3 questions

1) Is playing the race card only dramatic if accusation of racial bias or difference distracts from the real argument? Is there a difference between the defense accusing the lead detective of being a racist and the left accusing those who have fought against President Obama’s policies as being racist?

2) Williams uses the 1996 Broadcast of the Olympics of a modern example of melodrama in broadcast news. Is including stories about the athletes personal struggles melodramatic or is Williams just being cynical?

3) Williams draws on Uncle Tom’s Cabin as an early example of melodrama and Disney’s Mickey Mouse stages a vaudeville-esque production of the novel. Was Uncle Tom’s Cabin inherently melodramatic or was the response to the novel (especially years later) what made it melodramatic? Or was it both; originally intended to be a melodramatic statement against slavery and then becoming a melodrama of a black man who betrayed his own race.