...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Monday, November 03, 2003
      ( 4:19 PM )
 
Can We Please Get Some Guts in the House?

Well, it appears that CBS may be balking on airing its miniseries on Reagan due to the massive amounts of "protest" from neocons everywhere who can't allow one hint of tarnish to rest upon the hallowed memory of their hero Ronald Reagan -- to the point that they've organized a boycott of CBS.

As Emma over at Notes on the Atrocities asks:

1.) Is Reagan's legacy so fragile that it might be damaged by a miniseries? (Sorry, I'm just having a hard time taking it seriously.)

2.) Is the miniseries form so powerful as to shake the reputation of a presidency?

Well, at least one Congressman has taken the opposite approach with CBS. John Dingell, D-Michigan, has written an open letter to the corporation's president:

As someone who served with President Reagan,
and in the interest of historical accuracy, please
allow me to share with you some of my recollections
of the Reagan years that I hope will make it into
the final cut of the mini-series: $640 Pentagon
toilets seats; ketchup as a vegetable; union busting;
firing striking air traffic controllers; Iran-Contra;
selling arms to terrorist nations; trading arms for
hostages; retreating from terrorists in Beirut;
lying to Congress; financing an illegal war in
Nicaragua; visiting Bitburg cemetery; a cozy
relationship with Saddam Hussein; shredding
documents; Ed Meese; Fawn Hall; Oliver North;
James Watt; apartheid apologia; the savings
and loan scandal; voodoo economics; record
budget deficits; double digit unemployment;
farm bankruptcies; trade deficits; astrologers
in the White House; Star Wars; and influence
peddling.

Nicely said. Unfortunately, it appears CBS may be selling the miniseries to Showtime so that it doesn't have to take responsibility for the editing, that is evidently being done with a machete.

Come on, people. Have some backbone. The fact that the hardline rightists in this country are carrying the hammer when it comes to the media is not only discouraging, but it's downright dangerous if it means that media companies are bowing to the rightists' whims in terms of artistic interpretation of a story for a miniseries. People worship Reagan, and for the life of me I can't figure out why - but that is no reason that they can't simply turn off the tv and declare it for what they usually do, the tripe and monstrosity of hollywood. Whiners, every last one of them.

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