An inconvenient fact, left out of ALL of the liberal whining about the pulling of the miniseries is that the writers admitted to MAKING UP things and putting them in RR's mouth. We didn't need to see the broadcast when we already knew, and had it confirmed, that the project was full of gross inaccuracies and outright falsehoods.
I have the entire script, and I have read it all. It was a partisan hatchet job, plain and simple. Any intellectually honest person could see that.
And you may want to check your definition of "special interests" because the flak CBS caught over this film was not just from a small group (like the ACLU, NARAL, or NAMBLA) but we from a broad cross-section of the American people. People that vote ... at the ballot box, and with their remote controls and their dollars.
Associated Press
Capping an extraordinary conservative furor over a movie virtually no one has seen, CBS scrapped plans Tuesday to televise "The Reagans" and decided to shunt it off to the Showtime cable network instead.
Based on snippets of the script that had leaked out in recent weeks, conservatives accused CBS of distorting the legacy of Ronald Reagan.
While CBS said it was not bowing to political pressure, critics said that was exactly the case, and worried about the effects of such pre-emptive strikes on future work.
CBS believed it had ordered a love story about Ronald and Nancy Reagan with politics as a backdrop, but instead got a film that crossed the line into advocacy, said a network executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The film had been scheduled to air Nov. 16 and 18, in the heart of the November ratings sweeps. CBS attempted to edit the film to remove offending passages, but gave up.
"We believe it does not present a balanced portrayal of the Reagans for CBS and its audience," the network said Tuesday.
Neal Gabler, author of "Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality," said the decision was unhealthy for democracy.
"CBS, in pulling this film, did incredible harm, much more harm than they could ever have done in making the film," Gabler said. "What they've told us now is that a very small group of people have censorship power over the broadcast networks."
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said the decision "smells of intimidation to me."
But conservatives said it was a question of accuracy.
The miniseries became a hot topic on talk radio and the TV news networks. The chairman of the Republican National Committee wrote to CBS President Leslie Moonves, asking for historians to review the movie, and the conservative Media Research Center asked advertisers to consider boycotting the film.
"This was a left-wing smear of one of the nation's most beloved presidents and CBS got caught," said Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center.
Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie said putting the movie before a smaller audience on Showtime doesn't address accuracy concerns.
Without changes, Showtime should remind viewers every 10 minutes that the movie is fictional, he said.
Showtime and CBS are both owned by Viacom, which is anxiously awaiting federal action on rules to restrict ownership of local TV stations.
Failure to enact such changes could cost Viacom millions of dollars, said Jeff Chester, head of the Center for Digital Democracy, a communications lobbying group.
Viacom needs help from Republicans in the White House and Congress who might not like seeing Reagan portrayed negatively, Chester said.
"They made a business decision," he said. "In doing so, they clearly caved in to the political pressure."
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