11/05/2003 Entry: ""
Posted by Maynard @ 05:03 PM MST
Barbra Streisand on The Reagans
From her website. Read my commentary below.
I am deeply disappointed that CBS, the network that in 1964 gave me complete artistic control in creating television specials, now caved in to right wing Republican pressure to cancel the network broadcast of the movie The Reagans. (And I say MOVIE - because this is NOT a documentary - it's a television drama.) The movie will now be aired on Showtime, where the difference in viewership is in the millions.
Thank goodness. But your little facade about movie-vs.-documentary is fruitless; CBS portrayed The Reagans as a documentary, and indeed, any movie whose title is the name of a real life person will likely be interpreted as a documentary.
One can only imagine the kind of pressure that would compel CBS to take such an extraordinary action. This was an organized Republican spin machine at work.
Babs, sounding off on the standard Democrat mantra of "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" only makes you sound like a ranting lunatic. This was not an organized Republican spin machine. You want to see an organized political spin machine, go back to the Clinton White House. This was ordinary people being pissed off about a hatchet job on a president they like. BoycottCBS.com got upwards of 75,000 e-mails favoring the boycott. That is, statistically speaking, a significant amount of potential viewers. CBS could not, under any circumstances, ignore that kind of viewership.
Remember the Dixie Chicks controversy? It wasn't the larger general public that called in to radio stations and burned CDs, it was a small group of right wing activists.
Of course, the fact that the Dixie Chicks committed what would have been, in another time, sedition, has nothing to do with the story. She gives no numbers supporting her claim of a right wing cabal against the Dixie Chicks, so why should we believe her?
In fact, now the band is more popular than ever, with a sold out summer tour.
But none of my money. And I am planning to continue my boycott of CBS as well, not because they tried to air the Reagans, but because the value of their entertainment offerings is near zero.
I don't believe Democrats often, if ever, try to muscle the First Amendment like this.
Nope. That never happened.
Republicans are not muscling the First Amendment. They are exercising it. CBS responded. Deal with it and move on.
For example, in 1983, no one stopped NBC from airing Kennedy, a biopic that portrayed President Kennedy and other members of his family and administration as deeply flawed, even though the movie could have potentially been hurtful to Jackie Kennedy, who was still alive to see it, as well as to her children.
So NBC made a bad move when they tried to pull a hatchet job on JFK. They did something bad and weren't punished for it. Now, CBS does something bad and does get punished for it. Gotta love progress. It seemed like the Internet worked the way it was supposed to: it gave the power of the First Amendment to a group of individuals who otherwise would not have the same force that the big networks do. Cry me a river.
This is censorship, pure and simple. Well, maybe not all that pure. Censorship never is. Due to their experience with the restrictive English government, the framers of our constitution specifically included a ban on prior restraint in the First Amendment,
Babs, censorship is when the government tries to restrict your right to speak, not individuals. Just to hammer the point home again: this was not government sponsored. Censorship would be the FCC hearing about the hatchet job and pulling CBS' broadcasting license.
The First Amendment reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
The Prior Restraint doctrine says that you don't need a license to run a printing press. Extended to other media, that means you don't need a license to create or air a TV show.
which is an attempt to stop information from getting out there before the public has a chance to see it at all - exactly what is going on in this case.
No, it's not. Prior Restraint prevents the GOVERNMENT from trying to stop information. That didn't happen. No one is saying that CBS needs to run The Reagans by a government license board. The only board they faced was the board of public opinion.
Of course, CBS as a company has the legal right to make decisions about what they do and do not air. However, these important decisions should be based on artistic integrity rather than an attempt to appease a small group of vocal dissidents.
Integrity? The script had lines attributed to Reagan that were never said. You want integrity? Go look it up in a dictionary, so you understand what it means.
And what about market value? They have a responsibility as a company to make money. Because of that, they must take into account threatened non-viewing of a controversial topic, like the slander of a great president.
Indeed, today marks a sad day for artistic freedom -
Why, are you putting out another CD?
one of the most important elements of an open and democratic society.
Babs, complaining about people speaking their minds against slander does nothing to advance democratic society.
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