I don’t want to be hyperbolic, but I think this CBS miniseries on “The Reagans” could well be the network’s undoing.
This is not just wishful thinking on my part.
My conclusion is based on real anger I am sensing from the e-mail I get and the calls I’m taking on my radio program.
A former chief of staff to a U.S. congressman has teamed with colleagues to set up a website urging television viewers not to watch the two-part series and boycott its advertisers for 30 days during the peak of the holiday shopping season.
The miniseries, set for airing Nov. 16 and 18, includes scenes of Reagan cursing at his staff and his wife slapping her daughter, according to script excerpts published by the DrudgeReport.
Other scenes, according to Drudge, show the former president declaring he is the anti-Christ and, in response to AIDS, stating, “They that live in sin shall die in sin” – though there is no record of him saying such things.
I know there have been many boycotts before. But I have the sense this one could be different. I really believe something big is happening. I would be very worried right now if I owned CBS stock or if I worked in the corporate offices.
This miniseries could be a fatal mistake – the wooden stake through the media vampire’s heart.
I can relate to the criticism of this project. I don’t have many heroes and role models – at least not among the living. Ronald Reagan is one. I say this without any embarrassment. I say it though I didn’t always agree with his policies. I say it with deep admiration and the utmost respect.
One of my regrets in life is missing opportunities to meet him when he was still on top of his game.
Ronald Reagan knew what he wanted to do from his days as an actor in Hollywood. He wanted to fight evil. And he clearly recognized communism as the worst menace afflicting the world in his time.
He defeated it – not single-handedly, but single-mindedly.
He also recognized early on there was only one way to fight it and win – without compromise, without appeasement, without hesitation, without mincing words. It worked in Hollywood as he led the fight of the Screen Actors Guild to turn back an attempt by Soviet apparatchiks to take control of the most powerful medium in the world. And it worked on a grander scale in his showdown with a Soviet Union that had grown, by the time he became president, into a mightier and more determined military power than the United States.
Reagan didn’t blink. He didn’t blink when he was in Hollywood and communist goons threatened to destroy his acting career by throwing acid in his face. He didn’t blink as California governor during the 1960s when his campuses were ablaze. And he sure didn’t blink when he was face to face with the Evil Empire headed by Mikhail Gorbachev.
He also turned around the U.S. economy. He did it in spite of the flak, in spite of the criticism, in spite of the cynicism. He did it with common-sense principles – tried and true economics.
Just as important as his great accomplishments as president is Ronald Reagan’s character. And that is really what seems to be under attack by CBS.
And that’s why we should all boycott CBS. We should all say “no” to this trashy show. We should all punish the network for its attack on Reagan and its contempt for our intelligence.
Do it for the Gipper.
It’s time to celebrate this great man, this hero, this role model for all of us. May God bless him.
Get “When Character was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan” at WorldNetDaily’s online store.
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