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| See B.S. pulls ’Reagans’ |
| 2003-11-04 |
| Following a storm of protest, CBS has yanked its sweep miniseries "The Reagans," a controversial four-hour glimpse of the 40th president and his family, sources close to the production said. CBS chief Leslie Moonves made the decision after concluding that the film was unfair to the Reagans and that even extensive edits had not produced an acceptably balanced portrayal. The only question that remains is whether the miniseries will be picked up by the cable net Showtime -- like CBS, a unit of Viacom -- or shelved entirely, sources said. The miniseries was scheduled to bow Nov. 16 on CBS. Waiting for the "First Amendment" cries. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #12 Showtime gets a pass with me for airing the excellent DC 9/11 movie. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-11-4 9:19:22 PM |
| #11 CBS's story is that the idea was floated as a love story - thus the reason for the docu-drama. Guess it turned out to be more like Mommy Dearest. Whether it is aired on CBS or Showtime, it would be nice if an accurate movie was also filmed. I'ld hate for this turd of a production to be the only film about Reagan when my grandchildren are learning history. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-4 8:05:12 PM |
| #10 CBS is left leaning and probably knew it was a hit piece from the start, but they are also the favorite network of the older crowd who would not like such a disrespectful view of an exPresident and Alzhemier suffer. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-11-4 4:06:09 PM |
| #9 It's funny that this comes out the day after Bill O'Reilly aired a segment on it again. |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-11-4 3:51:55 PM |
| #8 To follow up,just how bad is this project.It should have just under 3 hours of airtime.It should have been easy to edit out 4-5 scenes that were objectionable and replace with other material edited out for length.For CBS to abandon airing at this late date,it must really have been bad. |
| Posted by: Stephen 2003-11-4 1:12:58 PM |
| #7 How much was the total cost of Oliver Stone's puff piece on Castro that HBO wouldn't show? Maybe HBO can sell the Castro piece to Showtime as well to recoup some moolah. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-4 1:00:27 PM |
| #6 What's interesting about this is,CBS had to approve the script and had its own people overseeing production(don't believe for a second any CBS claims they simply ordered the project,with no idea of its content-not for vital sweeps programming).I get the idea CBS leaked a few details to stir up controversy and get ratings,and was suprised at how much opposition was raised-either advertisers pulled out(fearing boycotts),or local stations refused to run it. Just how bad was it that "even extensive edits" couldn't salvage the program? |
| Posted by: Stephen 2003-11-4 12:55:05 PM |
| #5 Local news this morning reports that CBS is indeed shopping this garbage to Showtime. People are already threatening to cancel their subscriptions. It's so nice to see Communist Broadcasting Sympathizers choke on it. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2003-11-4 12:50:40 PM |
| #4 CBS just lost $9 million on this charade....heh heh If it'd been shown as planned, would the DNC have to declare it as a campaign contribution? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-11-4 11:38:04 AM |
| #3 Bill O'Reilly predicted this. He also said it'd be shown on Showtime. We'll see if the second part of his prediction comes thru. |
| Posted by: Jabba the Nutt 2003-11-4 10:50:18 AM |
| #2 See also "A Letter to CBS" over at Powerline. Marc Christian's letter pretty well refutes the entire Reagan-as-vicious-homophobe storyline. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2003-11-4 10:31:03 AM |
| #1 Gee, it's hard to believe that a movie starring Barbra Streisand's husband as Ronald Reagan wouldn't be viewed as balanced, objective, and apolitical. Although I do think the re-enactment of the Grenada invasion with an interpretive dance was just too much... [/sarcasm] |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-11-4 9:16:06 AM |