GOP tries - and succeeds - in censoring CBS with 'Reagan' film

By CHRISTOPHER J. ORTIZ
The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Colorado State University

The Republican Party has saved the American public, again. CBS pulled its made-for-television movie "The Reagans" off its lineup after outcry from conservatives voices called for a boycott of CBS. According to reports, Republican Party chief Ed Gillespie told reporters that he's worried the biopic will be a smear job and asked the network to let the GOP's handpicked historians review the film before it airs, or else run a crawler every 10 minutes acknowledging that the movie is fictional. Gillespie made this comment before he even saw the biopic. Everyone knows what to expect from made-for-television movies; bad acting, a cheesy script and to be overly overdramatic.
Shame on the Republican Party for trying to overstep its boundary and shame on the spineless CBS for caving in so easily.
And before people label me a radical liberal, I would shake my finger at the Democratic Party if they tried to pull the same stint. This is not the first time a past president has been subject to a controversial movie. Oliver Stone has dabbled with past presidents with "Nixon" and "JFK" and both of those movies made both parties cry "foul." The Democratic Party had to sit through the book and movie "Primary Colors" that, without saying names, portrayed the Clinton administration as snobs and full of corruption.
I have no doubt "Reagans" was bias towards the Gipper but what else did the GOP expect from the same network that brought you "The Elizabeth Smart Story"? Gillespie's petition that either the network let handpicked historians review the movie for accuracy (talk about being biased) or having CBS run a disclaimer at the bottom was completely out of the question and is clearly censorship. The fact that CBS pulled the movie off its lineup so late only shows a yellow belly, CBS simply folded to the Republican demands when they sold the movie to premium cable channel Showtime (both are owned by Viacom). The movie was scheduled to be broadcast on Nov. 16 and 18. A statement from CBS said, "(the) decision is based solely on our reaction to seeing the final film, not the controversy that erupted around a draft of the script...we believe it does not present a balanced portrayal of the Reagans for CBS and its audience." As expected, CBS did not return the phone calls of a small college newspaper column when trying to get an additional statement.
This decision was made after the film already wrapped and with a script approved by the network and its lawyers. According to a story in Entertainment Weekly, all broadcast-network telefilms are vetted by Standards and Practices and network attorneys.
If this caused the GOP any headaches, they better pull out aspirin when Michael Moore comes out with his documentary "Fahrenheit 911" about the supposed connection between the Bush and bin Laden families, just in time for reelection. Moore is purposely putting out this propaganda - I mean, documentary -- to defame Bush and hurt his chances for re-election. Moore, who gives real liberals a bad name, is misusing his celebrity clout to change the course of politics. If Moore has real news about the Bushes and bin Laden doing business together, he should go through legitimate media and let the public know but he shouldn't try to persuade people one way or the other with his films.
CBS was wrong in the first place to run with a slanted depiction of the former president. In the film, the president utters the line, "They that live in sin shall die in sin" when referring to homosexual AIDS patients, according to people close to the president and the author of the screenplay, the president never said that line. The GOP was in the wrong with trying to censor CBS.
But at least the GOP has the reliable Fox News Channel to show the fair and balanced side of things.