Omar jabs... this is not good, Dick Wolf. — Amanda (@AMANDAKONDA) May 10, 2019 Me too! Are they insinuating that a Muslim woman would fake a rape AND a hate crime just to be seen as oppressed?? Like help me get it? — Amanda (@AMANDAKONDA) May 10, 2019 After #TrueOrFalseSVU we’re apparently not. This *entire* episode emboldens all who discriminate against or vilify women, victims, lgbtq+, Muslims, Jews, media, and Democrats— especially Ilhan Omar. It was beyond inaccurate and inappropriate. It is hate. Not my #SVU https://t.co/U08ggweLkS — Brianna (@add_bri) May 10, 2019 In March, Variety reported that a new show in the franchise, Law & Order: Hate Crimes, scheduled to debut this season, had been postponed. Story continues Read more on Yahoo Entertainment: Want daily pop culture news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Entertainment & Lifestyle’s newsletter.<doc-sep>
If you watched “Law & Order: SVU” this week, you may have noticed that the teenage boy in the red cap locked in a faceoff in the middle of a rowdy crowd bears a strong resemblance to Nicholas Sandmann. A week after being sued by the Covington Catholic teen, NBCUniversal aired an episode Thursday of the long-running hit series with a scene that looked a lot like the 16-year-old Sandmann’s viral Jan. 18 encounter with an older Native American man at the Lincoln Memorial. Certainly the conservative Media Research Center thought so, posting an analysis Friday accusing the show of slandering Sandmann by perpetrating the debunked media narrative of a racist teen taunting a person of color — in this case, Nathan Phillips being replaced by a Muslim councilwoman. “It’s probably not the smartest idea to mock a group of people as bigots as they are currently suing you for $275 million dollars in a defamation lawsuit,” said a film critic on the “conservatarian” Society Reviews website. ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Slanders Covington Catholic Kids, Defends Ilhan Omar Character https://t.co/z1cl1YYeaG pic.twitter.com/YvPac12LI7 — MediaResearchCenter (@theMRC) May 10, 2019 While the scene itself appeared to be lifted from the headlines, other key details about the incident had been changed. The Sandmann-like character was one of a group of angry Jewish students who gets in the face of a Muslim councilwoman and calls her an anti-Semite. Two of the teens are accused afterward of raping the councilwoman, although as “SVU” fans know, the initial suspects are rarely the actual villains. In this case, it turns out the councilwoman, named Nahla Nasar, was assaulted by her ex-husband, whose attack was motivated by her being a lesbian in defiance of Shariah law. MRC’s Lindsay Kornick said that the hijab-wearing Nasar character was apparently modeled on Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Democrat, who has been accused of anti-Semitism. At one point, the character uses Ms. Omar’s line, “it’s all about the Benjamins.” Even though the teens were innocent of the crime, and that the Nasar character had provoked the clash by approaching the group, Ms. Kornick said the scene of the red-capped boy named Ari yelling at the councilwoman was based on a falsehood about the Covington encounter. “Much like with the Covington Catholic kids, the situation was a hoax, but in the show the full video doesn’t exculpate Ari’s aggressive and hostile interaction,” said the MRC analysis. “Does Law & Order: SVU know that Nick Sandmann, who Ari is clearly based on, didn’t do anything but stand quietly in place?” The MRC also accused the show of letting off the Muslim councilwoman too easily for her false accusation. “By the end of the episode, Nasar manages to have her rapist convicted, her parents’ acceptance of her alternative lifestyle, and her job intact,” said the MRC review. “And no, the fact that she lied about the boys raping her, made anti-Semitic remarks, and provoked a racial confrontation doesn’t seem to affect any of this. All that mattered was that the public remembered that she was a victim.” The Washington Times has reached out to NBCUniversal for comment. Attorneys for the Sandmann family filed a $275 million defamation lawsuit May 1 against NBCUniversal. They have also sued The Washington Post for $250 million and CNN for $275 million alleging that the media outlets tarred the teen in order to perpetrate an anti-Trump narrative. Attorney L. Lin Wood said his legal team would “carefully analyze this episode,” titled “Assumptions,” to see if it should be included in the complaint. “We are aware of the recent NBC episode of ‘Law & Order: SVU’ that depicted a teen in a red hat accused of a hate crime and rape,” Mr. Wood said in a statement. “We plan to carefully analyze this episode to determine whether it should be added to the already long list of earlier publications by NBC which falsely accused Nicholas of being involved in a hate crime. If so, the defamation lawsuit against NBC will be amended accordingly.” In his encounter with Mr. Phillips, Nicholas Sandmann wore a red Make America Great Again cap. The character in the show also wore a red ballcap, but it was flipped backward. The “SVU” stands for “Special Victims Unit” on the show, which has run for 20 seasons. Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.