[Marxism] Disney censors "Boston Legal" for criticizing Fox News right-wing bias

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I like Boston Legal.  I liked The Practice until they began to program
as though serial killers were 20 percent of the population of Boston,
and an interest group that could not be denied.
I have always thought that William Shatner was a top-drawer character
actor, and James Spader has developed an enjoyable shtick, revealed in
Sex lies and Videotape, although it doesn't vary much.
Fred Feldman




Free Speech Impediment

Posted by roc on 10th March 2005 @ 09:22


David E. Kelley - the Emmy Award-winning creator of such memorable
series' as Picket Fences, Doogie Howser M.D., Ally McBeal, Boston
Public, The Practice, and its current spin-off, Boston Legal - is
probably the most prolific and successful writer/producer now working in
television. Coupled with the fact that he is married to film star
Michelle Pfeiffer, Kelley's talent makes him one of the most influential
people in the entertainment world. But apparently even Kelley's power
pales before the might of Disney and the MausHaus.

Case in point: the next episode of Boston Legal, to be broadcast Sunday
March 13 on the Disney-owned ABC network. I have acquired both the
original and the revised script for this episode from a source who
prefers to remain anonymous. The original penned by Kelley focused in
large measure on Fox News and its loofah-loving star Bill O'Reilly. The
script also featured substantial excerpts from the independent film
Outfoxed, which documents how the allegedly "fair and balanced" cable
channel acts as a propaganda arm for the Republican Party and other
conservative interest groups.

But the final script - the one that was actually shot for the show that
will appear on Sunday - has been thoroughly scrubbed on orders from top
ABC network executives, and all mention of Fox News and O'Reilly has
been sent down the Memory Hole.

Why was the original script, which ironically centered on issues of free
speech, censored?

Kelley won't say why the changes were made - and no one at his
production company, his producing partner 20th Century Fox, ABC or even
Fox News is talking.

But a comparison of the original script and the censored script speaks
for itself. In the original, Chi McBride (principal of the high school
featured in Kelley's previous hit Boston Public) installs a "Fox
Blocker" on every television set in his school, on the entirely
reasonable grounds that what appears on Fox News is not news but in fact
"hate speech." One of his students, Stuart Milch, believes McBride's
decision to be censorship, and takes his case to the attorneys of Boston
Legal.

Here's a taste of what millions of viewers will now miss next Sunday:

Stuart: "It's called a Fox Blocker. Sold off the internet. You attach it
to the coaxial cable on your television and it basically blocks out all
Fox News transmissions. My high school principal attached these liberal,
left-wing devices to all the televisions in the building. Meanwhile, the
kids are free to watch CBS, CNN, NBC, even ABC, But not Fox. It's
censorship."

It's called censorship, all right - just not on Boston Legal anymore.
Here's what the final, scrubbed-and-censored script says instead:

Stuart: "It's called a news blocker. Sold off the internet. You attach
it to the coaxial cable on your television and it basically blocks out
news transmission.. My high school principal attached these devices to
all the televisions in the building. The problem is. turns out it only
blocks out one network, the most fair and balanced one. All the others,
kids can watch."

Here's another example, this time of an interchange between two Boston
Legal characters - attorney Chelina Hall and Catherine Piper, secretary
to attorney Alan Shore (played by Boston Legal star, James Spader.)
Again, original script first:

Chelina: If you had to watch the news, Mrs. Piper, which network would
you go to?

Catherine (simply): Fox, of course.

Chelina: Can you tell us why?

Catherine: Well. For starters, we're winning the war on Fox. The
economy's better there. And Brit Hume. Sometimes I close my eyes and.go
to him.

And now, the censored version:

Chelina: If you had to watch the news, Mrs. Piper, which network would
you go to?

Catherine (simply): I don't know. I'd probably seek out the station
where we're most likely to be winning the war. Where I can find a better
economy. Maybe some weapons of mass destruction.

And so it continues, page after expurgated page. No Fox. No Bill
O'Reilly. No Brit Hume. . And no free speech?

No way to know - because no one will speak, not even the articulate,
prolific and powerful Mr. Kelley.

Speaking of free speech, there's another, related issue to consider as
well - the unexplained fact that Robert Greenwald, creator of the
Outfoxed documentary (which curiously is still excerpted and mentioned
by name in Sunday's episode) was unable to purchase time on the ABC
network to advertise his film.

According to Greenwald's distributor Gary Baddeley, a representative of
the Broadcast Standards and Practices Department at ABC named Joel
Resnicow indicated that ABC would not accept an ad for Outfoxed to run
adjacent to Boston Legal, "although he was reluctant to come out and say
so directly, I suspect for political reasons," says Baddeley.


"I really pushed him hard to say what we would have to do to edit the ad
to make it acceptable and he said he 'can't think of anything,'"
Baddeley says. "He also said that 'it seems like there are
insurmountable issues' and [he] 'wouldn't want us to invest time' in
re-editing. So although he wouldn't actually say 'we will not approve an
ad for this film no matter what' - that is the practical effect of what
he is saying. The door has been closed in our face."

In keeping with the overall vow of silence accompanying the Boston Legal
"free speech" episode, neither Joel Resnicow nor indeed anyone at ABC's
Broadcast Standards and Practices Department was willing to comment.
When pressed for an explanation of why the ad was refused, ABC's media
relations rep Susan Sewell said only "No comment." The non-answer answer
was the same even when she was asked for an explanation - or indeed any
articulation whatsoever - of ABC's "Broadcast Standards and Practices."

And Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes - usually good for at least a quip, if
not an actual quote - also declined comment.

To see the ad that ABC censored, click here.

And while you're at it, why not ask David E. Kelley what pressure was
brought to bear on him to censor an episode of his series - one
supposedly devoted to the issue of free speech. The telephone number for
David E. Kelley Productions is 650.853.9100.

In the interest of free speech, maybe he'll even talk to you.

Article URL: http://www.roryoconnor.org/blog/index.php?p=114



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