November 5, 2003
Mr. Sumner
Redstone
Chairman, CEO
VIACOM
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
Dear Mr. Redstone:
I, as a supporter of
Hollywood-Hero, am
writing to let you know of my displeasure over the telefilm, The Reagans, your
cable channel is now planning on airing on Showtime sometime next year.
We agree with RNC, chairman
Ed Gillespie that before you air the film on Showtime, it still needs to be
vetted by historians for accuracy and or a disclaimer run citing that the work
is fictional in nature.
And if the reports are
accurate and Showtime plans on showing the film uncut and therefore full of
inaccuracies, we will continue to protest its airing no matter where it winds
up.
Below is the body of the
letter we sent to CBS before they cancelled its airing:
October 20, 2003
Mr. Leslie Moonves
President, CBS Television
524 W. 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
Dear Mr. Moonves:
I, as a supporter of
Hollywood-Hero, am
writing to let you know of my displeasure over the telefilm, The Reagans, your
network is planning on airing on CBS this November during sweeps month.
In today’s New York Times,
the stars are quoted as follows:
With the climate that has
been in America since Sept. 11, it appears, from the outside anyway, to not be
quite as open a society as it used to be," Ms. Davis said during an interview
at her hotel in Montreal. "By open, I mean as free in terms of a critical
atmosphere, and that sort of ugly specter of patriotism."
She added, "If this film
can help create a bit more questioning in the public about the direction
America has been going in since the 1970's, I guess then I think it will be
doing a service."
Mr. Brolin said he, too, hoped that the film would prompt Americans to be more
suspect of their leaders. "We're in such a pickle right now in our nation,"
he said, "that maybe if learn something from this."
Mr. Brolin’s wife, Barbra
Streisand recently said on the Oprah Winfrey show, that she didn’t mind her
husband portraying Ronald Reagan, “as long as he tells the truth about
Reagan”, with a smirk on her face.
Your political leanings
are well known as is your support and affection for former President Bill
Clinton. The producers of your film are also well known liberal activists who
are quoted in this story as saying, "This is not a vendetta, this is not
revenge. It is about telling a good story in OUR honest sort of way. We all
believe it's a story that should be told."
I guess it depends
on what the meaning of OUR, is.
It is one thing to
produce a film based on fiction to promote a particular political ideology,
Hollywood does that every day. However, it’s quite another matter when you
purposely decide to air a film about an historical figure and one revered by
many in this country and who is ill and can’t defend himself, from the
perspective of your own biased political view of the world and purport that it
is fact.
Shame on CBS, the
producers of this film, and the actors involved for perpetrating a fraud on
the viewing public under the guise of an historical portrait of our 40th
president.
I won’t be watching your
telefilm, your love letter to liberalism, and we, the patriotic American
public will spread the word loud and clear to choose to watch another
network’s programming that evening.
Sincerely,
Hollywood-Hero.us
