FNC’s Newswatch Liberals Blame MRC for CBS Pulling The Reagans

MRC ^ | 11/11/03 | Brent Baker

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

The two liberal panelists on FNC’s Fox Newswatch over the weekend credited/blamed the MRC for CBS’s decision to move it’s The Reagans mini-series to Showtime.

Neal Gabler asserted of the decision by CBS Chairman Les Moonves: “He pulled this because right-wing pressure from the Media Research Center, from Matt Drudge, from a number of radio talk show hosts, you know, made this just more trouble than it was worth. And it gave the right-wing veto power over broadcast television.”

Jane Hall, a former Los Angeles Times reporter who now teaches journalism as American University, echoed: “There was genuine outrage and I think there’s a lot of criticism to CBS, but the other thing that is true is the Media Research Center, Matt Drudge, the Republican National Committee -- all these people got on board, somebody spent nine dollars and had a CBS boycott Web site who’s a Republican, former Republican Congressman’s aide. The left-wing is not this well organized.”

“Well organized”? More like spontaneous and uncoordinated. The MRC had no contact with any of the others who denounced CBS’s movie.

(Cal Thomas pointed out how the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation “have been doing script approval for the networks on gay themes for some time. So what’s the difference? You get the script before it gets on or you keep the show from getting on. The same thing, it seems to me.”)

[KellyAdmirer]

Just another version of the paranoid Vast Right Wing Conspiracy myth. The liberals really do believe that conservatives are just waiting for the chance to drag them into a police state. It's kind of sad, but the Democrats are experts at fear-mongering.

When Dr. Laura gets forced off the air, it's simply people expressing themselves. When "The Reagans" gets the boot, though, it's "right-wing veto power." How charming.

[jos65]

Hockey Puck.

[OldFriend]

So now they're calling Moonves a liar too!!! This is too delicious.....

Moonves said he decided not to air the program for MORAL reasons.

[McGruff]

Fox's Newswatch is an interesting show sometimes. There are usually two fairly objective journalists and then there are two so-called journalists that have a hard time not falling over to the left in their chairs.

Cal Thomas usually smacks them back upright.

[Interesting Times]

They also think that conservative activism is centrally controlled and scripted, because that's how the leftists operate. So when something like this happens, they scramble around looking for someone visible to blame. Uhhhh... the Media Research Center! They did it!

Most liberals are still trying to figure out who ordered all those conservatives onto the streets after the 2000 election. Had to be the RNC...

[ozzymandus]

Gabler and Hall crack me up. They are such stereotypical liberals that they are little more than cartoon characters. The obnoxious runt and the dumb woman are staples of the leftist media.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Liberals have been whining that the pulling of The Reagans is somehow an impingement on free speech.

That would only be true if the government in some way forced CBS to withdraw the show. I have seen no evidence of that.

So what the libs are crying about is that others are exercising their right of free speech in criticizing the show! Guess what, free speech works both ways!

[ItsOurTimeNow]

What I find particularly amusing is the vehement blasting of Moonves by the left.

Once the liberals' darling, he's now their enemy. It's funny how quickly the left will turn on their "heroes".

There is no such thing as loyalty with the Left.

[Mr. Thorne]

Did you catch the e-mail to her?

Paraphrasing, someone wrote:

… every week, Jane bemoans the fact that some story gives credibility to the mistaken idea of liberal bias in the media. Has it ever occured to her that all these examples might be PROOF?!

[Political Junkie Too]

Doesn't anyone remember how the Clinton administration was letting Hollywood get "credits" for Public Service Announcements (PSA's) if they let the White House approve scripts that included anti-drug messages?

-PJ

[Made In The USA]

I just hope Babs is just stewing over this. Hope she's heartbroken over the "right wing conspiracy" that's making her life so miserable... I'd recommend that she get used to it.

[OESY]

[SquirrelKing]

From Leno:

CBS has canceled its miniseries "The Reagans" after complaints that it portrayed Ronald Reagan as nothing more than a bumbling B-list actor controlled by a domineering wife. What were the odds of James Brolin getting a role like that?

Hee Hee!