Subtle Treatments on TV

Mel Gibson made a damagingly mistaken anti-semite remark when he was drunk. His behaviors deserve to be criticized. But when Barbara Walters' show, The View, juxtaposed Gibson's heavily-bearded look with Saddam Hussein's image to get our laugh, the gesture not only overestimated Gibson's influence but also minimized Hussein's crime. Sometimes, a subtle manipulation or an implied message damages more than the obvious vice.