Critics demand that production end for upcoming Kennedys miniseries on History Channel

[alp227]

Kennedy Miniseries Stirs Controversy
By DAVE ITZKOFF
Published: February 16, 2010

A new mini-series about John F. Kennedy’s presidency that is being prepared by the History channel does not yet have a cast or a premiere date. Not a frame of footage been shot. It does, however, have prominent critics who want it brought to a halt.

The critics, including Theodore C. Sorensen, a former Kennedy adviser, say they have read the scripts for the project and that those contain errors of fact and emphasis. But like a similar controversy over a 2003 television film about Ronald Reagan, the dispute over the embryonic Kennedy series seems to say as much about the enduring place of the Kennedys as a battleground in the culture wars as it does about history itself.

The miniseries, called “The Kennedys,” is the brainchild of Joel Surnow, a creator of the Fox action show “24” and an outspoken political conservative. That raised alarms among Kennedy partisans when the History channel said in December that it would pick up the project.

Now, a documentary filmmaker who makes no secret of his liberal politics is releasing an Internet video in which a group of Kennedy scholars says the scripts for the miniseries offer a portrait of the president and his family that is, at best, inaccurate, and at worst, a hatchet job.

“It was political character assassination,” the filmmaker, Robert Greenwald, said of the screenplays in a telephone interview. “It was sexist titillation and pandering, and it was turning everything into a cheap soap opera of the worst kind.” Mr. Greenwald said he is hoping that his 13-minute video and an accompanying petition, at stopkennedysmears.com, will take on lives of their own on the Web. A title card at the film’s conclusion reads: “Tell the History channel I refuse to watch right-wing character assassination masquerading as ‘history.’ ” The charges come as a surprise to the production team behind “The Kennedys,” who say that the scripts for the eight-part series are still being rewritten and that any criticism of the project is premature.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/arts/television/17kennedy.html

Ya see? That's the "liberal media" at work right there, amigos.

[spanone]

1. shit, television doesn't care about the facts, never did. the media is the enemy.

[monmouth]

2. The History Channel has become unwatchable of late...n/t

[frazzled]

3. How about all of us put The HIstory Channel on block, and call ...

to let them know you have blocked the channel from your cable lineup.

It's pure unadulterated provocation to hire a known political adversary to script a docudrama. The use of docudramas is highly suspect in any case.

[Canuckistanian]

4. If Ted Sorenson disapproves, then it should be stopped.

As the writer for the famous "Ask not what your country can do for you..." speech, I trust his judgment.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Will the outrage engines never run out of fuel?

[Canuckistanian]

6. Unfortunately, it's a constant battle

If you let your guard up for one second, BOOM. Another right-wing battle is won.

It's TIME to be outraged about certain things. And HISTORY is one of the most important of them.

[SoCalDem]

7. SCOTUS put their stamp of approval on this kind of crap

The Hillary-Bashing "documentary" was the basis for their decision about corporate money.

No Kennedy is currently running for office, but anything conservatives can do to tarnish that family, is "money in the bank" for their cause.

Reagan-worship is with us today because no left-leaning people/organizations LEANED in and told the true story.
The fact that his presidential papers are STILL under wraps , even though they were due to be released in 2001, means that they have been undergoing a mass-sanitization for a DECADE now, and if and when they are EVER released, most of the contemporaries who could shine some light, will be long-dead.

We are STUCK with the Reagan myth....and we will be stuck with the Bush myth as well..

ONLY dems are allowed to be demonized because the corporate media people with the MONEY are conservatives..

[RamboLiberal]

8. OP article points out how the RW stopped CBS on the Reagan movie

But the debate around “The Kennedys” recalls a similar flare-up around the mini-series called “The Reagans” that CBS was to show in 2003. In that case the network canceled its planned broadcast after conservatives criticized the project — before it was shown, and based on scripts and portions of the film. The conservatives complained about depictions of Ronald Reagan as being insensitive to AIDS victims, and that Nancy Reagan was shown as being reliant on a personal astrologer. (“The Reagans” later played on Showtime, the cable channel.)

So if Greenwald and Sorensen are outraged about Surnow's production(who I don't trust not to do a hit piece - after all the jerk is a big buddy of Rush and Cheney and the gang) then I say they may well be justified. I actually enjoy watching 24 - but there I can separate fact from fiction and the immorality of torture in real life from Jack Bauer's world. Surnow ought to stick to fiction and not try to rewrite history to his conservative world view.