Reagan/Jessica Lynch et al.......
OK, I am a TV critic and find the shelving of this mini-series alarming. It's as bad as Clear Channel deciding to pull the Dixie Chicks from all of their radio stations. And they own the most stations of any media conglomerate.
Now, as someone who was actually alive when Reagan was president, let me say a few things:
1. He was a great man because he "cured" a large segment of the population of mental retardation. How? He lowered the IQ requirement one had to have to be eligible for federal funds. If you had an IQ of 60 or below, you received your disability check. Reagan decided people with an IQ of 50 or below was a far more reasonable IQ. Anyone with an IQ between 50-60 no longer qualified for federal programs and were subsequently tossed out in the street. Hence the homeless explosion of the 1980's.
2. When the AIDS quilt was first displayed on the Washington Mall and thousands asked that he either make a statement or at least participate in the candle light vigil, he and Nancy choppered out the back lawn of the White House. He did believe homosexuality is a sin and while that's all fine and good, your religious beliefs are not supposed to influence your policy making decisions.
3. He preached family values, yet his own children, both the ones he had with Jane Wyman and Nancy are distant from him. His own son and namesake is gay and his daughter wrote a tell all book about life in Ronnie and Nancy land. Further, he was so "close" to his kids, that his son Michael was molested at camp and never felt he could tell his father and feared his father's reaction.
4. Nancy Reagan in an interview with Barbara Walters stated that all she and Ronnie needed were each other. Not the kids, friends ect., just each other. Well, looks like she got her wish.
5. He's been on his death bed now for years. He did exhibit signs of Alzheimers in the last 3 years of his second term. When he said "I do not recall" during the Iran-Contra hearings, he really didn't.
6. Factions of the RNC were so afraid all the liberals were going to tarnish this great man's name, that they made it a goal to get at least one building in every county of America named after Reagan. They've pretty much succeeded.
7. It's a docudrama, not a documentary. The movie has condensed several of Reagans acknowledged beliefs into the final product. If you watch Saving Jessica Lynch, you are going to get the same thing. You'll get her firing her gun at her captors and putting up a fight. By her own words, it never happened. Is this any different than what CBS did with The Reagans? NO. And where was all this outrage about not portraying events in a truthful light when Showtime aired it's 9/11 movie that practically has Bush walking on water? (for anyone who wants to see Bush's true reaction to being told of the 9/11 attacks, go to www.thememoryhole.com, there's a 5 minute video of him doing.....nothing). I sat in a screening room with the producers of that film, one of whom proudly pulled out his RNC membership card and said, "Yes, I am a Republican. Yes I donated a large amount to GWB's campaign, do you think that makes me biased?" Answer: YES.
Reagan gave these great tax cuts and America cheered. He then raised taxes in other areas in subsequent years. That's just politics. He cut funding for the arts. They weren't needed. He increased spending for the military. He demanded the Russians tear down the wall. Good for him. And the wall did come down....in 1990. Reagan left office in 1988. He left behind enormous deficits we are still paying for. Yes, he was a strong guy and you could feel intimidated by him which is what you do want in a President. I'm not joking. However, he is not God nor is he a deity. He was just a man who chose to lead a very public life as first an actor and a Democrat and later as a politician and a Republican.
And where is all the outrage regarding Reagan's portrayal of Angels in America?