CBS Producer Is a Casualty in CBS's 'Hitler' Miniseries
by Lisa de Moraes - Washington Post • Friday April 18, 2003 at 04:18 PM
originally published on Friday, April 11, 2003; Page C07 - Washington Post
No sooner does CBS tamp down criticism that its upcoming Hitler miniseries would humanize the infamous German figure than it gets hit
with a much bigger Hitler headache, compliments of TV Guide.
This time, the executive in charge of producing the miniseries has been canned.
Ed Gernon, longtime head of the movie and miniseries division of Canadian-based production company Alliance Atlantis, was let go because
of an interview he gave regarding CBS's May sweeps miniseries "Hitler: The Rise of Evil."
In the April 12 TV Guide, the publication says that "Gernon stated his belief that fear fueled both the Bush administration's adoption of a
preemptive-strike policy and the public's acceptance of it." According to the article, "Gernon said a similar fearfulness in a devastated
post-World War I Germany was 'absolutely' behind that nation's acceptance of Hitler's extremism."
Gernon is quoted as saying of the miniseries, which tracks Hitler's rise to power in 1930s Germany: "It basically boils down to an entire
nation gripped by fear, who ultimately chose to give up their civil rights and plunged the whole world into war.
"I can't think of a better time to examine this history than now," he added.
The article further quotes him as saying that "when an entire country becomes afraid for their sovereignty, for their safety, they will
embrace ideas and strategies and positions that they might not embrace otherwise."
An advance copy of the article was given to the New York Post -- both it and TV Guide are publications of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
The newspaper's Page Six gossip column did a short bit on it last Thursday, under the heading "Rise of Lunacy at CBS."
"The scraping sound you hear next month will be Hollywood's anti-Americanism hitting bottom with the CBS movie 'Hitler: The Rise of
Evil,' " the item bellowed.
"Gernon tells the upcoming TV Guide that he, [actress Julianna] Margulies and director Christian Duguay believe it's a good idea to look at
the Bush White House through the prism of . . . Germany's genocidal psychopath."
Yesterday, the same paper's John Podhoretz got in on the act:
"Well, the CBS television network just devoted millions of dollars and will devote four hours of prime time to a miniseries dedicated to the
'Bush = Hitler' proposition.
"In an eye-opening article published this week by TV Guide, journalist Mark Lasswell reveals that the creative team behind the upcoming
docudrama 'Hitler: The Rise of Evil' believes their story is important because it might open our eyes to America's rapid descent into
totalitarian terror."
He continues:
"When CBS first announced it was going to air this miniseries, there were substantive protests from Jewish groups and Holocaust survivors
that it might humanize Hitler. CBS took those complaints seriously enough to scrap the first teleplay and commission another.
"What they commissioned, it appears, is an act of slander against the president of the United States -- and by extension, toward the United
States itself."
So today is Gernon's last day of work at Alliance Atlantis.
We have this from a rep for the company to whom we were referred when we called to try to speak to Gernon.
"As a matter of policy, we don't discuss any individual's employment status. We're not about to start now," Alliance Atlantis said snippily in
a statement e-mailed to us by the rep.
What Alliance Atlantis, which also co-produces CBS's hit series "CSI" and "CSI: Miami," will start doing now is running as fast and as far
from Gernon's comments as possible:
"With respect to the comments attributed to Ed Gernon in the most recent issue of TV Guide, the comments do not represent the views of
Alliance Atlantis, nor do they reflect in any way the purpose of the miniseries 'Hitler: The Rise of Evil.' We have no further comment to
offer on this."
Those Canadians -- not a friendly bunch.
CBS, which was said to be pleased to see Gernon booted, also went into full disassociation throttle: "We found Mr. Gernon's comments to
TV Guide to be insensitive and outright wrong," the network said in its e-mail. "His personal opinions are not shared by CBS and
misrepresent the Network's motivation for broadcasting this film.
"It is very important that viewers understand that these views are not reflected in the tone or the content of the mini-series, which
recounts the rise of Hitler to power and portrays him as the ruthless, maniacal force he was.
"We have done everything we can to make this an important historical film that will help people to never forget how the Nazis came to
power and the barbaric atrocities they committed."
CBS also wanted to make sure that we knew the miniseries would air on Sunday, May 18, and Tuesday, May 20
oh, sure, with a title like "Hitler:The Rise of Evil" i can see how people of jewish descent would worry that he was being "humanized". as far as CBS goes, i now know that it stands for Censorship Broadcast System, right? i'll be sure to watch the show, just to be reminded of the similarities.
Todos sabemos como están diseñadas las salas de chat de consumo popular. Con chatterbots y cada tanto algún operador que compone uno o más personajes para el esporádico visitante de la misma. Lo que llama poderosamente la atenciòn es la feroz censura que se ha establecido en todos los medios a nivel mundial acerca del tema. Es algo que uno apenas puede imaginar que ocurra en una època como esta donde aparentemente se puede decir cualquier cosa, verdadera o no, acerca de cualquier tema o persona. Es una censura que involucra tanto a gobiernos, como a instituciones acadèmicas, gente de la cultura y medios de comunicaciòn. Es una censura que mete miedo a los empleados que trabajan en ella, miedo que se percibe cuando se entrevista a alguno de ellos y se les menciona el tema. La pregunta del millòn serìa la que buscase saber que le sucederìa a la persona o instituciòn que intentase publicar algùn libro sobre el tema o buscase de comentar el asunto por televisiòn o radio porque no està en mi conocimiento que alguien lo haya intentado con èxito hasta ahora. Saludos.
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