Entertainment

‘Discrimination’: ‘The Kennedys’ Producer Blames History Channel Corporate Board for Dropping Miniseries

“This is god’s hand. My hand.”

So says Joe Kennedy in the highly anticipated miniseries ‘The Kennedys,’ an eight-part drama developed by Joel Surnow, the conservative co-creator of the hit show ‘24.’ The all-star cast of ‘The Kennedys’ features Tom Wilkinson, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear, and Barry Pepper.

In the newly released second trailer for the program, below, Joe Kennedy is front and center as the nefarious family patriarch who is consumed by ambition not just for himself–but for his entire family. “It’s not what you are,” he tells his sons, “it’s what people think you are. And with the right amount of money, you can make ‘em think whatever you want…this country is ours for the taking.”

Not surprisingly, this negative portrayal of the American political family garnered criticism from the left–and from the Kennedy family itself. Ted Sorenson, a former advisor to John F. Kennedy, called an early version of the script “malicious” and “vindictive.”

Discrimination: The Kennedys Producer Blames History Channel Corporate Board for Dropping Miniseries

As a result of the controversy, the show’s backer, the History Channel, dropped the program which is now set to air on television April 3 at 8pm on the ReelzChannel.

Why did the History Channel drop the show? In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Surnow points out that the script was approved by at least two notable historians and experts on The Kennedys–so it wasn’t an issue of historical accuracy. Instead, Surnow says, it came down to “discrimination and censorship”:

If anyone has known my work for the last 25, 30 years, I’m not agenda-ized, I’m not even a political writer. I’m an agnostic filmmaker, I’m an agnostic writer. I go where the story is. It really felt like discrimination to me at the end of the day. I have no problem with the Kennedys. The Kennedys are absolutely in their right to want to protect their family as they see fit. It’s when the people who are inside our business, the ones making decisions who bend to that and cave to that, even when there is nothing valid about the objections being leveled against us, you have to start thinking about discrimination and censorship.

The people who canceled this had the opportunity to see all 8 episodes. This wasn’t about the [Kennedy family], these are the people on the corporate board above the History Channel. Again, don’t look at the Kennedys. The Kennedys have very little to do with this. They can’t cancel a miniseries. The only people who can cancel it are the people at the highest corporate levels.

Check out the second trailer for the show, which is very similar to the first trailer (bottom), but darker:

And here is the first trailer:

Comments (106)

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  • bigdaddybernie
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 1:05pm

    It should be known as The History REVISIONIST Channel ! I cried ( 16 years old ) when Kennedy was shot but Camelot was just as fantastic then as in King Arthur days. There is no love lost for the Kennedy era.

    Report Post »  
  • RightPolitically
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:53pm

    They (the Kennedy’s) saw themselves as Kings and Queens in America. Hey, didn’t we rebel against that stuff years ago? Didn’t we reject RULERS? I’m afraid not; we haven’t learned our lesson yet. Witness: Barack Obama!

    Report Post » RightPolitically  
  • SafeguardOurLiberty
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:52pm

    I lived during the Kennedy dynasty. They were not what they were cracked up to be. Finally people are starting to realize it. The truth eventually comes out in the end.

    Report Post » SafeguardOurLiberty  
  • peezee
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:51pm

    Progressives everywhere! You had better fight like hell to keep your control of the media, because when we take it from you there will be payback such as you have never seen.

    Report Post »  
  • pennswoods
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:50pm

    I wonder if this series, “The Kennedy’s”, will show the close relationship John and Bobby Kennedy had with the conservative and anti-Communist Senator Joe McCarthy back the late 40‘s and early 50’s? Bobby Kennedy was one of Senator Mccarthy’s lawyers and Bobby even asked McCarthy to be the godfather of his first child, Kathleen Kennedy. Helping Senator Joseph McCarthy during the era when the USSR and Communism had just taken over Eastern Europe, China, and North Korea was one of the few things the Kennedy’s ever got right, in my opinion.

    Report Post »  
  • HenryCameron
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:45pm

    For years, the History Channel was my default station. However, the current leadership has chosen to abandon the networks tradition of presenting informative, entertaining and wide-ranging historical programming in favor of cheap ratings. The only way a show about the Kennedy’s would fit the the History Channel program lineup these days is if they did it as a tawdry reality show – Real Housewives of Camelot.

    Report Post »  
  • I SPY
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:40pm

    Irish Mobsters hell bent on power and willing to sleep with socialists to get it… should about wrap it up.

    Report Post » I SPY  
  • clockwatcher
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:38pm

    Kennedy legacy? Crime, murder, drugs, adultry, theft, booze addition,this is a great legacy. Scumbags

    Report Post » clockwatcher  
  • teddrunk
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:38pm

    No matter how bad this movie portrays the Kennedy family, it can’t come close to telling the real story of the most immoral, rotten, disgusting, loathsome family to ever grace American politics. Old Joe Kennedy lobotomized his daughter, and was a friend and admired Adolph Hitler. He was an American traitor. Yet the Kennedy name may be being surpassed by the Obama name in traitorous dealings to defeat America.

    Report Post »  
  • Cherynn
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:35pm

    Someday the kennedy name will fade away into oblivion. That day cant come soon enough.

    Report Post » Cherynn  
  • rdk
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:33pm

    It is time we learned the truth about the Kennedy Clan. They wanted to rule the world; only the Mafia kicked back.

    Report Post »  
    • GEW
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 2:39pm

      So now we have the President the Progressives can use to Rule the World.

      Report Post » GEW  
  • jollylama
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:33pm

    zzzzzz

    Report Post »  
  • smalldog
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:29pm

    I wonder how much of today’s political agenda in Washington is driven by the need to collectively make non-minority Americans pay for the sins of a few guilty families?

    Report Post »  
  • Ozymandias
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:28pm

    This was only a series for liberals to masturbate over the fabled Camelot and the Kennedy legacy of murder, betrays, lies, deception, durnkedness, money, power, and the “sins of the father being visited upon his children until the third and fourth generation. The Kennedy were culpable in the 1930′s depression as P.F. Kennedy created shell corporation with partners to bolster investment then when the stock had reached an inflated price, the partners cashed in on their investments, leaving the stockholders like the American taxpayers with nothing. Any miniseries propagating the myth that the Kennedy’s were royalty is disgusting and vulgar.

    Report Post » Ozymandias  
  • Pugfriend
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:26pm

    If it shows a bad light on a liberal they will never show it!!!

    Report Post »  
  • Average_JoeMN
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:20pm

    The same people who say this doesn’t “fit their brand” are the same people who gave Larry the Cable Guy a show on the “History” Channel. If that very fact doesn’t demonstrate this was about politics nothing does.

    Report Post »  
    • drbage
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 6:47pm

      Perhaps they are part of the flip-flop generation that is ruling this country. Can you just imagine the outrage spewing from the MSM if this were a mini-series about Cloward and Piven produced by Michael Moore?

      Report Post »  
  • EqualJustice
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:19pm

    People in this country keep making the same mistake…TELLING THE TRUTH. If you tell it like it is.. you‘re the one who’s going to suffer. Ask that girl at UCLA or Governors Brewer or Walker, or Beck, or Palin and Malkin, Bachmann, or ANYONE, even on the left, who speaks the TRUTH. Sorry, folks, not allowed.

    Report Post » EqualJustice  
  • shorthanded12
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:14pm

    Hey MS Emily Smith, This is tabloid reading. Sick of hearing about a corrupt family (Kennedys) not to mention Obamas, Bush’s, Clinton’s. JFK had his flaws and we all have a pretty good idea what they were, but the rest of the Kennedy clan who cares. I DONT!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Report Post »  
  • eat-more-bacon-USA
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:14pm

    The Kennedys and all uber-liberals always whine when anyone tries to tell the truth about the Kennedy family – nothing new here….

    Report Post » eat-more-bacon-USA  
    • RollyBones
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 8:06pm

      JFK was NOT a liberal in today’s meaning. He was actually quite conservative. The Democrats back then were what we would call the Republicans now. The Dixiecrats as they were known were very conservative. Don;t forget, JFK gave us one of the largest tax cuts in history and was one of the first to have a surplus in the treasury. It was Johnson who was the damned Liberal and speny us into the first part of the oblivion we’re in now. It was he and the Democratic Congress at the time that screwed SS and put it in the General fund. Kennedy was against that ever happening

      Rolly

      Report Post » RollyBones  
  • FIREDUDE
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:12pm

    I wonder if the murder commited will be inthere?

    Report Post »  
    • justanamerican
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:22pm

      Which one????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

      Report Post » justanamerican  
  • daveposh
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:12pm

    Thank you for the info! I want to see this program. ReelzChannel (ReelzChannel.com) is on Time Warner Cable channel 556 in Austin TX area. Go to http://ReelzChannel.com and enter your zipcode to find out how it will be available in your area.

    Report Post » daveposh  
    • CatB
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 1:03pm

      Thank you .. I was hoping someone would post the link … I don’t think I get the channel but I could be surprised .. I am going to check it out .. I bet when it goes to DVD it does well.

      Report Post »  
    • independentvoteril
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 1:40pm

      CatB.. Hope you were surprised however I wasn‘t I don’t get it here.. but I live in IL the Progressive hub of the world..and have COMCAST the backwards cable provider of the world..LOL.. Wonder if I could watch it on line???

      Report Post » independentvoteril  
    • Tiny280
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 1:57pm

      CATB:

      Don’t be shocked when the rights-holders (GE?) decide not to release the DVD – despite the $Millions in potential profits.

      Remember how ABC / Disney censored several key scenes from The Path to 9/11, then refused to allow a DVD release despite sales estimates in the $40 Million (all profit) range? The political favor to the Cointonistas was so blatant the director / producer even made a documentary about the real-time re-writing of history in that case. If you are interested in the MSM’s edits on history, Blocking “The Path to 9/11″ is well worth watching.

      Report Post »  
    • CatB
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 3:42pm

      I don’t get it either .. darn .. hope it comes out on DVD .. Comcast s*cks.

      Report Post »  
    • CatB
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 3:45pm

      My cousin was a Secret Service agent in the Kennedy White House .. he liked JFK personally .. but I know he did not condone JFK’s extramarital affairs and such .. my cousin was an honerable man. I hope to see this “somehow” .they should release it on the internet.

      Report Post »  
  • Evileye
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:09pm

    Who would wants to be blinded by the truth

    Report Post »  
  • walkwithme1966
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:07pm

    If the Kennedys complained then it must be close to the truth – what I don’t understand is that there is not much that is not already known so why should they be complaining? We already know that all the Kennedy men slept around, that Daddy Kennedy might have bought JFK’s presidency. I am looking forward to see it! http://wp.me/pYLB7-KX

    Report Post » walkwithme1966  
    • Guerrino_P
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 5:14pm

      Hey WALKWITHME1966. JFK took a bullet for this country. A little respect please. What have you done for this country, complain the you have to use flourescent light bulbs?. You are disgrace.

      Report Post »  
    • Damage6
      Posted on March 21, 2011 at 3:21am

      @ Guerrino_P “Kennedy took a bullet for his country…..” So? Allot of people have taken bullets for our country. I agree that all the Kennedy assassinations were horrible but that doesn’t absolve all the horrible things done by the Kennedy clan over the years. That also doesn’t justify the steady drumbeat from the left for decades to turn their legacy into to the American royalty. In reality they were just one of the more successful family run crime syndicates in American history.

      Report Post » Damage6  
    • Guerrino_P
      Posted on March 21, 2011 at 8:15am

      Hey DAMAGE6, I’m the last guy you should preach to. JFK was the son of a bootlegger. Yes, a guy who supplied illegal booze to everyone who wanted it, including politicians from the left and (oh horrors) the right. And, oh yes, he liked p*ssy too.

      My point was: Conservatives have a real knack for sucking the life out of everything. Let JFK rest in peace and may God Bless all you conservative numbskulls.

      Report Post »  
  • tifosa
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:05pm

    Sounds like a Fox Movie Channel “must-see.”

    Report Post » tifosa  
    • Templar Knight
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:52pm

      Kennedy’s were in league with many corrupt individuals known as the “mob”. Those on the left like you refuse to see the truth, but even my criminal justice professor who lives in Mass has been very admit on that fact. But we all know that you one of those people who honestly believe that good ol’ Teddy just happened to unknowingly have a girl in his back seat when he drove off a bridge while drunk? Surprisingly he called the police the next day though and even more surprising was how he wasn’t hurt from being involved in a car reck.

      Report Post » Huguenot Descendant  
    • JD Carp
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 1:21pm

      I love your nick, Tifosa. If they only knew LOL!

      Report Post » JD Carp  
    • 13th Imam
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 1:36pm

      PMSNBC is picking up this . They want to pick up an actual audience.
      I can’t wait for all the gas heads exploding ( Chrissy, Larreeee, Maddit, )

      Report Post » 13th Imam  
    • sodizzy
      Posted on March 21, 2011 at 8:17pm

      I know! Who will broadcast it and when? I really want to see it. Did you read Horowitz and Collier’s book about The Kennedys?

      Report Post » mlcblog  
  • poverty.sucks
    Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:05pm

    The people at the highest corporate levels, who do you suppose influence their decisions? Not liberal socialist?

    Report Post » poverty.sucks  
    • TunaBlue
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 12:46pm

      That’s very naive. Many at the highest corporate levels are Progressives and Socialists and stand to make a killing with a Progressive president in office.

      Report Post »  
    • grtz25
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 1:33pm

      Oh my gosh, you will never guess who owns the History Channel. GE!!!!

      Report Post »  
    • Moonbat
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 1:45pm

      @ TunaBlue

      Corporate CEOs are Socialists? How does that even make sense? Why in the world would a millionaire advocate a political system that abolishes personal property?

      You guys have been duped into supporting a worldview that blames government for every ill in society while giving corporations a free pass. And when you finally get to the steaming pile of contradiction in the center of it, your only recourse is to make the CEOs Socialists, too.

       
    • Uriel
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 2:22pm

      Many corporate CEOs, officers and Board members are indeed communists; General Electric chief among them (but also Coca-Cola and several others). It does appear at first to be a contradiction; but it is not. Communist nations still have industry. Every industry being a government enforced and controlled monopoly. Becoming a monopoly is the goal of all private businesses; but it is a goal achieved through competition in a Free Market. When a communism takes over, the industries remain; but they become State monopolies governed by commissars. That is Immelt’s goal, and the goal of a number of individuals (including former Senator Sam Nunn) who have multiple board memberships on the boards of many of the largest companies in America. It is a fairly recent development and is worrying as hell.

      Report Post »  
    • Uriel
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 2:23pm

      But, Moonbat, why do you argue against this reality, when it should make you joyous?

      Report Post »  
    • GEW
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 2:30pm

      Actually I think this was stopped so as not too many people make a comparison about who is in the WH today. Not what he is or who he is, just the money that got him there and will keep him their for their progressive agenda.

      Having lived through the JFK era, and NOT been an admirer, I will be watching this, it should be interesting. Everyone should tune in. Maybe the truth is somewhere in between.

      Report Post » GEW  
    • Hobbs57
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 3:56pm

      hahaha … Thanks for the info about GE…. I bet there is a huge back room spanking going on right now between Soros and GE over this whole Nuclear over analysis in Japan. Many of the enviromental groups connected under the Tides Foundation are trying to smear Nuclear Energy, but GE is the one who builds the reactors… or at least they did. I wonder if they are moving away fro it and Oblah-blah giving him the Czar position was retribution for that … This all bugs the heck out of me ..

      These groups, unions, organizations all coming together was their greatest dream, but I know it is just a matter of time before they step on one another. Soro‘s don’t care, he will use each and every one of them for what ever purpose he needs them. There is no integrity left on the left at all. Not that there wasn’t much there to begin with. All the way back to the early 1900′s, a bunch of intellectual snobs, who worship those who are most ruthless and greedy amongst them. WHat a sick group of people, all of them. Kennedy’s were a shining example. THough, I do feel JFK’s human condition got the better of him and shook him enough to sober him up a bit to the reality of life. I think this is partly why he was shot as well. They thought they had the perfect puppet, only to find, their strings had no effect on him. I think it was his lifestyle that caused him to cut these people off, and they all tok it personally, and decided he needed to go.
      As always, Liberal Progressives think everything is about them. They never care about others, it only matter about how it effects them. We are changing this and they can’t stand it. No longer are they the all important and thy HATE us for it. Keep it people, don’t shy way or back off. Don’t feed into their BS to try to make you feel bad or dirty, you are not. They surely are. The difference is, we care, they don’t.

      Report Post » Hobbs57  
    • kindling
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 4:37pm

      I have wondered how it was that most of the wealthiest people I know are flaming socialists. I guess they either feel guilty about being rich, or they just think it does not include them.

      Report Post » kindling  
    • rekindle america
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 5:50pm

      Maybe Fox could pick it up if its for sale.love to disappoint Soros.

      Report Post »  
    • Lucy Larue
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 7:43pm

      I was looking forward to this.
      I will NEVER watch the History Channel again.
      I hope I can buy the DVD somewhere. I know I‘ll never remember the cable channel that it’s showing on.
      I despise progressives.
      Is there anyone on this planet who still thinks that J.F.K.’s presidency was really akin to Camelot?!
      Oh wait…,Ted Sorenson still thinks that. Idiot!

      Report Post »  
    • restorehope
      Posted on March 20, 2011 at 11:15pm

      No surprise that many upper level company officers are libs/progressives. I always thought it ironic that libs demean and blame the wealthy in this country for everything, yet there are many, many wealthy libs running companies. According to them, only the wealthy conservatives are the bad guys. Their hypocracy is astounding.

      Report Post »  
    • Rollo2
      Posted on March 21, 2011 at 12:05am

      Must be some kinda “spooky dudes”… ehh ha,ha.
      hhrumph!

      Report Post »  
    • indy1
      Posted on March 21, 2011 at 9:26am

      Jeffrey Immelt is quite the socialist.

      Report Post »  
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