Posted on 11/03/2003 7:18:17 AM PST by fight_truth_decay
CBS's The Reagans, Item Two of Three. Amazingly, in a full hour with CBS Chairman Les Moonves on Friday night, PBS's Charlie Rose failed to raise with him The Reagans mini-series, only the biggest controversy now facing that network as its scheduled November 16 air date rapidly approaches. But segments Friday night on FNC's O'Reilly Factor and MSNBC Scarborough Country yielded interesting new information and perspectives from Reagan friends.
Former Reagan economic adviser Martin Anderson informed John Kasich, filling in for Bill O'Reilly, that contrary to the claims of the producers of the CBS movie, he cannot find any Reagan biographers they consulted.
On MSNBC, veteran television host and producer Merv Griffin told Joe Scarborough that network claims of ignorance about the script don't wash since in television production the network pre- approves the script before the expensive filming process begins. And as for the movie's charge that after the Marines were killed in Lebanon Reagan referred to himself as "the anti-Christ," Griffin revealed he can personally attest to the fallaciousness of that line: "I spent that day with them prior to him going to Andrews Air Force Base to greet the bodies coming home from Lebanon, and then all the parents were there. He was devastated. He had nothing to say about the Anti-Christ."
-- October 31 O'Reilly Factor on FNC guest hosted by John Kasich. From Stanford, California, Martin Anderson, co-editor of new book, Reagan: A Life in Letters, blasted CBS: "Look, there's no problem if CBS wants to make a movie and call it fiction, but this particular one they say is historically accurate, they checked it with all kinds of sources, and it tells the truth. And when you look at even the six-minute trailer, which probably has the good parts of the movie, it doesn't tell the truth. It portrays a Reagan which is kind of a stumbling fellow. It portrays Reagan's wife, Nancy, in a terrible position. I mean she's screaming and yelling, and Reagan is swearing. "This is not the Reagan we all worked for and knew. I have no problem if they want to put out a movie and call it fiction and put a label on it and say it's left-wing fiction."
Kasich wondered: "Martin, did any, did they call, did the CBS people, the producers of this movie, to your knowledge, who did they call that was in the inner circle of the Reagan revolution?" Anderson answered: "Well, I've talked to most of them. I've talked to George Shultz, talked to Ed Meese, talked to Michael Deaver. They didn't call me. They didn't call Lou Cannon, the great biographer. They didn't call Michael Beschloss. I don't think they called everyone. Now they say -- they claim they have. They say they've checked with all the biographies, but I can't find anyone they've called. If they want to fix it -- and, by the way, the President of CBS says, you know, he's personally involved in this and he's doing some editing on it right now -- well, then give us a list of the people they're, that they're going to look at it, which really good biographers are going to look at it that know Reagan. If they want to run a movie, which is supposed to be historically accurate, let's make it accurate, but let's not lie about it."
-- October 31 Scarborough Country on MSNBC. Merv Griffin joined Joe Scarborough via satellite from his home near Palm Springs and complained: "I've seen some of the promos, where Nancy screams at -- screams -- that fragile, wonderful woman doesn't scream -- screaming at all the White House aides. Then, we all have read parts of the script on The Drudge Report, John Rutenberg's wonderful column in the New York Times, with scenes from the movie. It's a disgrace. And I can't believe the publicity that CBS is putting out. I saw an interview the other night with Les Moonves. And he said: Well, I don't understand all the flak. He said that in essence. I'm not quoting him exactly. Because, he said, the movie is, nobody has seen it. It's in the editing room. So we are taking scenes out and everything. "But every network that I have ever done a television movie for -- and I have produced a few -- you go to the television movie department. They order the script. You tell them what, you pitch the idea. They order the script. You read the script. The network makes changes. 'I don't like this, I don't like that.' They don't go out and shoot the movie with the existing script if they don't like the tenor of the whole thing. That's foolishness to me."
Griffin disclosed to Scarborough: "I want to tell something I have never told before. Okay, they report that one of the scenes in the movie is when he calls himself the Anti-Christ on the day the Marine bodies were being returned from Lebanon. He said: 'I am the Anti-Christ.' "Well, the beauty of it was, I spent that day with them prior to him going to Andrews Air Force Base to greet the bodies coming home from Lebanon, and then all the parent were there. He was devastated. He had nothing to say about the Anti-Christ. He didn't -- he doesn't talk like that. He was simply devastated. I went back. I had lunch, just the three of us. We talked in the afternoon. He talked a great deal about it. It is just, that's one scene that I was on the spot and know that that never happened."
CUT (Background can be read at http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20031029.asp#4
I also want to know which advertisers, and more importantly, ad agencies wish to stand with CBS.
Enough is enough - it's time to draw a line in the sand. Are you with the U.S. or are you with the terrorists? The people in this country that will smear a dying man who cannot speak for himself are the same ones who believe that the President has to right to pre-empt nations who sponsor terrorism and do everything to silence Christians.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.