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Sat 1 Nov, 2003 09:15 am
RNC asks to review 'The Reagans'
Worried about inaccurate portrayal of the couple
From Mark Rodeffer
CNN Political Unit
WASHINGTON (CNN) --The Republican National Committee Friday asked CBS to allow a team of historians and friends of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife to review a miniseries about the couple before it airs.
Republicans have expressed concern that the miniseries, titled "The Reagans," may inaccurately portray the couple.
In a conference call with reporters, RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie said he sent the request to CBS Television President Leslie Moonves.
Gillespie said that if CBS denies the request, he will ask the network to run a note across the bottom of the screen every 10 minutes during the program's presentation informing viewers that the miniseries is not accurate.
CBS spokeswoman Dana McClintock said Moonves received the letter, but neither he nor CBS had any comment on it or the miniseries.
Gillespie said that if CBS rejects both requests, the RNC would to sell tapes and DVDs on its Web site that would present "the real Reagan record."
"It's not the kind of thing we'll make money on -- I'm trying not to lose money on it," Gillespie said. "I want to publicize Reagan's record."
Gillespie added that print and TV ads are being prepared to rebut the miniseries and that Republicans may try to buy time to run the ads during the miniseries.
While Gillespie -- who acknowledged that he has not seen "The Reagans" and has formed his opinion of it based solely on news reports -- had a number of complaints, he said he was most concerned about a comment attributed to Reagan in one episode. There is no evidence that the president told his wife during a conversation about AIDS patients, "They that live in sin shall die in sin," Gillespie said.
The author of the screenplay, Elizabeth Egloff, has acknowledged that there is no evidence Reagan ever uttered those words, but she told the New York Times that "we know he ducked the issue over and over again, and we know she was the one who got him to deal with that."
The miniseries is scheduled to air November 16 and 18.
political interference
I've pretty much ignored this flap over the Reagan mini series as I have no interest in it. But when the national republican party wants what amounts to censorship rights, then we had all better pay attention.
I hope CBS tells the GOP to drop dead!
BBB
CBS' shameful record
The dispute over CBS's "The Reagans" reminds me of its past shameful behavior when it caved in to the tabacco industry over the 60 Minutes broadcast of "The Insider."
Edward R. Morrow must be turning over in his grave!
BBB
Re: CBS' shameful record
BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:The dispute over CBS's "The Reagans" reminds me of its past shameful behavior when it caved in to the tabacco industry over the 60 Minutes broadcast of "The Insider."
Edward R. Morrow must be turning over in his grave!
BBB
They
did move the series to Showtime!
http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/04/cbs.reagans.ap/index.html
The network claims that the show hasn't been edited. Whether that means it has not been further edited since the controversy broke of not edited since the beginning is open to question.
Pay TV network Showtime is available in only 13 million of the 108 million homes that have TV. CBS is available in almost all of them.
So about 88% of the homes in the USA will not be able to see this program because of pressure from the right wing.
RIP, Edward R. Murrow.
It's out on DVD shortly after the Showtime airing so one can rent it. I'd rather see anything without all the commercial interruption. I find most Presidential bios to be dramatically uninteresting and I'm sure they took all the license they could to make more of an impact. As to the AIDS thing -- Nancy had a lot of gay friends and did pressure Ronny to do more.
I made a typo so I'm editing. I said "Presentail," but that would be a bio of Clinton, of course!
MY GUESS:
None of us would want the truth about our favorite president.
We want the myth.
I'm not at all surprised by CBS's decision. I've known for a long time now, that the networks sell their journalistic integrity to the highest advertising bidder.
Can we at least see the part where he traded weapons to terrorists in exchange for hostages.?? I'm sure Terry Anderson would like to see that.
It's amusing to see all this fuss about accuracy in a movie about President Reagan, who was notorious for making wildly inaccurate claims and outright fabricated stories.
This is a man who claimed to have filmed the liberation of concentration camps at the end of WW2 when in fact he spent the entire war in Hollywood.
This is a man who claimed there was no word for "freedom" in the Russian language.
This is a man who swore he didn't negotiate with kidnappers and that he didn't trade arms for hostages when he actually did both.
He claimed South Vietnam and North Vietnam had been separate countries for centuries.
He claimed coal plants created more radiation than nuclear plants and that trees caused more pollution than cars.
He claimed huge stockpiles of arms were found in Granada when they were actually museum pieces from the late 1800's.
These are just some of the inaccuracies he claimed in public and on the record.
And conservatives are complaining about historical accuracy in a movie by an actor portraying an actor in the White House? Yeah, I guess I can see their point. Perhaps a historical documentary would indeed be more informative and accurate.
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