Under Pressure, CBS Shifts Reagan Mini-Series to Showtime
Nov. 4, 2003 -- CBS announced today that it will not broadcast a four-hour mini-series, "The Reagans," the unflattering portrayal of the former president and his wife that had been the subject of intense criticism by conservatives who launched a full-scale lobbying effort to get the network to kill the series.
Instead, CBS said the series will be shown on Showtime, the subscriber cable network...
Much of the furor was unleashed after The New York Times, which obtained a final copy of the script, said the show depicted Mr. Reagan as a skilled politician and cheerful, but distant and a bit out of touch, and his wife as controlling and fiercely determined, with poor relations with her children.
Of particular concern to conservative critics was a scene in which Mr. Reagan says of gays who have AIDS: "They that live in sin shall die in sin."
Mr. Reagan made no such public remark, and opponents of the mini-series say the line was an indication of liberal bias against the two-term president.
CBS Kills Nixon Bio
June 12, 2004 -- CBS said today that it will not air the five-part biography "Nixon," after Republicans said the show unfairly portrays the late president as being responsible for one of the worst political scandals in American history.
The controversy began after the New York Times obtained a draft version of the script, which portrays Mr. Nixon as a brooding, insecure man who believed himself to be surrounded by enemies.
Of particular concern to conservatives is a scene in which Mr. Nixon describes the Watergate break-in as "a third rate burglary."
That line was, in fact, spoken by White House press secretary Ron Ziegler. Critics say attributing it to Mr. Nixon is proof of liberal bias against the late president.
CBS says the controversial movie will be shown in the History Channel's 4:00 AM time slot.
CBS Cancels McCarthy Drama
Aug. 30, 2005 -- CBS has refused to broadcast the six-part miniseries "Commie Hunter," after conservative author Ann Coulter reportedly told a friend the show doesn't adequately depict the courage and dedication that made the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy a hero to millions of patriotic Americans.
The controversy began after the New York Times obtained a one-page summary of the script, which portrays the Senator as an honest but occasionally heavy-handed critic of the traitors in the East Coast liberal establishment.
Of particular concern to Republicans is an alleged scene in which Sen. McCarthy supposedly suggests there are at least 206 card-carrying Communists employed at the State Department.
Conservatives point out that Sen. McCarthy, in fact, only said there were 205 Communists working in the State Department.
In a statement, CBS said the "miserable piece of left-wing propaganda" might be shown on daytime television in the Baltic nation of Latvia.
CBS Nixes Hoover Show
Dec. 14, 2006 -- CBS says it will try to kill a proposed 12-part docudrama about the life and times of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Network executives say conservative talk show host G. Gordon Liddy has convinced them the show will unfairly slander the great American law-and-order chief -- even though the script has not yet been written.
The controversy began after Liddy provided the New York Times with a tape of a bedroom conversation between the show's producer and his gay lover, in which the two describe Hoover as a self-loathing closet transvestite with a taste for sleazy French maid outfits and pushup bras.
Conservative critics note the FBI Director actually had impeccable fashion sense, and that the pushup bra wasn't even invented until well after Hoover's death.
CBS said the show -- if it is ever filmed -- will be shown as an in-flight movie by Air Zimbabwe.
CBS Vows to Block Bush Expose
Apr 1, 2010 -- CBS says it agrees with Department of Homeland Security censors that a purported video about the seven-year-long conflict in Iraq should be banned from the U.S. airwaves.
Conservatives say the show -- allegedly being produced by underground subversives -- unfairly blames former President George W. Bush for pushing America into an unwinnable war in a deeply fragmented Third World country.
Government informants have told the DHS (which in turn has told the New York Times) that the film will portray Bush as an ignorant but arrogant man convinced the Lord God chose him to bring peace to the Middle East.
Supposedly, the documentary also alleges that Saddam Hussein's regime did not possess weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion.
Conservative critics say the search for WMD in Iraq continues to make good progress. Suggesting otherwise, they note, is strictly prohibited by the VICTORY III Act, the Official Secrets Act of 2005, and the Sedition Act of 2007.
CBS says that if copies of the alleged video surface, they will be aired at a public show trial, and then immediately burnt.
Billmon, I heart you. Nice show, so to speak.
But a CBS spokesman says the network will still air the 12-part miniseries "Clinton: Portrait of an Ass-grabber"
President Ashcroft has vowed to hunt down these video terrorists. We'll see how they like ridiculing America from inside Gitmo 17!
Why I read tacitus: he's thoughtful, with some of the best thread-posters around.
I came across this wonderful article about "The War On Terror" written by a military ethicist/philosopher. It's certainly better than anything I ever read by Derridas...
Stop calling it the War on Terrorism:
An Argument for Moral Clarity
(Them's fightin' words: accusing Republicans of a lack of "moral clarity"!)
And the yummy original post (by commenter sobersoldier) had links to many more..
http://38.144.96.23/tacitus/archives/001119.html#001119
cbs act will probably be considered as the beginning of the end of usa as we know it now. next- removal of the 2 term limitation on the presidency. start packing up that survival kit and looking for someplace to head to.
billjpa@aol.com
Billmon, You are my hero for the day! Superb! Hillarious! Thank you.
Apparently the actual Reagan quote about AIDS was:
Maybe the Lord brought down this plague [because] illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments. (As reported at tompaine.)
Just so we're all clear about that liberal bias...
[sustained applause] Brilliant! I wonder where the GOP selective-accuracy squad was for DC:911. Didn't see that either but I objected to egregious distortions like SuperBush telling the pilot to take him to DC, dammit, cause no tinpot dictator's gonna tell him how to stuff a codpiece (or something like that). And I simply didn't buy that he took the controls from Karen Black and landed the bombed, doomed aircraft himself while applying pressure to the real pilot's sucking chest wound. Okay, so they cut the scenes of Bush fighting off hypothermia and eating his teammates from the Peruvian soccer team, but who wouldn't?
Hil-fucking-larious!
Thank you.
WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a bunch of pathetic wimps Republicans are. Write one non-hagiographic Made-for-TV miniseries about Ronald Reagan, and the Chairman of the RNC starts screaming for his momma. I mean, it's total wussiedom! After all, Reagan is such a Great Man that he's got nothing to worry about if some nattering nabobs start paraphrasing the details. Isn't PC dead already?
And I thought liberals were supposed to be masters of victimhood. Gah. What a bunch of pathetic pansies.
In case you didn't guess it, while I found the post funny, in an unfunny sort of way, I thought it took the wrong tone. Kick the whining cowards while they're down! Irony has it's place, but this ain't one of them.
10 to 1 they will fund and air a mini-series called Stained Blue Dress
Bravo, Billmon. This post is worthy to go against the best of the Onion.
Brilliant! Re: Bush Expose--did conservatives object to the suggestion that documents purporting to show Saddam sought uranium from Africa proved to be crude forgeries, while maintaining that the SOTU phrase was technically accurate, as Bush cited the British Government as the source?
I can't wait until we break away from Texas and California slides into the ocean. The surviving Californians will swarm into Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Idaho and tip the political balance to "very liberal" and then will will live in a Democratic utopia and produce and watch whatever expose's and indie crap we want to, God dammit!
In the mean time, watch out for a GOP proposed ammendment to the First Amendment outlawing liberal media bias, pornography and those Herbal Essence commericals.
Just brilliant. Billmon, I wish I were you. Only one quibble:
blames former President George W. Bush
Former? Are you kidding? After they passed the VICTORY III Act, the Official Secrets Act of 2005, and the Sedition Act of 2007, they went ahead and repealed the 22nd Amendment.
Ack--sorry, forgot to add the slash to close the bold text....
[still applauding] Sharpest wit in town! (and - not too many know/remember) Hoover as a self-loathing closet transvestite with a taste for sleazy French maid outfits.. hehehe
God, I love reading YOU!! (still laughing)
When I saw the Hoover headline, I thought it was going to be a bio of Herbert Hoover. I'd love to see the GOP try to rehabilitate his presidency.
billmon: too scary to be funny but...well done.
peanut: now that's comedy, but you left out the scene where Bush, at the last minute, stops the
plane from flying into the World Trade Center
while the regular cast at "Lone Gunman" looks on in awe.
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=73&contentid=301
or just google: tv "lone gunman"
Another Reagan-hating liberal: Richard Pipes:
Departing from current Reaganolatry, Pipes depicts a man of strong conviction but shallow intellect, crestfallen when a gathering of Soviet dissidents was already familiar with his full repertoire of Communist jokes and often "stumped" by "policy discussions."
"I was surprised to see how little deference [Deputy Chief of Staff Michael] Deaver and [Chief of Staff James] Baker showed Reagan," Pipes writes. "They seemed to treat him rather like a grandfather whom one humors but does not take very seriously."
By the way, there's more in this article on Pipes that's worth reading.
I don't get it! (Just kidding).
Back to reality.....Wunderbar!
Bravo! Bill. I'm printing this one out and showing it to a colleague who teaches creative writing.
as a republican, i am glad that cbs canceled it.
as a republican, i need a constant father figure, telling me what to watch, read, think & eat.
thats why liberals are so scary to me, they think & choose for themselves!!!!!!
THAT SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED!!!!!
Bravo Billmon
Very funny.
But there already was a made for TV movie about Bush on Showtime. Purely by accident it aired around the time of 9/11 this year. It showed him commandingly taking charge in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks, telling his Vice President and National Security Advisor what to do and exactly what needs to be done, and forming coherent thoughts and expressing them in full sentences. So even though I'm not sure about some of the details, it did manage to get the main things right. Thank god for that. I would consider an inaccurate picture of a sitting president to be tantamount to propaganda.
The new word for "chickenshit" will now be "CBS" - it'll be more acceptable in everyday useage.
Tiffany Network, my ass.
WTF is with these guys. They have a Reagan cult-fetish thing that borders on violating the Ten Commandments admonishments regarding false idols and puttin' other guys beforeth god. I don't really like Reagan's policies very much, but I do believe him to be a very successful politician of his time. He did indeed change the world in many ways.
The fools won't let him be a shown as a human being with faults and failings. They don't get that the "santitized Reagan" of the cultists is SOOO dull and uninteresting - who wants to watch Saint-Ronald.
The disturbing thing is that these guys are successfully censoring history and art.
They should bring Kim il-Jong over to direct movies for the GOP-World-TV-Network.
Well, there's a great post from Juan Cole about that stupid move and how great a president Ronnie was.
http://juancole.com/2003_11_01_juancole_archive.html#106802064823446083
I have an long-running argument with my dad over whether Republicans can play chess or poker -- I don't mean silly poker with all kinds of wild cards and goofy rules, but straight-forward, count-the-cards, figure the odds, old-fashioned poker.
To me, the CBS protest indicates they can't. How many people would've watch the Reagan show if it wasn't for the controversy? Now how many are going to watch it?
In the long run censorship always backfires. The CBS movie's image of Reagan may live on long after his worshipers are gone. Let's be grateful to the RNC for stirring up the shit.
Why did they need to make up some dumb AIDS quote when Reagan said and did so many stupid things that are well documented? (I helped liberate the concentration camps; nuclear missiles can be recalled after being fired, etc).
well played.
January 2004: Fox network announces the upcoming premier of its new made-for-TV docu-drama: "Bill Clinton: White House Traitor".
A senior DNC official comments: "Oh, well, this just goes to show it's a free country. Heck, sticks and stones will break our bones but names will never hurt us."
"He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn
what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless
misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast!
Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all
right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won
the victory over himself. He loved The Gipper."
CBS Cancel proposed Hoover miniseries:
Dec. 14, 2006 -- CBS says it will try to kill a proposed 12-part docudrama about the life and times of President Herbert Hoover. Network executives say the Department of Republican Values has slammed the proposed show for leaving out Hoover's role in promoting negative job growth, and creating popular programs such as Social Security.
CBS said the show -- if it is ever filmed -- will be shown as an in-flight movie by Air Iraq.
CBS caves to reality. Cash trumps democracy.
See Juan Cole's blog on this.
Bonzo miniseries:
From: http://www.juancole.com/2003_11_01_juancole_archive.html#106802058961516771
In fact, of course, Ronald Reagan bears substantial responsibility for September 11. He and his administration were so gung ho to roll back Communism that they funneled billions of dollars to scruffy far rightwing radical Muslim mujahidin in Pakistan and Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. Orrin Hatch even flew to Beijing for Reagan in 1985 to ask the Chinese to pressure Pakistan to allow the US to provide the Mujahidin with ever more sophisticated weaponry. Even the Pakistani military had initially balked at this crazy idea, knowing who the Gulbuddin Hikmatyars and Usama Bin Ladens really were (unlike clueless Reagan, who called them freedom fighters). But the US twisted the Pakistanis' arms, and they gave in. Likewise, Reagan forced the timid Saudis to match US contributions to the Mujahidin. (And then after Sept. 11 the former Reagan officials who had twisted the arms of the Saudis, like Richard Perle, turned around and blamed Riyadh for spreading radical Muslim ideas!!) It was the CIA that first established terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to hit the leftist government in Kabul. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the camps used by al-Qaeda had been built originally by the Reagan administration.
Then after the Reagan administration contributed to the destruction of Afghanistan with this proxy war, its successor, the Bush administration, made a deal with the Soviets for a US withdrawal from Afghanistan once the Soviets were gone. The US just walked away, leaving the country in chaos. The right often tries to blame Clinton for this, but it was Bush senior that agreed to the deal and walked away, before Clinton ever got in.
The Christian Coalition and other rightwing religious groups supporting Reagan even had a "biblical checklist" by which they wanted all senators and congressmen to be judged. And one of the items in the "biblical checklist" was "support for the Afghan 'freedom fighters.' The rightwing Christians were saying in the 1980s that if you didn't support al-Qaeda and its Mujahidin allies, you didn't deserve to be in Congress! They wanted representatives tossed out for this crime. And now the same groups are droning on about how the Prophet Muhammad was a terrorist, cashing in on Sept. 11 to spread religious bigotry. But the Prophet Muhammad opposed terrorism. Who promoted al-Qaeda and kindred groups? Jerry Falwell and Ronald Reagan.
Billmon: I believe you've gone completely "off the deep end" with this magnificently poignant series of evolving extrapolations.
Keep up the good work! Injections of satirical sanity like these the American people could use lots more of.
And, may I say, your finale was superb. Bravo, maestro! :-)
Bravo, Billmon.
The rotating body of Ed Morrow could now be connected to turbine generators to provide energy to the East Coast.
great post billmon!!
if you wanna read another utterly ridiculous post (only because his is true), read what matt drudge posted about this yesterday DRUDGE: IT'S THE BEGINNING OF A SECOND MEDIA CENTURY... ...talk about self serving bullshit, at least he could have used some humor!
TAIMCBSHLSTNROTF!!!!!!*
Thanks, Billmon. I needed that.
(* Thrashing About In My Cubicle Barely Suppressing Hysterical Laughter Since There's No Room On The Floor)
I don't want the praise to go to your head, but that was just about the most fucking brilliant thing I've read in a long time, maybe the best thing I've read on a computer screen ever.
Brilliant.
I just noticed that my subconscious constructed an acronym whose pronunciation begins with "Tame CBS"... :^)
dave, thanks for the above post...
I assume that Republicans will oppose a movie
about President Schwarzenegger in 2012, which
will solve the problem of finding an actor with
similar thespian skills (zero) to portray him.
The fun of the "Reagans" flap is watching Hannity, O'Reilly and Scarborough piss their
pants in protest. The reward is that it's
keeping these jerks from spreading their bile elsewhere. I actually saw Spinless Bill tell
a guest recently that he tries to help people.
I think he meant to say "conservative white guys",
but apparently misspoke.
When I saw the Hoover headline, I thought it was going to be a bio of Herbert Hoover. I'd love to see the GOP try to rehabilitate his presidency.
I think they are trying to recreate it, rather than rehabilitate it.
Herbert was too liberal for this gang. Look back to the McKinley era for their real inspiration.
Let's see how the right-wing treats "The Jessica Lynch Story".
Herbert was too liberal for this gang. Look back to the McKinley era for their real inspiration.
You're right, Basharov. I didn't go back far enough.
Excellent.
Just happened upon this site and the sitcom. Can't stop smiling.
You don't by any chance know anyone over at CBS that you could pass this on to? I love the idea of it circulating through their inhouse email.
Worth the price of admission (every time). Thanks for the big belly laugh.
fucking great! but why leave out Harding?
Send it to Letterman...
Actually, I think CBS was perfectly within its rights to yank the show. Since when does a network, that receives its licence from a government entity to broadcast for free over public airwaves, owe the general public the truth about what goes on in some backwater little banana republic? Oh, the show was to be aired in the US? What's the difference?
Bravo!
Great satire but you forgot one thing. No network - cable or otherwise - has been stopped from showing complete bullshit on President Kennedy. From his alleged affair with Marilyn Monroe (they can only be placed together in L.A. once) to ordering her death (why?) or how about the claim that JFK hired mobsters to kill Castro? Never happened. It was the CIA before Kennedy was even president. I could go on and one.
Thanks for a great site,
Debra Conway
But CBS will go ahead with showing "John Wilkes Booth: All-American Martyr."
I loved it when it was reported that Ed Meese had told an ABC correspondent that Reagan was so out of it that they "had to jerk him off every morning to get his heart started".
brilliant, billmon!