SUNDAY NIGHT, I needed a diversion to keep me awake until 2:30 a.m. so I could watch the U.S. soccer team open up a serious can of whup-ass on Mexico. So, I watched one of Clint Eastwood’s classic Dirty Harry movies–1973’s “Magnum Force”–on Ted Turner’s “Superstation” TBS. I noticed two things about the movie: First, I’d forgotten how inferior it is to the original 1971 “Dirty Harry.” But second, I noted for perhaps the third or fourth time in recent months a passing strange television phenomenon that you might call “selective sanitizing.” (Bear with me for a moment on this.)
In one scene, Eastwood’s character, Detective “Dirty Harry” Callahan, and his partner, Early Smith, walk into police headquarters late at night after thwarting an armed robbery. They encounter a group of four rookie traffic cops who’ve already impressed Callahan with their lethal accuracy on the police firing range. After a quick exchange of hellos and see-ya-laters, Callahan asks his partner, “So, you know those guys?” Early responds, “Yeah, they came up after me in the academy.”
