Should CBS Have Cancelled the Mini Series About the Reagans?

It is front page news across America. CBS has cancelled a mini series about the Reagans. What do you think? Should CBS have cancelled the series? What does the decision say about the media today? What does it say about the power of conservative groups? What does it say about the relationship of Hollywood and politcs?

Food for Thought

Editorial in the NYT:

It is hard to know what CBS was thinking when it decided to order up a less-than-complimentary mini-series about the Reagans at a time when former President Ronald Reagan is failing and his wife, Nancy, is nursing him. And it should have come as no surprise that conservatives, protective of Mr. Reagan's image at all times, would launch one of the fierce assaults that have become so familiar whenever the right wants to scare the media on an ideological question. But having decided to broadcast the program, CBS was wrong to yield to conservative pressure and yank it.

The biopic, a burgeoning TV format, is a notoriously unreliable storytelling medium. Actors made up to look like famous people spout made-up dialogue that often sounds as if it had been written with the primary purpose of keeping viewers tuned in during the sweeps season. It is not difficult to see why people close to Mr. Reagan would be upset that the script quoted him, for example, on the subject of AIDS sufferers as saying, in an invented quotation, "They that live in sin shall die in sin."

But it is also hard to believe that CBS was unable to edit the series into a form suitable for broadcasting. It would not have had to be favorable to Mr. Reagan, or even rigidly evenhanded, to be worthy of running. The former president is certainly a suitable subject for public debate. His supporters credit him with forcing down the Iron Curtain, so it is odd that some of them have helped create the Soviet-style chill embedded in the idea that we, as a nation, will not allow critical portrayals of one of our own recent leaders.

CBS denies that it bowed to pressure yesterday when it decided to pull the program, but it had been besieged by talk-radio listeners and the Republican National Committee. The Republicans wanted a disclaimer on the screen every 10 minutes warning that the program contained fictional material. A conservative watchdog group urged advertisers to review the script before running commercials.

CBS's decision to hand the program off to the Showtime cable channel will leave it with a far smaller audience. Cable TV seems to have become the home of any programming with the least hint of political controversy. Meanwhile, the networks grow increasingly brave about broadcasting shows featuring lingerie models parading in the latest fashions, and ordinary people competing for cash by eating live insects.