Posted on 10/25/2003 7:38:43 AM PDT by Calpernia
If Ronald Reagan were still in his prime, presidential 1980s form, hed be saying to Hollywood: "There you go again."
There are two kinds of films about presidents. There are documentaries which usually try to dwell in factual examination; and fictional movies which have a habit of wildly making things up to satisfy the demands of making either effective entertainment, or effective propaganda.
Now CBS is preparing a dramatic and quite fictional miniseries for November titled "The Reagans." CBS promised reporters it would be "meticulously researched." Researched fiction, that is. The last Reagan-fictionalizing offender was Showtime, whose 2001 film on "The Day Reagan Was Shot" was denounced by Dick Allen, Reagans first national security adviser, as a parade of invented "history" that never happened, like Reagan aides James Baker and Michael Deaver urging surgeons to lie about Reagans condition. Hollywood should never call its historical fiction "meticulously researched." Rather, they should be forced to carry a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen saying "We made some of this stuff up."
Half of our dismay at this messy crossroads of entertainment and propaganda should be directed at Hollywood, which should be greeted with a shaker of salt every time a movie is "Based On a True Story." The other half should be directed as history-challenged Americans, those who could watch hysterical "history" films like Oliver Stones "JFK" and actually swallow the nonsense. To those Americans who get their history from the movies (and their news from the late-night comedians), we can only plead: read a book, or a newspaper, or else please dont bother to vote.
America needs to remember the lessons that the leadership of Ronald Reagan taught us, but no one should expect those lessons to come from leftist Hollywood. Jim Rutenberg at the New York Times got a preview of the script for "The Reagans" and noted the script mentions nothing about the historic economic recovery of the 1980s or Americas delivery from Jimmy Carter. It was somehow missed by those meticulous researchers.
Whats worse in this film are what the producers and writers are "adding" to the historical record. Rutenberg noted that the writer creates a conversation between Reagan and his agent during the Hollywood years about offering the names of communists to Congress, in which fake-Reagan declares "I've never called anybody a commie who wasn't a commie." In real life, Reagan denied doing that, although he did cooperate with FBI investigations. This is a good thing, even if Hollywood will never catch a glimpse of Reagans moral vision: an unemployed communist screenwriter is hardly a historical atrocity compared to communists starving millions in the Ukraine.
The Times also reported that the script accuses Reagan of not mere apathy in facing the outbreak of AIDS, but of "asserting that AIDS patients essentially deserved their disease." During a scene in which his wife pleads with him to help people battling AIDS, fake-Reagan says, "They that live in sin shall die in sin" and refuses to discuss the issue further. This is not only fake history, but terrible Christianity. We are all sinners, and we all die requiring the grace of a forgiving God.
This is where Rutenbergs script scoop is a little short on context. Why would Reagan be portrayed as a death-wisher? The producers of "The Reagans" are Craig Zadan and Neal Meron, whove been instrumental in bringing TV revivals of classic musicals to television for Disney. They are also openly gay activists who will be honored in Hollywood next March with an award at the "Building Equality" dinner from the gay-left lobby called the Human Rights Campaign.
In 1995, Zadan and Meron produced another "historical" film for television with their pal Barbra Streisand called "Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story," with Glenn Close playing the lesbian military nurse who came out of the closet and defied the Pentagons "homophobia." This movie did not invent nasty doings or sayings to cast Cammermeyer in a negative light. On the contrary, this was uplifting propaganda. Amazon.com reminds us that the script "captures the sad irony of doing everything right serving one's country, taking care of the people in one's life yet still being treated like a pariah for entirely irrational reasons."
Inquiring minds should also remember that CBS chief Les Moonves wont be making any Clinton-bashing TV movies. In fact, in 1996, Bill Clinton talked Moonves into making "A Childs Wish," a heart-tugging propaganda film dramatizing the wonders of his Family and Medical Leave Act. Clinton even made an appearance in the movie as himself. Nobody said those fictional "history" movies cant be very political. And very dishonest.
All major contributors to NPR and PBS...(hmmm)
Let's edit that for movies about conservatives:
There is one kind of film about conservative ideas or presidents. There are fictional movies which have a habit of wildly making things up to satisfy the demands of making effective propaganda.
boycott? I don't need to sign up. I'm way ahead of you. I have not watched anythign on CBS in years.
God Bless Ronald Reagan.
"I think despite any amendments, the Reagan made for TV movie will be a bomb in the ratings."
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The funny thing is....If FollyWired would just make a movie about the Clinton's and tell half of the truth..it would be a smash hit. You'd have SEX, MURDER, ESPIONAGE, MISSLES, WAR, RAPE, HIGH FINANCE, INTRIQUE, SEX, BRIBES, MURDER, DRUG LORDS, CRIME, GRAND JURIES, SEX, PETS, TREASON, LESBIANS, BURNING BUILDINGS, BOMBS, SEX, & MURDER.
All the things that "sell" nowadays....
Fwiw-
The left isn't even pretending that truth matters to them anymore.
In an exchange brought to our attention by an e-mailer and tracked down by MRC analyst Patrick Gregory, Kurtz inquired of O'Donnell: One thing these programs have in common, conservatives are practically invisible. President Bartlet is a Democrat. Martin Sheen, in fact, made anti-war ads before the invasion of Iraq. Mr. Sterling is a California liberal based loosely on Jerry Brown. Why aren't there any Republicans?
O'Donnell replied: You will never get that TV show. [crowd laughter] You'll never, ever going to get the Republican TV show. The Writers Guild of America, my union, is at a minimum, 99 percent leftist liberal and, like me, socialist. [crowd laughter] And we don't know how to write it. We don't.
In 2001 there was a concert given in NYC for the police and fireman who responded to the 9.11 attacks and aftermath. At this concert Hillary Clinton was soundly booed.
On all subsequent broadcasts (and on the DVD video release) the police officers' and firemen's boos were replaced with cheers. Is it any coincidence that Viacom's MTV, VH1, and SeeBS networks aired this altered concert? Is it any coincidence that Viacom's publishing company Simon and Schuester had already given Queen Hillary an $8million advance in the brief window between her days as First Lady (and elected Senator from NY) and her swearing in as Senator (where ethics violations may have come up)?
I'd say that Hollywood must be full of criminals and terrorists because Hollywood has never had any problem writing about crooks and evil bad guys. By this guy's own "admission", they only write about what they know.
I'd state it as, they only write about what they WANT to write about and, despite their cries about a communist witchhunt in the 1950s, they do inject their leftist propaganda into the stories they write. There just isn't room for them to honestly portray the other side of the argument.
There were also circular arguments that despite claims from aides and even family members about the portrayal of Ronald Reagan using the Lord's name in vain (they claim he didn't ever do that) that people really use these words and that the aide wasn't there 24 hours a day, and that besides these stories aren't ever entirely factually correct. He said that Buddy Holly fanatics would find flaws with the Buddy Holly Story (especially some of the conversations fabricated to tell the story).
Alan did not want to concede the point that this is a political smear. He's a lying liar like so many on the left.
You could also extend your "boycott" to all things Viacom since Viacom owns SeeBS. There's MTV, M2, VH-1, Nickelodeon, TNN/Spike, TV Land, Simon and Schuester publishing, and just about every radio station that isn't Clear Channel...
Even films that are in production and preproduction get listed there.
Very telling.
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