Netflix pumps out original content faster than any other network or streaming service and they’re already one of the most dominant media forces in the world.
In fact, Netflix is so large that it wasn’t too long ago when Netflix beat The Walt Disney Company as being the most valued in the stock market, but it only lasted less than 48 hours. Expect Netflix and Disney to duke it out for the top spot in the years to come.
Netflix wields a lot of power and it’s undeniable. It’s so powerful that a former New York prosecutor was forced to resign amidst backlash after this new Netflix miniseries exposed her controversial past.
Nothing exposes the truth quite like true crime non-fiction documentaries and television series.
In the last few years, Netflix has launched dozens of incredible true crime documentaries like the jaw-dropping “Evil Genius” about a pizza delivery driver who robs a bank with a bomb strapped around his neck and the incredible true story of the conspirators behind the crime.
Another is “The Keepers,” which depicts the story of Sister Cathy Cesnik: a beloved nun and Catholic high school teacher in Baltimore who went missing in 1969. Nearly two months later, her body was found, and, to this day, her murder remains unsolved.
Then you have “Wild Wild Country” – where a popular Indian cult suddenly took over a small town in Oregon.
And who can forget their biggest cash cow “Making a Murderer” (now two seasons) – the wild story of Steven Avery who was exonerated of rape after spending nearly two decades in prison to get charged with murder after being free for about four years under incredibly suspicious circumstances.
But what if it was fiction?
The four-part series paints an awful picture of the prosecutors, investigators and interrogators who put these five underage African American teenagers in prison for a crime they didn’t commit. They even blasted President Trump several times because he took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times asking to bring the death penalty back.
But above all, the person the fictional miniseries blasted the most was Linda Fairstein who ran the sex-crimes unit at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office – ironically played by Felicity Huffman who is about to serve time for her role in the nationwide college admission scandal. They depict Fairstein as diabolical and ruthless; even forging evidence at one point.
And due to this harrowing depiction of Fairstein, she resigned from two nonprofit boards as the backlash intensified for Save Horizon and Vassar College.
The president of Vassar College, Elizabeth H. Bradley, explained why Fairstein resigned as a Board of Trustees member saying, “I am told that Ms. Fairstein felt that, given the recent widespread debate over her role in the Central Park case, she believed that her continuing as a Board member would be harmful to Vassar.”
After the four-part limited series was released Friday on Netflix, the hashtag #CancelLindaFairstein began trending on Twitter, with users calling for publishers to stop releasing Fairstein’s books and booksellers to cease selling them.
One Twitter user wrote: “In 1989 – I was 14. This movie has me so triggered. This could have happened to me and my friends and @LindaFairstein would have treated us the same. Everyone needs to see this movie and donate to @innocence project. #CancelLindaFairstein.”
It’s important to address the elephant in the room here, which is to point out this is a fictional series. These were dramatized events and although it was proven Linda Fairstein was categorically wrong when prosecuting the Central Park Five; people should be able to compartmentalize that this is dramatized for effect.