Posted on 11/07/2003 4:39:03 AM PST by Livy
Gutless at CBS The network’s decision to yank ‘The Reagans’ was just a craven—and short-sighted—bid to keep advertisers happy
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE
Nov. 4 — Hallelujah! The Gipper is safe and the hated liberal media humbled. It’s a big victory for the “Elephant Echo Chamber,” the unholy trinity of conservative talk radio, conservative Internet sites and the Republican National Committee. The decision by CBS late yesterday not to air “The Reagans” meant, Matt Drudge exulted, “a tremendous night” for his team.
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Look, I’m not defending “The Reagans.” I have neither read the script nor seen it. (No one outside CBS has). It may well be the hit job described in leaked reports or, at a minimum, another stupid docu-drama that distorts the historical truth. It’s a little tacky to be taking a lot of pot shots when the former president is ailing. More important, it is not “censorship” when people organize boycotts or public campaigns trying to keep something off the air. (Censorship, remember, is when the government controls what is published or broadcast). This was plain old free speech.
My problem isn’t with the whining critics, it’s with the CBS executives. In its press release, the network said the decision to cancel the docudrama, scheduled for Nov. 16 and 18 (and sell it to Showtime instead), was based “solely on our reaction to seeing the final film, not the controversy that erupted over the draft of a script.” If you believe that, you think “Survivor” is a nature program. You think CBS is still the Tiffany of networks. Clearly what happened here is that CBS caved to its advertisers, who feared a boycott orchestrated not just by Matt Drudge and talk radio but by Ed Gillespie of the Republican National Committee, who got into the act last week. This was not only craven of CBS but short-sighted. Docudramas depend on jucy personal material. No one wants to watch one about the brilliant successes of the Strategic Defense Initiative.
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The other scenes that apparently stuck in the craw of the Reagan hero-worshippers and GOP political operatives who saw a way to rally their base were those that depicted tensions within the Reagan family and Nancy Reagan’s controlling personality. Imagine! A docu-drama that actually reflects the headlines from the era! Anyone who was alive in the 1980s knows that the Reagan First Family was close to dysfunctional (as in, not speaking to each other for long periods) and that the First Lady plotted her husband’s schedule with the help of an astrologer and fired his chief of staff. That’s not spin; it’s fact. As Casey Stengel said, you can look it up. So now we’re in a new media century. I shed no tears for “The Reagans,” which will not make me rush out and subscribe to Showtime. Unless you count “The Missiles of October,” there was no golden age of TV docu-dramas, which have always been the cheesiest meal on the media food chain. Primetime television is uncorruptible, because there has never been anything left to corrupt in the first place. But I’m glad for the artistic and historical advice now booming through the elephant echo chamber. It’s good to know that network docu-dramas are, forthwith, supposed to be “true,” unless, of course, the truth is somehow “offensive” to the myth, then we’ll take the myth, as long as the myth corresponds to the reigning politics of the moment. One thing’s for sure: When they make “The Bush Dynasty” docudrama, that “Mission Accomplished” banner won’t be visible in the scene on the aircraft carrier.
awesome quote. That should be attached to everything ever said on FR about Alter from now until forever.
Well said.
Word.
For those with a strong memory, there were once four networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC and Dumont. Yep, there was a major network named Dumont. But it didn't keep its advertisers happy.
Today, ABCCBSNBC are shirking while other outlets grow, especially Fox. It's all a matter of "keeping the advertisers happy." Do we need to go back to basics? This is a free market society. Media outlets sell advertising to survive. Sell a lot and they grow. Sell a little and they shrink, and eventually die.
This is basic stuff. Any child who's ever run a lemonade stand, understands it. Any teenager who's ever played Monopoly, understands it. So, why can't Alter wrap his mind around such a simple and obvious concept? Other than because of hard-wired bias, I mean?
Congressman Billybob
See: Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, CNN, MTV, ABC-Disney, PBS, Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, and Walter Cronkite.
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