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I’m an arty guy. I like to create. In all the years I’ve been creating – whether it’s been fine art, cartoons, writing – I’ve dealt with clients who have wanted things a certain way and I’ve dealt with clients who have let me have free reign.
One thing I have never done, and one thing I have surely never been allowed to do, is get things WRONG. Folks like Jonathan Alter and a goodly portion of the liberal entertainment establishment think that CBS committed a grave injustice by “caving” to the wishes of Republicans and former first lady Nancy Reagan by canceling “The Reagans (A ‘Love’ Story).”
The amazing thing about the Alter article is that most of what he uses as the basis of his argument actually serves to work in favor of the CBS side. His only reasoning for taking a position against the CBS decision is that the CBS executives are gutless and have no respect for artistic freedom because they’re looking after advertising dollars instead. I find that a weak argument in the consumer- and competition-driven society we live in, so why bother to publish the article, eh?
Freedom of speech means a lot of things. One thing it doesn’t mean is that every individual – writer, producer, director – has unmitigated license to create whatever the hell he pleases. I have no editor. So what you read here is unexpurgated. Unedited. Uncensored. But how many of you folks are reading it? As you see, I have no advertisers. For all I know, I’m a lone wolf. That’s the price I pay for doing it my way.
But by the same token, I’m not going to write stuff here that’s based on no factual evidence whatsoever. And if I did, I would not “fill in the blanks” for what is supposed to be a dramatic series with parody!
The issue that I took with CBS for even presenting something like this miniseries in the first place, is that there was no historical perspective. It’s obvious to me, though it hasn’t been pointed out by those villainous conservatives, that this particular writer and a cadre of producers at CBS wanted to produce something for the Undecided Youth (Sieg Heil!) of this nation. What better way to tap the precious minds of the undecided voting public than by presenting to them a great Republican in a sinister light? It's very clever: it's downright Goebbelsian. Oliver Stone, who takes much artistic license in his movies NEVER sank to those depths.
The Dems argue that Kennedy has been portrayed as a sinister character on television, and that it’s “only fair.” I remember some of the miniseries that came out in the mid-80s, around the 20th anniversary of his assassination. Frankly, I don’t remember any reference to his philanderings and drug use. Or for that matter, what a botch job the Bay of Pigs was. I didn’t know about any of the slimy things Kennedy did until I was a junior in college! I even find it kind of repulsive, in hindsight, that the Dems like to make a martyr out of Kennedy just because he was foolish enough to ride in an open motorcade! Do you think Bartholomew asked the king of Armenia to flay him?
Why not a miniseries on LBJ? Viewers can see HIM cuss at his wife. They can see HIM broil over the Vietnam War. They can see HIM win an election because of a missing ballot box in Texas. They can see HIM for the philandering slime bucket he was. Or maybe CBS could do a variety show with LBJ as host and he could do a stupid pet trick and pick his beagle up by the ears.
If the Hollywood elite wants to vilify a Republican, why not Nixon? That would be great entertainment, now wouldn’t it? They can even leave out the part about how he decided to step down before he was even impeached. They can leave out the fact that he pulled our boys out of Vietnam after 10 years of quagmire. They can leave out the fact that McGovern was so abhorrent to voters in 1972 that Nixon won by one of the largest landslides in history.
Or how about this:
The Clintons: A Love Story
(Scene 14. The White House)
-Hand me another line, Erskine.
-Sir, don’t you think you’ve snorted enough?
-Bill, you (expletive deleted) son of a (expletive deleted) (expletive deleted)!!
-I love you too, Hill. But I know I’m going to rot in Hell for the Monica matter. But, boy, Hell’s a rockin’ place! I am the destroyer of worlds! I am the alpha and omega! I am the Walrus! Hyuk hyuk hyuk.
-I’ve had about enough of this (expletive deleted)! I’m getting the (expletive deleted) outta here!
-She’ll be back.
-Sir, Markie Post is trashing the Lincoln Bedroom.
-This I gotta see!
Now THAT’s entertainment!
