<<http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/editorial/60609.php>>
Editorial: CBS caves to right wing An editorial November 6, 2003 CBS celebrated its 75th anniversary Sunday night with a three-hour special that included a tribute to its once-pioneering news operation and the network's executives who consistently stood behind it. The memories of greats like Edward R. Murrow, Douglas Edwards and, of course, Walter Cronkite were cited as examples of principled newsmen who had the guts to tackle controversial issues. CBS President Bill Paley and director of CBS News Frank Stanton refused to buckle when powerful interests tried to have them silenced - old Joe McCarthy, for example, was one who tried and failed to muzzle Murrow's reports on the senator's underhanded methods. But that was obviously another day at CBS. The new CBS, now controlled by Viacom, a huge multinational media conglomerate, obviously can't take the heat - especially when it might threaten its insatiable bottom line and its efforts to get even more favors from Congress. The network bowed to the even more vitriolic than usual right-wing talk shows, conservative threats of an boycott and allegedly outraged politicians and pulled the planned showing of "The Reagans," a story about Ronald and Nancy Reagan. No one had seen the show, scheduled to run during the ratings sweeps on Nov. 16 and 18, but conservatives jumped on leaked snippets of the script to claim that it "distorted" the Reagans' legacy. In a classic example of modern-day McCarthyism, one of the reasons behind the right-wingers' pique was that James Brolin, the husband of outspoken liberal Barbra Streisand, plays Reagan in the picture. So, tradition be damned, CBS backed down, deciding instead to show the production sometime over the winter on Showtime, a cable-only network also owned by Viacom. What shouldn't be lost in all this is the simple fact that Viacom is one of several media giants hoping to reap huge financial rewards if new Federal Communications Commission rules on media ownership are allowed to stand. The FCC relaxed the ownership rules earlier this year, but Congress is threatening to overturn them. It surely is not in Viacom's interest right now to further agitate Republican members of Congress by airing a film on their heroes, Ronald and Nancy Reagan. What this all clearly underscores is the necessity to completely reverse the FCC's decision. The country needs more independent media outlets, like CBS once was, not more Viacoms that put financial implications ahead of free expression and the public's right in a democratic society to hear and see all sides. Viacom's cave-in to the modern-day equivalent of book burners comes the same week that thousands are expected to converge on Madison for the first-ever National Conference on Media Reform. The conference was inspired by the massive discontent over the state of media consolidation in the United States. Perhaps the organizers ought to open the conference Friday by thanking Viacom for proving their contention. ----- I Pledge Impertinence to the Flag-Waving of the Unindicted Co-Conspirators of America and to the Republicans for which I can't stand one Abomination, Underhanded Fraud Indefensible with Liberty and Justice Forget it. -Life in Hell (Matt Groening) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
