Tuesday, November 04, 2003
The Cowardly Broadcasting System (CBS)
In cancelling the Reagan miniseries, CBS wants us to believe that pressure from right-winger Brent Bozell's Media Research Center, which was pressuring major advertisers not to buy commercial time, or Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie had nothing to do with the decision. Nope, not a thing.
CBS's sorry excuse is that the program wasn't balanced enough. In other words, Uncle Ronnie was shown to have some flaws and we all know he was a saint. Think Grenada. Think Lebanon. Think Iran-contra. And those are just for openers. Remember, Ronald Reagan told us trees pollute (not to worry, though, George W. Bush is going to fix that problem under his Healthy Forests Initiative -- it's called chopping them down), ketchup is a vegetable as he cut funding for school lunches and welfare recipients, in their limos, picked up their benefit checks on the way to the liquor store.
So, rather than upset its right-wing infantile, but oh so powerful, constituency, CBS is handing the film over to Showtime that happens to be owned by CBS's parent corporation Viacom. Apparently CBS and Viacom think Showtime is what the grownups watch while the unwashed revel in the network's bogus reality shows.
Today's New York Times quotes the former president's son, Michael, as saying on ABC's Good Morning America that he wanted CBS "to show Ronald Reagan for what he is." Are you sure about that, Michael?
CBS's sorry excuse is that the program wasn't balanced enough. In other words, Uncle Ronnie was shown to have some flaws and we all know he was a saint. Think Grenada. Think Lebanon. Think Iran-contra. And those are just for openers. Remember, Ronald Reagan told us trees pollute (not to worry, though, George W. Bush is going to fix that problem under his Healthy Forests Initiative -- it's called chopping them down), ketchup is a vegetable as he cut funding for school lunches and welfare recipients, in their limos, picked up their benefit checks on the way to the liquor store.
So, rather than upset its right-wing infantile, but oh so powerful, constituency, CBS is handing the film over to Showtime that happens to be owned by CBS's parent corporation Viacom. Apparently CBS and Viacom think Showtime is what the grownups watch while the unwashed revel in the network's bogus reality shows.
Today's New York Times quotes the former president's son, Michael, as saying on ABC's Good Morning America that he wanted CBS "to show Ronald Reagan for what he is." Are you sure about that, Michael?
