CBS Pulls "The Reagans"

[bspence]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/988680.asp?0cv=CB20

Following a storm of protest and threatened advertiser boycott, CBS announced Tuesday it was pulling “The Reagans” miniseries off the air.

THE NETWORK SAID it was licensing the completed film to Showtime, a pay cable network that, like CBS, is owned by Viacom.

“Although the miniseries features impressive production values and acting performances, and although the producers have sources to verify each scene in the script, we believe it does not present a balanced portrayal of the Reagans for CBS and its audience,” the network said in a statement.



Damn it, I guess we can't see anything other than 'Saint' Ronnie

[mb7588a]

1. Too bad the GOP "can't handle the truth."

I was REALLY looking forward to it too, and I don't get Showtime.
:(

[lancdem]

2. Somehow I don't think if CBS did a series like that on the Clintons

there'd be this sort of "outcry." And what about all the stuff that's been done on the Kennedys over the years?

[Divernan]

3. Key language: "For CBS and its audience"

The network should have included a reference to CBS's advertisers, which, like its preferred audience, are in to a hear no evil, see no evil, broadcast no evil about St. Ronnie.

[asjr]

4. cbs

The other networks should be on guard. This will not stop at CBS. The takeover is right around the corner for all media including the ones already kissing butt. Those who don't get Showtime may be adding it to their cable right away.

[Jacobin]

5. Former Government Watchdog morphs into Fascist LapDog

That should be the headline

Disgusting what has happened to this country.

[Say_What]

6. Can we spell CENSORED??

:mad:

[lancdem]

7. Here's what Josh Marshall has to say on this

According to Reuters, CBS is seriously considering canceling its miniseries on the Reagans. What an utter joke.
Since I haven't seen it, I have no idea if the thing is complete tripe, biased, maudlin, lame or whatever. From my experience with TV miniseries, it's probably all of those things.
I mean, imagine the temerity of CBS in running a miniseries which departs from a hagiographic portrayal of the former president!
The only good I can see coming of this is that it puts the lie to all the conservative mumbo-jumbo about 'wingers being for free speech or their being an embattled group oppressed by the liberal media. A little mau-mauing and the plug is pulled.
A TV network produces a miniseries about a former president and the current national chairman of the president's party demands that it be reviewed for historical accuracy by a board of 'scholars.'
Wake me up when we're back in America.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com

[Say_What]

11. Liked what he points out about the lies about the liberal media

I ran on his site a day or so ago looking for stuff on Venezuela but didn't bookmark it until now. Thanks for posting-- I'll have to put him in my "regular read" folder.

Peace!!
SW

[Boreas]

15. Board of Scholars?

Hey, that's just the way they do TV in Iran. Does this mean we're already a fascist theocracy? Or are we just practicing?

[MI Cherie]

8. More proof that they are afraid of the truth ...

Bush* should be forced to release all the Reagan/Bush presidential papers that he's still hiding.

Let's bring 'em on out!

[JackSwift]

9. If they are going to back off something that is sourced for every

scene, it is time to launch a boycott of CBS and its sponsors. If this were a fictionalization, I would leave it alone, but if history is going to be suppressed, we have to fight about it.

[KansDem]

10. Actually, CBS has done this before...

Remember the movie "The Insider?" Yet another example how CBS will opt to censor the truth rather than risk financial discomfort:

The Insider isn't so much a story about the spilling of the beans about how tobacco was made more addictive with certain additives. Nor about the fact that cigarettes were called a nicotine (drug) delivery system, but more of a story of the raw power such a company can wield in controlling information it does not want revealed to the public about its product.

........

Before the tattle-tale damaging taped interview can be put on the air, CBS is threatened with a huge lawsuit that would jeopardize an upcoming merger and CBS decides to shelve the segment's airing rather than risk sure financial ruin. Bergman, not easily intimidated, pushes for all he's worth, but is unable to get CBS to relent and was asked to take an extended vacation due to strained relations between he and Mike Wallace. He later left CBS and went to PBS's Front Line.
http://quitsmoking.about.com/library/weekly/aa110899.htm

[DBoon]

12. Post CBS phone/email/snail mail

Well, are we going to flood CBS with complaints, or are we just going to whine?

Who would like to post some info that will allow us to blast CBS for this despicable cowardice?


"Raise less corn and more hell"

[Cisco]

13. What woud Murrow think?

Not only are they cowards, but liars as well. Balance isn't the issue; it's the threatened loss of advertising dollars plus CBS's close ties to the GOP through its parent company, GE.

Hard to believe this is the network that gave us "Harvest of Shame," Edward R. Murrow's landmark documentary about the terrible conditions of migrant farm workers. Disgraceful.

[5thGenDemocrat]

20. GE owns NBC, Viacom owns CBS (Disney owns ABC)

Your point is still well-taken. Welcome to DU.
John
The broadcast media now run the FCC, rather than the other way around. I assume that whatever Jenningsbrokawrather tells me and what their bosses choose to show me is government-approved -- and that means Repub-approved.
Don't forget that Colin Powell helped cover up the My Lai massacre -- why wouldn't his punk son help cover up Ronnie Racist's blemishes?

[Snellius]

14. Drudge is madly trying to spin this.

If nothing else Drudge is irretrievably out of the Republican closet with this one. He's not just a reporter or repackager of the news, as he usually pretends, but a major player. What's most surprising is that, even at his worse, he was always a solid libertarian and defender of freedom of expression, and now here he is, a mouthpiece for Rove and the RNC, advocating the political intimidation of the press. A dangerous precedent that may come back to bite him someday.

Here's what he's spinning on his site:

MATT DRUDGE, "DRUDGE REPORT": They've replaced it with a story on the Bushes. Author Kitty Kelly has sold it to CBS. No, just kidding. A tremendous night. It's the beginning of a second media century, Joe, where it's much more of a people-driven media. And I say that not lightly. It was the Internet, it was talk radio, it was cable that put pressure on CBS, and heretofore, there's never been this kind of pressure applied to one of the big titans, one of the big three. And the pressure went all the way to the top of a super company called Viacom, and the chairman earlier today is my information said, "Listen, let's just get it on cable. Let's do it on Showtime. Let's show it uncut. Everybody will watch." So the word is that CBS will pass on it. It will not air on free television, but the full glory of "The Reagans" will air on Showtime.

[MinnFats]

16. Reagan is like a God to these people!

Sorry folks, Reagan was one of the WORST presidents in the nation's history.
The right believes he is some kind of national icon. It literally makes me want to puke!

If this keeps on...in a few years....Reagan WILL attain some kind of god-like status.....almost like the Emperor of Japan before WWII....untouchable and invulnerable to criticism....descended from Gods and the father of the nation.

This Reagan thing....it's frightening.
That a network could be bullied into cooperating in the myth-making....
where were these people when Falwell was hawking "The Clinton Chronicles," the wildly inaccurate documentary that had Bill and Hilary leaving a trail of bodies behind their coke-addled antics?

[Jack The Tab]

17. I'm not at all surprised..

And I really don't give a flying f*** about it. I think a movie about Reagan, no matter how it's made, just further keeps that embarassment of a man in the spotlight.

[TahitiNut]

18. duplicate

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=198323

[dbt]

19. CBS Contact Info Page

Here is the web page for FAQ's and contact info.

Looks like you'll have to hit the main page and scroll down to 'Feedback' at the bottom to get to the email pop-up: www.cbs.com.


Snail mail to:

CBS Television Network
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019

Phone calls to:

Main Number:
[phone]

"CBS does tackle controversial subjects and provide tough assessments of prominent historical figures and events*, as we did with films such as 'Jesus,' '9-11' and 'Hitler.' We will continue to do so in the future."

*Except for Reagan, one presumes.

:argh:
dbt