Wednesday, November 05, 2003

CBS and Reagan

You'll already have come across this story. CBS has pulled the Ronald Reagan movie. It will apparently run on Showtime where it will have less exposure. Linda Chavez is happy about it, as one would expect. "CBS executives seem to have come to their senses, and none too soon. The network's last-minute decision not to air the controversial, four-hour TV movie "The Reagans" means I won't have to join millions of other conservatives in boycotting CBS programming."

Well, hooray for the boycotters. They got their way. If they couldn't silence a viewpoint they didn't like, they at least got it moved somewhere where few people will be exposed to it. The interesting thing about a successful boycott is how little respect CBS will get. I guess for the same reason that bullys don't start respecting the little kids who give them their lunch money. The best you can say for CBS is that they were pansy enough to let conservatives push them around.

I do, however, want to make a distinction between this boycott and the others against Hollywood celebrities who criticized the Bush administration or the War in Iraq. As you know there are boycotts going on right now encouraging you to avoid movies or tv shows with, say, Johnny Depp or Martin Sheen, because they are un-American jerks. The boycotts are related to comments they made in interviews, as private citizens, not for their onscreen talents. It is penalizing someone for speaking their mind, and the hope is that liberal views will no longer be spoken.

The boycott against the Reagan film is a boycott of what is actually put on the screen, and as such it is a bit different, although still not something I'd be proud of.

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