Cancelled Reagan Miniseries Was 'a Stinker,' Says Critic

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 11/05/03 | Marc Morano

[kattracks]

(CNSNews.com) - A conservative media critic Tuesday called CBS's cancellation of the miniseries about former President Ronald Reagan "an amazing development" designed to obscure the reality that the movie was "a stinker." Democrats and liberals also decried the network's cancellation, with one website declaring a "Right-Wing Jihad Makes CBS Quiver."

Michael Medved, author of the book Hollywood vs. America and a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, said CBS and its parent company Viacom were caught off guard by the overwhelming response by conservative critics, government officials, talk show hosts, special interest groups and other Reagan supporters.

"They were probably surprised by the intensity of the emotion," Medved told CNSNews.com, adding that Viacom's decision to shift the miniseries to CBS' sister pay-cable network, Showtime, represented "an amazing development." The miniseries had previously been scheduled to air on CBS Nov. 16 and 18.

In recent days, a number of Republicans and conservatives had blasted CBS for what they considered an unflattering portrayal of President Reagan, played by actor James Brolin.

The criticism was based on excerpts from the script of the miniseries that had found their way to the press. According to published reports, the former president was to be portrayed as having a callous disregard for AIDS victims and as a man who compared himself to the "anti-Christ." The script also failed to note the record economic expansion during Reagan's years and the demise of communism.

But the public pressure on CBS may not have been the only factor in the decision to cancel the miniseries and relegate it to Showtime, according to Medved. "I think the dirty little secret was the thing was a stinker," Medved said.

"Leaving aside its content or its political slant, my guess is CBS is deciding to save itself embarrassment all around," Medved added.

CBS President Les Moonves will be able to gain a double advantage by canceling the movie, according to Medved.

"Moonves will be able to escape embarrassment by not running a stinker series at the same time he can blame those nasty right wingers," Medved said.

In a statement released Tuesday, Viacom said it made the decision after seeing the final cut of the show.

"Although the miniseries features impressive production values and acting performances, and although the producers have sources to verify each scene in the script, we believe it does not present a balanced portrayal of the Reagans for CBS and its audience," the Viacom statement read.

'Right-wing jihad'

Liberals and other Reagan detractors spared no criticism of CBS for the decision to cancel.

The left wing website, BuzzFlash.com, alleged in headlines Tuesday that the network had capitulated to pressure. "Right-Wing Jihad Makes CBS Quiver," the website declared, adding that CBS "should change their name to Cowardly Broadcasting Service or the Censored Broadcasting Service."

BuzzFlash.com said CBS was caving in to "right wing censorship" and accused the Republican Party of turning American "television into [a] Soviet-Style Propaganda Tool."

Others raised the rhetoric even higher.

Noting that CBS had tried to salvage the project by cutting controversial scenes from the Reagan miniseries, Philadelphia Daily News TV critic Ellen Gray drew a comparison between Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler and Ronald Reagan.

"CBS' Hitler miniseries also underwent some changes after an early draft of the script leaked and drew fire. That all those changes were aimed at making Hitler look even worse than he appeared in the original just goes to show you Ronald Reagan has a lot more friends," Gray wrote Tuesday.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) also criticized the decision to cancel the Reagan miniseries.

"It smells of intimidation to me. It sounds to me like they were intimidated," Daschle said Tuesday at a news conference. "And I'm disappointed. I think any time occasions arise when the essence of the judgment made by television producers is influenced by outside forces, we have to call into question whether that level of intimidation is appropriate," Daschle said.

"Whether or not this was the right decision is something left to others to make, but it does again raise the specter of just how powerful some of these special interest groups truly are today," Daschle added.

Many Democrats disputed the Reagan record and urged CBS to cover what they view as the former president's failures.

U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) wrote an open letter to Moonves last week urging the network to include "some of my recollections of the Reagan years" in "the interest of historical accuracy."

Dingell's "recollections" of Reagan included "$640 Pentagon toilet seats; ketchup as a vegetable; union busting; firing striking air traffic controllers; Iran-Contra; selling arms to terrorist nations; trading arms for hostages" and "apartheid apologia; the savings and loan scandal; voodoo economics."

"I hope you find these facts useful in accurately depicting President Reagan's time in office," wrote Dingell in the conclusion of his Oct. 29 letter.

'Disgustingly poor taste'

A conservative media watchdog group hailed the decision to cancel the miniseries.

"CBS's decision to pull the The Reagans miniseries was a wise one," stated L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Media Research Center, the parent organization of CNSNews.com .

"The original decision to broadcast a factually distorted film about the former president when he is in the latter stages of Alzheimer's disease showed disgustingly poor taste," Bozell added.

The Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, a group dedicated to honoring the legacy of the former president, was pleased with the Viacom/CBS decision.

"CBS has done the right thing," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), the organization that runs the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project.

"Those of us familiar with the real Reagan record would rather it be dumped entirely, but selling the show to second-tier Showtime is a marked improvement," Norquist said.

Marc Christian, the homosexual partner of the late actor Rock Hudson, also defended Reagan and refuted the CBS script, which reportedly included the former president saying that homosexuals who had developed AIDS deserved to die.

"The notion that a Ronald Reagan was a homophobe strikes me as silly beyond belief," Christian wrote in a letter to CBS's Moonves. Hudson died from AIDS in 1985. The letter was released Tuesday by FrontPagemazine.com columnist Tammy Bruce.

"Not only did he have several gay men on his staff when he was governor of California, he called my lover, Rock Hudson, when he was on his deathbed just weeks before he died of AIDS and wished him well and voiced his and Nancy's concern and prayers," Christian wrote.

"...The Reagans had known Rock for years and knew he was gay (as did most of Hollywood)," Christian's letter continued. "The point is, Reagan could have ignored Rock's illness and didn't," he added.

See Earlier Stories:
CBS Cancels Movie on Ronald Reagan (Oct. 4, 2003)
Advertisers Urged to Preview Reagan Movie Before Sponsoring (Oct. 28, 2003)
Group Aims to Stop CBS 'Hatchet Job' About Reagans From Airing (Oct. 30, 2003)

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[Chewbacca]

I dropped Showtimes service years ago after they sold off the Stargate SG-1 franchise. It was the only reason I paid for the channel.
One of the best series on TV and the idiots sold it, and the purchase of it was one of the best moves that the SciFi channel ever did.

[VRWC_minion]

And I'm disappointed

Listen Tom, you need to drop this as your middle name and make it your last name.

[clintonh8r]

That goes way beyond ugly.

[clintonh8r]

You can tell Showtime you're dropping the service even if you don't get it. They won't check. Tell 'em you're notifying your cable or satellite company.

[Lizavetta]

"It smells of intimidation to me. It sounds to me like they were intimidated," Daschle said Tuesday at a news conference. "And I'm disappointed. I think any time occasions arise when the essence of the judgment made by television producers is influenced by outside forces, we have to call into question whether that level of intimidation is appropriate," Daschle said.

I'm sure Daschle et al echoed similar sentiments when the "outside forces" went after Dr. Laura and Michael Savage.

NOT.

[fightu4it]

Who are the members of the dirty little group that thought this project up and saw it through to compleasion?

Where are they hiding now?

Notice how we are not hearing about them in these articles.

[Terry Mross]

Gabler has a book about entertainment becoming reality and he complains because CBS didn't air a lie. I haven't read his book but I assume he thinks it's okay for entertainment to be presented as reality.

Also, as for Dingle, everything he says is a lie. And I think the ketchup as a vegetable was Ford, though I could be wrong. If it was Reagan then Dingle had one thing right. Firing the Air Traffice Controlers was a good thing.

[Landru]

"Was a stinker," eh?

No accident, by design, no doubt about it.

As for the leaker Dass-hole?

Well that one better shut his piehole & regroup the comrades like real fast, nic.

His party's *message* -- due to his leadership -- has resulted in a hemorrhaging so massive death's surely imminent.
Dass-hole had better understand it'll be Liberal-Socialists like himself who'll be the *first* to come & demand *a* head on a pike to atone for their predicament.
Just as the Liberal-Socialist-Communist maniacs have done throughout all of recorded history, eh? :)

What's even worse than the verdicts being handed down by the voters at the ballot box, is the specter of this *memo* from the 'Rats on the ASIC that's suddenly been brought to the light of day.

Yessiree nic.
Life is good. All creatures wonderful. Sky's beautiful.

I'd like to see that *memo* serve to clarify exactly whose side the present ilk of traitorous Liberal-Socialist bastards really are on; since, it'd seem people remain a *tad* confused on the question?

So let us all patiently watch now how our guys handle this potentially disasterous turn of events for the 'Rats & in particular the treasonous *Senators* who're about to be outed as people who'd put "party" before the country they swore an oath to defend.

...regardless of *who* was serving as POTUS. :^)

[JulieRNR21]

Daschle would be 'deeply saddened' if CBS was doing a smear of Clinton.

[Congressman Billybob]

Li'l Tommy Daschle has just demonstrated again, in case more proof were needed, that he has NO CLUE how the American economy operates.

Every year, every network rolls out its "new Fall Schedule." Then the suits at the network wait anxiously to see how their shows will do in the rating. After a few weeks, they start axing the shows that are doing the worst, and tweaking the ones that are struggling, in an effort to hold and attract the key demographics in their potential audience.

Daschle has decried "outside influences"? Helloooo. Audiences are outside influences. Provide what your audience doesn't want and you lose market share. Lose market share and you lose advertising revenues. Lose advertising revenues and your network loses money. Hellooo. What part of that is difficult for Daschle to understand?

On the other hand, Daschle is a big fan of National People's Radio, which can thumb its nose at a large part of its audience, because it gets money from people who dispise it, courtesy of Congress. Perhaps Daschle would like the public to subsidize CBS, CNN and the like, to free them up from "outside influences"?

Daschle is a putz. I hope he remains "deeply saddened" until John Thune knocks him into next week in the 2004 election.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, "Open Judicial Mouth, Insert Foot," discussion thread. IF YOU WANT A FREEPER IN CONGRESS, CLICK HERE.

[cherry_bomb88]

Very well said, 'dru...as usual.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

That goes way beyond ugly.

I don't understand...? I was simply pointing out that Tom "Mr Free Speech" Daschale did not jump up and down and cry 'censorship' after the libs/Disney/etc. called for Rush's head after his remarks on ESPN. So obviously, Daschale is employing the infamous liberal double standard

[Dubya]

bump

[sean327]

I like that, we are being called a "Special Interest Group"
The commie libs fail to see the big picture, this was Middle America exercising our right to free speech by using the only thing these morons understand, OUR ECONOMIC CLOUT!!
Get used to it libs your stranglehold on the media is loosening faster than you can scream "Vast Right Wing Conpiracy". By the way we are a Special Interest Group, we are 'specially interested in keeping our Constitutional Republic out of your power hungry commie little hands.

[SpinyNorman]

Cancelled Reagan Miniseries Was 'a Stinker,' Says Critic

How could it NOT be a stinker: it has the stench of Barbra Streisand all over it!

[MeekOneGOP]

When he heard this news, little tommy was ...

Saddened, deeply saddened . . .

[clintonh8r]

I was just commenting on your new mayor.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Yeah, there's a definite Mr. Ed thing going on there.

[Landru]

"How could it NOT be a stinker: it has the stench of Barbra Streisand all over it!"

~& her money, Norman.
The monstrosity was -- obviously -- financed by Streisand on behalf of her main squeeze.

The only way the hapless imbucile/substandard *actor* could've landed a role was if someone bought it for 'em.

...surprised no one's caught that angle, yet.

[Bigg Red]

I think any time occasions arise when the essence of the judgment made by television producers is influenced by outside forces, we have to call into question whether that level of intimidation is appropriate," Daschle said.

**

No it's called free market forces, Little Tommy, but I know such a concept is hard for you commies to accept.