Associated Press media reporter David Bauder revealed Friday that CBS has refused to accept any advertising for Truth, the Dan Rather-defending film “that revisits a painful episode in the network's past involving a discredited 2004 news story on former President George W. Bush's military service record.”
The film opens in just six theaters in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, but there's already awards buzz for actress Cate Blanchett, who plays Rather's hatchet lady Mary Mapes. The chutzpah at Sony's indie factory is overflowing.
Sony Pictures Classics sought a multi-million dollar ad buy to promote the film on Stephen Colbert's Late Show, the CBS Evening News, CBS This Morning and 60 Minutes, but was turned down, said Sherri Callan, president of Callan Advertising, the company that places ads for Sony.
Instead, Sony is advertising on ABC, NBC, Fox and several cable networks. CBS, which confirmed the rejection, told Callan it was not comfortable accepting the ads because of inaccuracies and distortions in the movie, and that it would offend longtime CBS News employees.
I'm sure CBS gladly accepted ads for the CBS-glorifying movie Good Night and Good Luck ten years ago, since George Clooney’s film provided distortions of history that favored the myth of Edward R. Murrow and demonized the “right” people: Sen. Joe McCarthy and other opponents of communist infiltration of the government.
"It's astounding how little truth there is in Truth," proclaimed CBS earlier in a statement. "There are, in fact, too many distortions, evasions and baseless conspiracy theories to enumerate them all. The film tries to turn gross errors of journalism and judgment into acts of heroism and martyrdom. That's a disservice not just to the public but to journalists across the world who go out every day and do everything within their power, sometimes at great risk to themselves, to get the story right."
