laura's SPIN :: Spicing up PBS, Cheney Style

[Joe_VB]

I just received this email from "Your Call Radio"

NEXT SHOW :: Bio 2004 :: Monday, 6/7/04
10amPT/1pmET on 91.7 KALW or http://www.yourcallradio.org

Ken Auletta reported in the June 7 New Yorker Magazine that back in 2002, the
Vice President's wife suggested to the president of PBS that a series of hour-
long TV programs starring herself might be a jolly good idea. And so it might --
especially if PBS wants congressional debate over the network's budget-
allocation to go smoothly this year.

But Lynne Cheney's show idea seems to have crashed and burned. It may be that
even from their supine position, PBS directors could see that giving public air
time to the second highest ranking public official was just a tad out of line.
On the other hand, it may also have been that Cheney's idea of a kids show
based on her "Patriotic Primer" needs a little creative help. It just sounds
dull.

But how about this idea? In 1981, Lynne Cheney wrote a gothic novel called
Sisters, published by Signet. It's full of sex and romance and condoms and
lesbian lust on the 19th Century Western frontier. It's just the thing to bring
PBS's ratings out of the doldrums. Their very own L Word. Producing that series
would unveil the reality: that the culture wars in the age of Bush are more
political smokescreen than the product of moral conviction. In a concession to
Cheney's original proposal, to produce a series based on her book, A is for
Abigail, PBS could call it: L is for Lesbian. It's working for Showtime.