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Times Watch for December 4, 2003

Conservative Critics Ill-Informed?

     While discussing the good-but-not-great ratings for the controversial Showtime movie "The Reagans," Times TV writer Bill Carter claims: "The movie was dropped by CBS last month after a wave of protest from conservative groups who charged, sight unseen, that it was an attack on former President Ronald Reagan. In refusing to broadcast it, the CBS chairman, Leslie Moonves, declared 'The Reagans' unfairly critical in its portrayal of Mr. Reagan and his wife, Nancy."

     Conservatives may not have seen the movie, but they'd heard about its liberal, Reagan-bashing tilt from no less an authority than the New York Times, in an October 21 story by Jim Rutenberg. As it turns out, conservatives were quite justified in their concern, as shown by the shooting script and the actual finished product. Even liberal critics disapproved, with Tom Shales of the Washington Post calling it "a drama riddled with slurs."

     Carter gives Showtime Chairman Matt Blank the last word: "The showing of the film did not generate anything like the mass protest by conservatives that was threatened when it was scheduled to play on CBS, Mr. Blank said. The channel got 'some e-mails and phone calls' but nothing like a storm of outrage, he said."

For Carter's story on 'The Reagans' in full, click here.

• Bill Carter | "The Reagans" | Showtime | Television

Kyoto: Russia Balks, But Bush Blamed

     "The news from Moscow on Tuesday was not good" is the gloomy opening to "Kyoto Protocol in Peril," the Times lead editorial Thursday. Evidently, Russia is having second thoughts about ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, an international environmental decree that requires draconian cuts in the output of greenhouse gases on the part of industrial nations, but not growing economies like China and India. But instead of pinning the "blame" (the Times, despite admitting its "many flaws," strongly favors the protocol) on Russian President Vladimir Putin, it comes up with a more appealing bogeyman, George Bush: "Indeed, it can be argued that Russia would not be having second thoughts about the Kyoto accord had Mr. Bush himself decided not to bail out."

     Well, it can be argued that way--provided one wants to ignore (as the Times again does) the fact the U.S. Senate also rejected the pact in 1997, during the Clinton administration, by a margin of 95-0. If the Times wants to blame Bush for the failure of Kyoto, it will have to spread the blame around to the 54 Republican and 41 Democratic senators who also voted to reject it.

For the rest of the Times on Kyoto, click here.

• George W. Bush | Editorial | Environment | Global Warming | Kyoto | Russia

E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org