CBS has cancelled its "truthful" anti-Reagan hit piece

[Ned]

Here is Reagan's inaugural speech delivered at a time of the Iran crisis, the Afghan invasion, the failure of Vietnam, 19% inflation, a failing economy, and Carter's "malaise" where he blamed the decline of America on the people.

http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/sound/reagan.au

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

America has produced some of the greatest leaders the world has ever seen. True men of action who deserve respect. Men like Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Jefferson, Grant, Lee, JFK, and Wilson.

You say Reagan wasn't a great leader and then put JFK and Wilson on your list. I guess that, at the very least, shows your opinion has little worth .

Well I was drunk and flying high after just seeing Neil Young in concert. JFK was not a great president, and neither was Grant although both served their countries during wartime. I don't know why I had Wilson on the list.

[Ben Kenobi]

Why is this so hard!

Freedom of speech does not allow you to defame or slander somone. If the documentary tells lies about aperson, it ought not to be shown.

[Ned]

From my understanding, CBS intended to protray a love story between Ronnie and Nancy. They did not intend to launch into a factually questionable hit piece. The people who turned it into that should be "fired." Perhaps CBS should sue if the people are not CBS employees.

[mindseye]

Originally posted by Ned


Mindseye, how do you describe a mass movement of a majority of the population otherwise?
(...)
Unless you can prove to me otherwise, a majority of the citizens are the people in my book.

I was talking about your claims that "the people" rose up to protest against the miniseries.

[Ned]

mindseye, to be accurate, only the protesters rose up in protest. However, if we were to conduct a survey of the whole of the US, the question is whether the majority agree with what the protesters had to say. I believe they would, primarily because Reagan was a popular president and because most people believe that a movie that is said to be "truthful" actually be "truthful."

Also, and get this, a defender of the movie's inaccuracies actually said on one of the networks that political comment could include deliberate lies.

I am sure that part of the reason that CBS cancelled the show was that this is not an accurate summary of the law.

[Tripledoc]

Someone said "tremendous public outcry". Did anyone hear anything? The fact is that when culture is something that has to be kicked upwards and decided upon by commitee on 'relevance', then, my friends, that is Fascism. Enjoy.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Tripledoc
Someone said "tremendous public outcry". Did anyone hear anything? The fact is that when culture is something that has to be kicked upwards and decided upon by commitee on 'relevance', then, my friends, that is Fascism. Enjoy.

I'm sorry, Tripledoc, but I didn't understand your point. Could you please elaborate? For example, what do you mean by a "committee?"

[Tripledoc]

Originally posted by Ned


I'm sorry, Tripledoc, but I didn't understand your point. Could you please elaborate? For example, what do you mean by a "committee?"

Well what I meant was that a televison programme, a play in fact, is a cultural expression and as such should be allowed a certain freedom with 'truth'. It should not be up to anyone in particular to decide whether that is relevant for the public to enjoy - that should be decided by the people themselves, the public, who I gather are not naive and as such can pass judgment on quality and relevance themselves.

This case is a flagrant example of a struggle of values over what the 'right' culture should be, and it has been overly politizised. It is as if it has not been understood that the health and strength of a country's culture derives from the fact that cultural expression will still be able to express certain fundamental commonly shared values, however weird and strange they might seem to some, no matter how corrupted and politicized. If there is no agreement on what these values should be (and such disagreement will always synthesise into new avenues of approach eventually) that is in fact a good thing. Then it is mistaken to think that a healthier society will result if people are forced to adopt a certain cultural mindset to be set in stone for time eternal. In the end that will result in less culture, and hence the strength of the nation will suffer from it. It is national suicide.

[Ned]

Tripledoc, I understand your point. Oliver Stone made great a movie called "JFK." In that movie, Stone basically said that he believe that LBJ was behind the plot to assassinate Kennedy. Now, at the time he made it, no one tried to censor the movie because Stone was lying or that the movie was biased against Johnson. Why? Because one knew it was "fiction" and/or Stone's opinion.

What made "Reagan" different is that it was presented as a truthful biography. And yet it was not that. It was a smear piece filled with untruths and mischaraterizations. The Republican Party chief said that he would withdraw his objections to the movie if CBS simply would agree that it was fiction and say so in its broadcast.

The subtle difference between the two should be self evident. One was clearly fiction and/or political comment. The other amounted to defamation.

[Lincoln]

Well this kid actually saw the movie and this is what he thinks of SeeBS:

[MrFun]

@ Lincoln

[molly bloom]

Breaking news: C.B.S. will make a new film based on the life of St. Reagan of the Afternoon Nap, in which famous scenes such as his discovery of the cure for cancer, his single handed defeat of the Red Army and his swimming of the Atlantic will be portrayed as accurately as possible.

Daniel Ortega will be played by Satan, Alexander Haig will played by Charlton Heston, Nancy Reagan by the Virgin Mary, and/or Ann Coulter.

Public recitals of his famous speeches will be compulsory. People will be required, however, to leave their brains in a jar when viewing, and to suspend disbelief.

[Ned]

Originally posted by molly bloom
Breaking news: C.B.S. will make a new film based on the life of St. Reagan of the Afternoon Nap, in which famous scenes such as his discovery of the cure for cancer, his single handed defeat of the Red Army and his swimming of the Atlantic will be portrayed as accurately as possible.

Daniel Ortega will be played by Satan, Alexander Haig will played by Charlton Heston, Nancy Reagan by the Virgin Mary, and/or Ann Coulter.

Public recitals of his famous speeches will be compulsory. People will be required, however, to leave their brains in a jar when viewing, and to suspend disbelief.

Molly, this post was truly unnecessary. Reagan was a great president and is beloved by most Americans.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Ned


Molly, this post was truly unnecessary. Reagan was a great president and is beloved by most Americans.

Yes, Ned whatever you say. Because St. Reagan of the Blessed Cliche, Holy Reagan of the Secondhand Speech, The Divine Conducator of the Grenadan Invaders, can do no wrong.

For he alone has the Non Greying spirit hair, he alone is possessed of the Gipper Will, he alone is bearer of the Sacred Theses of Monetarism, as was sounded abroad by his disciple, St. Milton of the Friedman.

I believe similar naive cults of personality also abounded in the Communist world. Perhaps you might like to treat your politicians as ordinary human beings, rather than plaster saints. Seems to work for the rest of the world- well, outside North Korea that is.

Plaster saints with feet of clay....