Posted 20 Nov. 2003

The New Terraplane

Time to Vent

Michael H. Burchett

My intention was to write a column this month, as the time is long overdue for me once again to become a regular contributor to my own website. But alas, I am still covered up in work, and now my software is on the blink; so a long, involved thinkpiece is out of the question.

Still, there are a few things that I need to get off my chest, so here goes:

CBS recently hit another milestone in its long degeneration from the Tiffany Network to the Wal-Mart Channel, president Leslie Moonves knuckled under to right-wing pressure and pulled Their much-touted miniseries The Reagans, claiming that he had reviewed it in light of conservative criticism and found that it did, indeed, contain biases. What? A miniseries that does not represent persons and events with historical accuracy? Say it ain't so, Les!
Funny how Mr. Moonves has no trouble locating his sense of decency when his programs offend people of wealth and influence, but can't seem to find it with a map when ordinary Americans ask him to produce it. Although his network has placed The Real Beverly Hillbillies -- a revolting project that sought to poke fun at rural Appalachians in the name of "reality programming" -- on the back burner, Moonves still refuses to kill the program. Thousands of people complained about the proposed series through letters, phone calls, online petitions, etc., and I suspect that complaints from the local networks affiliates in the south finally got the network to table the series; yet to my knowledge, there have been no attempts to pawn it off on Showtime -- which means that it could still rear its ugly head during some future sweep period. Perhaps it'll replace the next series that the right wing complains about.
But then, who knows what goes through the tiny reptilian brains of network execs? Perhaps Moonves meant pulling The Reagans to be a concession to the "red states" of the Southeast, in the belief that we all want to see Ronnie's pompadoured visage added to Mount Rushmore. I've got news for you, Les: the region at which you are so anxious to poke fun is full of coalfield Democrats, independents, and centrist Republicans who have about as much use for right-wing culture wars as they have for two-faced Hollywood types who seek to exploit them.

In other news ...

I see where some enterprising neocon has created an Ann Coulter action figure. Cigarettes, vodka, and paranoid delusions sold separately.

Want to play a fun drinking game? Watch Donald Rumsfeld's next press conference and take a drink each time he answers his own question. If you're still standing after fifteen minutes, you're a warrior.

Let's see ... Geo. W. Bush wants to rebuild public education, guarantee free elections, construct modern power grids, and pay teachers and police officers respectable salaries -- in Iraq. Is it too much to ask that those things be done here first?

Jessica Lynch is disputing the government's account of her captivity and rescue. I guess that makes NBC's TV-movie about her as real as any of the networks' "reality" programming.

CBS has gone so far as to propose a new "reality" series based on Lynch's story. It seems they want to pack a Humvee full of bikini-clad aerobics instructors and send them across the Iraqi desert with wrong directions and faulty weapons. Zany hijinks will ensue.

If you think that's in poor taste, keep in mind that their first choice was to take a multi-generational group of low-income rural Americans and send them into the Iraqi desert with wrong directions and faulty weapons. But network execs scrapped the idea after discovering that it had already been done -- by the U.S. government.

Which reminds me: Does anyone remember what the "National" in "National Guard" means?

And so the farce continues. Sadly, most of us don't seem to mind.

MORE HEADLINES IN ARCHIVES

TODAY'S HEADLINES: Click for complete story

Sports news updated every 10 minutes

Commentary by Michael H. Burchett:

Media Ignore Implications of Hughes Resignation

Bush Takes Aim at Soul-Sucking Drug-Mongers

Nation Must Commit to Preserving Liberty (to editor of Greenville News)

Good Riddance, 2001!

Reflections on Sep. 11, 2001

On Jefferson, Liberty, and the Fourth of July

Fate Dealt Different Hands to Hooker, O'Connor

Ashcroft: Why We Should Be Frightened

Radio online

ORIGINAL CONTENT

A Case of Trespassing: Kansas Man Faces Trial After Standoff with Police

Kansas Man Receives Suspended Sentence in Police Standoff Case

Burns on Baseball

Editorial -- Ashcroft: Why We Should Be Frightened

Commentary on the American Presidential Election, by Inder Dan Ratnu

The Clinton in India Series: Reflections on the President's visit to India, March 2000

Southern Fried History: Civil War Reenactment in South Carolina

Inside the Southern Heritage Rally 2000, by G. Redding Wynne

This page is presented by The New Terraplane. Feedback is encouraged.

For fast and convenient news updates 24 hours a day, make this page your home page by changing your browser settings, or simply bookmark it by typing CTRL + D.