CNN, NPR will not promote Bush assassination movie (Reuters)

[Up2Late]

(Btw, I'm not sure what the RW controlled media is saying this film is about, but it's actually about what the world would be like, in a post-assassination, "President Cheney" world. Very scary.)

CNN, NPR will not promote Bush assassination movie

Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:19pm ET144

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Major U.S. news outlets CNN and National Public Radio will not air paid ads or sponsor announcements for a controversial movie depicting the assassination of President George W. Bush, citing the film's content, network spokeswomen said on Tuesday.

The movie, "Death of a President," caused a stir at the Toronto Film Festival in September where it debuted, and two major U.S. theater chains have declined to screen the movie when it debuts in the United States on Friday.

"CNN has decided not to take the ad because of the extreme nature of the movie's subject matter," the cable television network said in a statement.

A spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the statement. The network has reported about the movie in recent months.

(more at link) <http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2006-10-25T001912Z_01_N24203459_RTRUKOC_0_US-LEISURE-DEATHOFAPRESIDENT.xml>

[saigon68]

1. Some free country this is.

[Greeby]

2. You're not missing anything, really

:shrug:

[Nihil]

5. Disagree.

I watched it (also in the UK) and thought it was ok - not the best
thing I've ever seen but worryingly believable with regards to some
of the reactions shown.

My wife commented that with the "documentary" style, it would
be easy for someone who had difficulty separating fact from fiction
to get worked up about it. Maybe that explains the attitude of
the US broadcasters?
:shrug:

[dipsydoodle]

7. I thought the second half was better

where it showed how America started to lose the remainder of its apparent freedom.

[MikeNY]

3. It's a moral issue

I guess they figured this movie doesn't fit in well with our nation's moral values. You know, such as killing hundreds of thousands of civilians in an unprovoked war of aggression, becoming a Congressman and sexually harassing teenage boys... etc. What would Jeebus think of us if our family based and wholesomely steadfast media outlets started to advertise a controversial work of fiction? I mean, its almost never happened before!

[ClintonTyree]

4. I wonder what the media's reaction to this.............

would have been if this movie was made during the Clinton years? I'm willing to bet they'd have aired ads for the "controversial new film depicting sex fiend, Bill Clinton, being assassinated". The "hate Clinton" movement would have made a LOT of noise had anyone tried to suppress this movie, the Reich-Wing being all about free speech, you know? :eyes:
CNN is a lost cause but the steady, precipitous death spiral of NPR as a Reich-Wing megaphone alarms me.

[Demeter]

6. I Doubt That "Promotion" Will Be Necessary

I'm sure that "word of mouth" will fill the theaters quite nicely.

[rodeodance]

8. i have mixed feelings about this movie---i think they pushed it too far and

we have a lot of wackoos out there that might want their day of fame.

[mcscajun]

9. Most people will not have the opportunity to see this film.

Even in the NY Metro Area, the only house I'm aware of that is showing this film (beginning 10/27/06) is a little art house in Greenwich Village Angelika Film Center
Location: 18 W HOUSTON ST
NEW YORK, NY 10012 212-995-2000

[nodehopper]

11. in a couple of months it will be out on DVD, then everyone can see it if they want

[Up2Late]

18. Maybe, not every "foreign film" gets released in the U.S. and with...

...as with all the trouble they are having getting this into theaters and even advertised. I doubt getting the DVD distributed will be much easier.

[nodehopper]

10. I saw the film (spoilers at the bottom of the post, after asterix)

I was actually disappointed by it, as I got the impression from the reviews that it was going to go all out to portray the horror of life under President Cheney...which it does to some degree, as in under Cheney, everything gets just a little bit worse, in very predictable ways. But the movie in NO WAY sanctions or glorifies the assasination, and instead it is a pretty accurate speculation on what would happen in the States today, and how the gov't and the media would use such an event, and who they would make into a scapegoat.

SPOILERS

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

In the film, the person accused and held without trial for the assasination, on circumstantial and barely-there evidence is an Iranian man, so that Cheney can try to invade Iran (he asks for the Iran connection, pretty explicitly), and everyone ignores the fact that the actual assassin is an unhinged Gulf War vet who kills Bush and then himself after his oldest son dies in a roadside ambush in Iraq, even after his youngest son comes forward with the evidence. It is all just really, really sad and macabre and awfully realistic, but in no way HOORAY ASSASINATION

[The Stranger]

12. NPR (Neocon Public Relations) had Whore Steve Innskeep interviewing a Dem. candidate yesterday,

and it was the worst attack piece I had ever heard. Whore Inskeep kept interrupting the candidate, changed the question in the middle of his answer, and had all of the Right Wing Whore Talking Points memorized and ready for quick use.

Thanks, Whore Innskeep!

[anotherdrew]

17. NPR is dead to me - maybe someday once the shit's been cleaned out

I'll be able to listen again, but I'm sick to death of the crap they've got running the place now. Those people in management today there need to be frog-marched out the door first thing,

[Up2Late]

19. I think when the Democrats regain control of the Congress, we should all...

...push for hearings on NPR over-site.

I'm a loyal listener, and it's starting to piss me off too.

Note: I never was an NPR listener until after 9/11 and CNN/Headline News turned into CNN/Entertainment Tonight, so I only have the long, downhill slide to compare it too.

[anotherdrew]

20. I listened since 1982 or so - National PR news I call it now

and it's just gotten sad. really used to be something

[stlsaxman]

21. Nationalist Propaganda Radio n/t

[The Wielding Truth]

22. Well one thing that has bothered me for many years is that the sponsors

are running actual commercials. Wasn't that the point of Public television, to have the support of the public through individual contributions and Federal funds? If a large donor were to contribute it was to be not to sell product, but to support the public good. They would display the contributor's name only. Things always change when public mass media goes private.

[Mizmoon]

13. Tough one

Traditionally we do not allow even remote verbal threats to the President. It's as much a legal taboo as the classic yelling "fire!" in a crowded theater. Yes you have freedom of speech but with some reasonable limits, like the rules surrounding slander.

On the other hand this is not as gratuitous as yelling "fire!" There is an artistic purpose behind this. I think that allowing it to be released while at the same time shunning it (to a certain extent) is a reasonable response to it.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. freedom of speech people...

i may not agree with what is said but i will defend ones right to say it

[warrens]

15. Better they don't

Releasing this movie at election time is not good for us, and is clearly aimed at sensationalism. I think it's appropriate that a news station refuse ads for it. I haven't seen it and probably won't, but it really sounds like a cash-in to me. Do you really want the newsies yapping about this for the next two weeks?

[anotherdrew]

16. you don't see anything, he just goes down, it's done very tastefully

WARNING SPOILERS!



it's a well made movie, not as pro-bush as I'd feared.

They railroad an innocent Muslim man for the crime then of course Chaney tries to tie the assassination to syria so he can attack. Only later is it found out who really did it: a bitter ex-soldier who loved his country but couldn't take the lies of the traitor in chief anymore once his son was killed in iraq.