Value Judgment: Mooooom! CBS is mean!

Value Judgment is a daily weblog written by two independent voters on the eastern seaboard of the United States. VJ will focus on the 2004 U.S. Presidential campaigns, including strategy, tactics, and substance. The authors supported Howard Dean in the Democratic primary. Accordingly, his activities will be a prominent topic on this site.

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J at valuejudgment.org

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November 5, 2003

Mooooom! CBS is mean!

I don't ordinarily agree with Jeff Jarvis, but he's right here:

BuzzMachine: Reaganistes

...the real problem here is that we're turning ourselves into a nation of media sheep, namby-pamby, thin-skinned, coddled, babied consumers who are protected from offense and opinion.

Offense is the cardinal sin of the age. If anybody is ever offended then something must be done; punishment must be met; mouths must be shut. A Mafia movie about Italians? Can't do that! Shut them up! A Reagan movie that's less than flattering? Heavens to Betsy! Off with their airtime! ...

This takes the ethos of political correctness and spreads it to the right: It is now politically incorrect to criticize the Reagans.

...And since when did we become so damned afraid of opinion and offense? Since when did we become so afraid of a two-bit TV movie starring James Brolin from the producers of Cinderella, ferchrissake?

...If the movie was bad, CBS should have never made it. If it was bad and CBS still made it and aired it, then thanks to online, everybody's a critic and everybody has a megaphone; everybody could criticize it. But killing it? That's downright undemocratic. It's unAmerican.

Reading his comment thread, it's quite funny how whiny the right side of the aisle can get nowadays. It's like they're becoming the Left of the Late 80's. Don't say mean things, they'll CRY!

Boo hoo, Reagan fans. It's a free country. You have the fictional Fox News, and no one can make an unflatteringly fictional Reagan movie? Blow it out your ass. If it's so bad that it's libel, sue like a modern American. If it's not libelous, make your own shiny happy version and sell tickets. The answer to speech you don't like is more, better speech.

As for the hue and cry over the "horrible smear job" of a script, I smell a Wellstoning; it's as though the movie is just five minutes of unflattering scenes, then The End. I look forward to finding out what's in the other 95% of it. The people criticizing the movie are doing so on the basis of very little real information.

Oh well. CBS may have caved, but at least it'll be on Showtime.

Posted by V at November 5, 2003 06:03 PM

Comments

The version on showtime will be the edited (be nice to reagan) version, the one the director (or was it producer) walked away from in disgust after it was modified. Maybe there will be an underground director's cut. :) BTW, thanks for a great site.

Posted by: harveyIL at November 5, 2003 06:51 PM

I think this is is a shallow example of a serious issue... that the right wingers have the media under their thumbs by creating a fear of looking biased. Matthew Miller says it better than I can, see his 10/29/03 column at this page

Posted by: todd at November 5, 2003 08:03 PM