CBS cancels Reagan bio miniseries

Billmon has a great take on the news today that CBS has caved in to conservative concerns and is shifting the unwatched-yet-controversial biographical miniseries about President Ronald Reagan. Hopefully his obvious writing skill is significantly better than his prognostication abilities.

As to my thoughts on the decision, well, I think CBS is being a real weenie about it. This is the same series that earlier this year broadcast a docudrama about Hitler's early years, even though some concern was expressed about whether or not it might make him look too sympathetic. (Since I didn't see the show, I can't comment on whether the concerns were valid or not.) But CBS isn't exactly known for being timid. Their flagship franchise, the Crime Scene Investigations shows, feature some incredibly graphic images - I'm married to a horror movie freak, so believe me, I've seen more than my share of R-rated gore, and I still quite often find myself shielding my eyes during CSI and trying to avoid looking at the screen until I can tell a scene has ended. Yet they backed down, almost without a fight, when the Republicans complained that their portrayal of Saint Ronnie might be less than stellar.

I suppose in principle, their decision to pull the show can be justified. TV networks are businesses that have to decide what to show based on what they think will let them make the most money. That's what ends up determining content - and, really, that is as it should be.

Just because I agree with the principle of the market determining what the product should be, however, it doesn't follow that I like what the Republicans have done or that I don't think they're full of it in expressing concern for "historical accuracy". As I noted the other day, they sure didn't have any problem with the historical inaccuracy of Showtime's recent docudrama about Bush's activities on 9/11.

So, while it may well be infuriating when the Republicans can pull something like this and get what they want - and it certainly shows that they're not being silenced by the "liberal media" - it's the same mechanism that other groups can use to try and prevent racist, homophobic, or other objectionable material from being shown. It's not perfect, but it's what we've got.