Next step for Reagan: canonization

Posted on November 4, 2003 by Gene

If there’s anything the Republicans worship more than corporate money, it’s Ronald Reagan.
I simply can’t get my mind around their incredible worship of the man. It’s not merely enough to have every building in America named for him, but now they have bullied CBS into actually pulling their miniseries about him mere days before it was due to air.
By the way – they never saw the miniseries. They just know that it would be unflattering.
Just when I think my analogies of the current state of our country are drifting too far into the realm of the old Soviet Union, they go and do something else that even I couldn’t imagine. Well, soon we’ll see carefully airbrushed photos that revise history. If we haven’t seen them already, of course.

Barraged by accusations from conservatives that it was distorting the legacy of a president, CBS announced Tuesday it was pulling “The Reagans” miniseries off the air.

The network said it was licensing the completed film to Showtime, a pay cable network that, like CBS, is owned by Viacom.

CBS insisted it was not bowing to pressure about portions of the script, but that the decision was made after seeing the finished film.

“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 network said in a statement. [AP via Washington Post]

Dontcha love that they say they’re not bowing to pressure? Heck no. They’re being trampled by it.

What does it say about the state of the media that CBS pulls an entertainment program for not being “balanced,” while the news divisions of the major media companies don’t even know the meaning of the word?