The network’s decision to yank ‘The Reagans’ was just a craven—and short-sighted—bid to keep advertisers happy
Hallelujah! The Gipper is safe and the hated liberal media humbled. It’s a big victory for the “Elephant Echo Chamber,” the unholy trinity of conservative talk radio, conservative Internet sites and the Republican National Committee. The decision by CBS late yesterday not to air “The Reagans” meant, Matt Drudge exulted, “a tremendous night” for his team.
BUT IF THIS IS, as Drudge says, “the beginning of a second media century, much more of a people-driven media” we should look a little harder at what that might entail. More gutless TV executives? Programming that caters to loud political partisans? Fictionalized treatment of historical figures that cannot be critical?
Look, I’m not defending “The Reagans.” I have neither read the script nor seen it. (No one outside CBS has). It may well be the hit job described in leaked reports or, at a minimum, another stupid docu-drama that distorts the historical truth. It’s a little tacky to be taking a lot of pot shots when the former president is ailing. More important, it is not “censorship” when people organize boycotts or public campaigns trying to keep something off the air. (Censorship, remember, is when the government controls what is published or broadcast). This was plain old free speech.
http://msnbc.com/news/989262.asp?0cl=c1
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