The Farmer File: Showtime for Reagan Show

Had CBS not pawned off the program to Showtime, a pay cable network, the network production would have aired here on CBS affiliate WINK-TV. I asked local media people for a comment:

WINK-TV's general manager, Gary Gardner:

"Any program presented as historical should be as true, fair and balanced as it possibly can be. If this miniseries was not responsible programming, I have no problem with CBS's decision (to pass on it.)"

Steve Pontius, general manager of WBBH-TV, notes that such decisions generally are made at the network level, and, "we local affiliates don't have much input."

David Elliott, a former executive at UPN 8 here, now morning on-air host at NewsRadio1660, says CBS probably made the right decision.

"They had no choice, but it's disingenuous of them to say they were not bowing to pressure."

Because awards are the mother's milk of show biz, I offer some nominations for appropriate prizes in this smelly scenario:

The "Bad Taste, Bad Timing" plaque goes to CBS for initially planning to run this thing now.

It's like broadcasting a film on 9-12-01 called "The Glory of Islamic Terrorists: The Human Side of bin Laden's Band of Zany Zealots."

The "Shut Up and Sing" award (the title of a book by Laura Ingraham) goes to Barbra Streisand, who shouted "censorship." Babs's husband plays Mr. Reagan in the film.

My "Just Shut Up, Period" trophy goes to a TV critic in Philadelphia, who said, "If Hitler had more friends, CBS wouldn't have aired (its Hitler miniseries either."

That comment also won my "Hitler, Schmitler, How About Pol Pot?" prize.

President Reagan's son, Michael, a radio talk show host, gets the "What About Me?" award. He complained that "The guy playing me in the movie is ugly."

My "You Talkin' to ME?" award goes to the guy who runs Showtime. It's commercial-free, which is what CBS feared it also might be if sponsors or viewers turned off.

Until that sank in, CBS was going to air the show during this crucial November ratings period, knowing that Mr. Reagan, approaching the end of life, wracked with Alzheimer's, could not defend himself.

CBS was prepared to carry the show without senior executives vetting it carefully beforehand. Or, they watched it through stained glass the color of money.

This is not a free speech issue.

CBS has a right to run the movie. Sponsors have a right to shun it. Viewers should be able to trust media to label products as "true," "fiction," "bunkum," whatever. Reagan fans should not have to do it.

If CBS felt pressure, it was free-market pressure. Nobody demanded that the government ban the show.

You don't have to love the Reagans to love the truth and to insist that those who violate it have the guts to say so up front or pay the price of their failure to communicate.

Don Farmer hosts "Gulf Coast Weekend" on NewsRadio1660AM,noon Saturday and 3p.m. Sunday. He's a former news anchor for CNN and an ABC News correspondent. E-mail: don@gulfcoastweekend.com.