CBS Caves to Pressure, Dumps Reagan Movie

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TV docu-dramas, such as this Sunday's red, white and blue Iraq war mythology Saving Private Lynch, always play fast and loose with the facts, twisting reality into fiction for entertainment's sake. But a much hyped CBS miniseries on Ronald Reagan drew the wrath of the Right, and CBS has dumped the show. The New York Times reports that "CBS executives ... denied they were capitulating to pressure from Republicans and conservative groups in moving the 'The Reagans' to the pay cable channel Showtime, a sister network at Viacom. The decision, they argued, was instead 'a moral call,' reached after concluding that the four-hour television movie carried a liberal political agenda and treated the Reagans
unfairly. ... On Oct. 28, the Media Research Center ...
wrote a letter to a list of 100 top television sponsors urging them to 'refuse to associate your products with this movie.' At around the same time Michael Paranzino, a former Republican Congressional staff member from Betheseda Md.,
decided to start a Web site called BoycottCBS.com. ... Last Friday, the Republican National Committee entered the fray."