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CBS dancing to Republican tune
Toronto Star ^ | Nov. 9, 2003 | ANTONIA ZERBISIAS

Posted on 11/10/2003 11:11:34 AM PST by holymoly

CBS dancing to Republican tune

ANTONIA ZERBISIAS

I'm thinking of having the above photo retaken in order to show the drywall embedded in my forehead. It's a wonder I stopped bashing my head long enough to eke out this column.

It's been that kind of week. First, there was CBS's dumping of its sweeps period biopic The Reagans after a right wing-organized backlash, and then, at Thursday's Canadian Journalists For Free Expression awards dinner, I got into a surreal argument with a TV network foreign affairs producer who made the outrageous claim that the U.S. never lied about its motives for attacking Iraq.

The two events are related because it has been my experience in the past two years that, every time you raise an issue that makes those on the right uncomfortable, they change the subject and argue about something else.

And so, in making his case about how the Bushies made their case for killing thousands of people in Iraq, my TV foreign affairs colleague kept shifting the debate the way a desert wind shifts the sands. No, the White House never said the U.S. was in imminent danger of attack by nuke-yule-er weapons wielded by terrorists, he said. It merely "sold'' the war wrong. No, President George W. Bush never mentioned that bit about 45 minutes to annihilation. That was Tony Blair. And so on.

As for The Reagans which, like any docudrama, likely boasts as much drama as doc, it was denounced by one writer for the Wall Street Journal as a "cartoon plot" best summarized as "Mommie Dearest Manipulates President Fuddy Duddy." Meanwhile the paper's deputy editorial page editor Daniel Henninger fulminated over how the now Alzheimer's-afflicted president was played by James Brolin, who is guilty of being "partner of America's most invested Republican hater," Barbra Streisand. Almost as bad was hiring an Australian actress — Emmy-winning Judy Davis — to be former First Lady Nancy Davis Reagan who, it shall be remembered, was indeed called "Mommy" by her husband.

Naturally, the pro-Reagans, anti-Reagans forces dragged out their favourite burning cross: the sins of the so-called liberal media. The script here is that, when the media report news that the right doesn't like, its defenders counterattack by screaming left-wing bias rather than admit that Bush could be a big fat liar. Last week, one of my favourite cartoonists Tom Toles illustrated this brilliantly by showing a CBS announcer saying the network won't be airing The Reagans "because it's full of inaccuracies, hostile in tone and completely misleading" and then, looking off camera, asking, "What do we do about this Bush press conference?''

Oh the horror, the horror, of allowing travesties of truth, justice and good taste on the corporate-controlled supposed public airwaves. Never mind that Viacom, which owns CBS, is awaiting new broadcast rules that will allow it to expand its considerable media dominion. So duh! It's going to do what the Republicans want it to do.

But the Ronald Reagan-loving critics overlook that, claiming victory over the liberal media, which had merely set out to trash their beloved Gipper and, among other things, his appalling record on AIDS. Even though these critics never saw the show, and even though Reagan never mentioned AIDS for the first six years of his administration. Anyway, do they honestly believe that CBS, which owns the older, more conservative demographic, would risk a single eyeball with a smear job?

So now The Reagans has been offloaded to CBS's smaller cable sister network Showtime. My guess is that Showtime, which says it will follow the presentation with a panel discussion, never runs the now heavily edited and re-edited miniseries.

Meanwhile, the late great Edward R. Murrow who, along with his producer Fred Friendly and CBS, helped bring down Commie-hunter Joseph McCarthy, spins in his grave.

If that's not enough irony for you, consider this: President Ronald Reagan was the guy who, in 1987, vetoed legislation, passed by both the U.S. Congress and the Senate, that would have entrenched the "Fairness Doctrine.'' As a president who was big on keeping government out of the business of business, he did not see the value in a law that would have forced broadcasters to present balanced accounts of controversial issues.

Hmmm ...

This is not to say that the Fairness Doctrine was without problems from a freedom of the press standpoint. But abolishing it led to even more trouble in television land, including the creation of entire "news" networks that spew lots of opinion and little fact.

The Reagans was never meant to be a news program. It was designed as drama, and cheesy drama at that. But its critics seem to be saying that most Americans can't discern between TV fiction and news.

Considering the record lately, they could be right.


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: aids; antiamericanism; antibush; barfalert; boycott; boycottviacom; bushbashing; canada; cbs; cheeseandwhine; homosexual; homosexualagenda; mediabias; nowhiningzone; ratherbiased; reaganbashing; ronaldreagan; seebs; showtime; smarmyliberal; technicoloryawn; thereagans; viacom; viacommie; waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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My apologies if this has already been posted, nothing turned up in a search.
1 posted on 11/10/2003 11:11:35 AM PST by holymoly
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To: holymoly
My apologies if this has already been posted, nothing turned up in a search.

That's OK. There was nothing to the article either.

2 posted on 11/10/2003 11:14:52 AM PST by theDentist (Liberals can sugarcoat sh** all they want. I'm not biting.)
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To: holymoly

Antonia sure looks butch, doesn't she?!

3 posted on 11/10/2003 11:15:25 AM PST by Revolting cat! (Far out, man!)
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To: holymoly
This man's problem is not drywall embedded in his forehead. His problem is the concrete between his ears.
4 posted on 11/10/2003 11:16:11 AM PST by WorkingClassFilth (DEFUND NPR & PBS - THE AMERICAN PRAVDA)
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To: holymoly
The Reagans were never menat to be a news program.
...so it's alright if they lie about what Reagan said, giving him a bad image that he doesn't deserve. News flash you f!@#$%^ idiot... the National Enquirer isn't meant to be a realistic news source, but they get sued for libel.
5 posted on 11/10/2003 11:16:38 AM PST by WinOne4TheGipper (Using Occam's Razor to shave the hairy armpits of liberal feminists....)
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: theDentist
That's OK. There was nothing to the article either.

Well, I thought it a good example of just how irrational the left can be (is?).
7 posted on 11/10/2003 11:17:02 AM PST by holymoly
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To: holymoly

8 posted on 11/10/2003 11:17:21 AM PST by Revolting cat! (Far out, man!)
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To: Revolting cat!
What the...? That ain't the picture they had next to the article!
Oh well.
9 posted on 11/10/2003 11:19:12 AM PST by holymoly
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To: holymoly; GOPJ; Pharmboy; reformed_democrat; RatherBiased.com; nopardons; Tamsey; Miss Marple; ...
Can you imagine an American newspaper, even one in a city right across the Canadian border, running an 800-word diatribe about a Canadian network canceling a TV movie about Brian Mulroney due to its being quite possibly libelous?

Too many Canadians - especially the writers of the Toronto Star, arguably one of the most liberal papers in that country - have an extremely unhealthy obsession with the United States. Why the hell should they care what an American network decides to do about a miniseries about an American president?

Oh yeah, because Reagan's a conservative and all TV networks everywhere have a sworn duty to air nothing but far-left propaganda hit pieces 24/7. Right.


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10 posted on 11/10/2003 11:19:36 AM PST by Timesink
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To: holymoly
The script here is that, when the media report news that the right doesn't like, its defenders counterattack by screaming left-wing bias rather than admit that Bush could be a big fat liar. Last week, one of my favourite cartoonists Tom Toles illustrated this brilliantly by showing a CBS announcer saying the network won't be airing The Reagans "because it's full of inaccuracies, hostile in tone and completely misleading" and then, looking off camera, asking, "What do we do about this Bush press conference?''

Up yours, Antonia. The media has a permanent left-wing bias, not just when it suits the right, and, further, I defy you to find one instance of an outright lie told by the President.

11 posted on 11/10/2003 11:19:56 AM PST by CaptRon
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To: holymoly
... the late great Edward R. Murrow who, along with his producer Fred Friendly and CBS, helped bring down Commie-hunter Joseph McCarthy

CBS - fighting democracy for the last half century (at least).
12 posted on 11/10/2003 11:20:00 AM PST by oh8eleven
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To: holymoly
I'm waiting for the major network docudrama of 'Xlowntoon: the Early Years' featuring his stepfathers, Juanita Broaddrick, cocaine habit, etc.
13 posted on 11/10/2003 11:20:50 AM PST by Post Toasties
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To: holymoly
Apparently this person agrees with Anti-President Al Gore that CBS/Viacom has a 1st Amendment right to our wallets.
14 posted on 11/10/2003 11:21:43 AM PST by Cultural Jihad
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To: holymoly
But abolishing it [the Fairness Doctrine] led to even more trouble in television land, including the creation of entire "news" networks that spew lots of opinion and little fact.

You see, according to our intrepid author, prior to 1987 there was no bias in television news. It's only emerged since then . . .

15 posted on 11/10/2003 11:22:26 AM PST by Numbers Guy
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To: holymoly
I'm thinking of having the above photo retaken in order to show the drywall embedded in my forehead. It's a wonder I stopped bashing my head long enough to eke out this column.

This pretty much explains the left-wing mind-set.

16 posted on 11/10/2003 11:24:35 AM PST by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: Post Toasties
I am waiting for the movie on how Clinton converted the Whitehouse into a whorehouse. It could be spiced up considerably with lies to make it more interesting...who would object?
17 posted on 11/10/2003 11:27:00 AM PST by Voltage
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To: Revolting cat!
This is not to say that the Fairness Doctrine was without problems from a freedom of the press standpoint. But abolishing it led to even more trouble in television land, including the creation of entire "news" networks that spew lots of opinion and little fact.

I hate to break it to him (or her, depending on which picture above is correct), but the Fairness Doctrine only applied to BROADCAST television: TV and radio stations. It would not have prevented the launch of Fox News Channel (the only network the jackass author of this article could possibly have been talking about ... and lying about.

And, of course, it never stopped the broadcast news media from being overtly liberal all those years anyway. The only place it was ever really enforced was on talk radio, where opinion was clearly labeled as opinion. As long as you claimed to be "impartial news", you were left alone, no matter how partial you actually were.

Which I guess is my nice way of saying STFU, Canadians, when you don't have a damn clue what you're talking about.

18 posted on 11/10/2003 11:27:49 AM PST by Timesink
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To: holymoly
"CBS dancing to Republican tune"

More like the "perp walk" as the miscreant is being hauled into the station to be booked....

Nothing will come of the charges, as they will be dismissed by the liberal media acting on behalf of the "court of public opinion", but the reputation continues to build.
19 posted on 11/10/2003 11:29:03 AM PST by alloysteel
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To: Revolting cat!
= ?

Hmmm...looks like someone needs to rethink their hormone treatment.

20 posted on 11/10/2003 11:29:08 AM PST by Jonah Hex (If a dog started to salivate, would Pavlov ring a bell?)
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