NEW MEDIA SCANDAL – AT 11:38 A.M. ET:  With all that's been happening, a fascinating media story has been downplayed by the press.  A miniseries about the Kennedys, developed for the History Channel, has been rejected by that outlet, and there are cries of censorship.  From the Scotsman:

America's most iconic political dynasty is at the centre of a censorship scandal after a TV network suddenly dropped a multi-million dollar series giving a warts-and-all look at the lives of the Kennedy clan.

Those behind the project believe members of the family "bullied" The History Channel into axing The Kennedys after objecting to the way the drama portrayed the private life and sexual escapades of assassinated president John F Kennedy.

And they claim the Kennedys have called in favours to prevent the eight-part show, starring Katie Holmes as JFK's wife Jackie, from being aired in the US.

The network Showtime became the latest to reject the project, declaring it to be "well-acted and well-produced" but that "it doesn't fit the Showtime brand."  The same claim was made by The History Channel when it pulled the plug.

The furious director of Muse Entertainment, the Canadian company that filmed the series, said he believed the networks rejected it for political reasons.

"I doubt they've even seen it. They're objecting to it before it started," John Cassar said.

Showtime's subsequent decision not to pick up the series is seen as particularly disingenuous, given that it aired The Reagans when CBS dropped it in 2003 after criticism that the documentary-drama portrayed former US president Ronald Reagan in an unfavourable light.

Actually, CBS dropped it after agreeing that the Reagan series was wildly inaccurate and mean-spirited.  Showtime picked it up.  The series was a farce.

Respected industry newspaper the Hollywood Reporter said two prominent Kennedy family members had driven a campaign to get the series scrapped.

It claimed Caroline Kennedy, JFK's last surviving child, and Maria Shriver, daughter of his sister Eunice and wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger, had used their influence in the broadcasting world to get their way, personally lobbying a Disney executive and a senior figure at NBC and A&E Television Networks, the parent of The History Channel.

Ms Shriver was an award-winning journalist with NBC, and Ms Kennedy has a book deal with a Disney-owned publisher for a collection of previously unreleased interviews with her father. Disney and NBC are part of a consortium that owns AETN.

COMMENT:  I've never had any problem with people raising objections to television productions, even before they're broadcast.  If they have a legitimate gripe, they have a perfect right to protest.  That was done, appropriately, in the Reagan case, when it became clear that the miniseries would be nothing but a Hollywood leftist hit job.  CBS made the right decision in dropping it.

Nor do I agree with the charge of "censorship," in the Reagan case or in this one.  Censorship is something done by an outside authority, which says, "You may not..."   There is no outside authority here.

However, the cancellation of the Kennedy series is particularly heavy-handed, and Showtime's rejection, after showing the awful Reagan miniseries, seems awfully hypocritical.  Mr. Kennedy's personal defects are well known.  They will not come as a shock to anyone.

I haven't seen the series, nor have I read the script.  The producer is a conservative, which may have prompted some of the objections.  I hope some small outlet picks up the production so American viewers can judge for themselves. Maybe the Fox network will step up.  At the very minimum, the script should be published so media observers can read it.

January 15, 2010