Tonight on Radio FreeRepublic
Unspun with AnnaZ
October 23rd, 2003 -- 10pmE/7pmP
"At least when right-wingers rant, there's a point!"
Posted on 10/23/2003 12:44:08 AM PDT by kattracks
Ronald Reagan, about to be portrayed as an unfeeling, forgetful conservative, had the biggest heart of any President in America’s history – so big that CBS had no trouble finding it when they decided to plunge a dagger into it.
The liberal network had the gall to allow a scriptwriter to put words in my father’s mouth he never spoke – words that pictured him as having no sympathy for AIDS victims.
Now CBS’s defenders are trying to excuse the network for its shameful fictionalization of my dad’s life by noting that the miniseries "The Reagans" gives him credit for many of the great things he did, such as winning the Cold War, but they cannot gloss over the fact that the Ronald Reagan shown in the miniseries is not the real Ronald Reagan.
They want to talk about his forgetfulness, but he never forgot the people of this country. He gave us all a tax break, created tens of thousands of jobs and restored our faith in ourselves. He never forgot the hostages in Iran who were freed the day that he was sworn in as president.
He never forgot the suffering people behind the Iron Curtain, living in squalor and poverty, under the gun for all those many years. He did everything he could to free them.
And he never forgot who he was, and where he had come from. He remembered being poor. He remembered struggling.
The important things he needed to know he never forgot.
On the day he took office, right after he was told that the hostages in Iran had been freed, he called former President Carter and told him, "You’re the one who did the work, you’re the one that did so much to free those hostages. You are the one who should get the credit." And he gave the former president Air Force One and sent him to Germany to welcome the hostages. That was the heart of Ronald Reagan. That story, like so many others, was never told because my Dad didn’t trumpet his good deeds.
The miniseries won’t tell you the whole story about my dad’s visit to Japan when he learned that only the first class section would be occupied in the 747 jet he was traveling on. He went out and got families of service men and women serving in Japan and filled up the back of the plane with them so they could visit their loved ones they hadn’t seen for over a year. They won’t tell you how he took them to Japan and brought them back home on the plane without it costing them one cent.
That was also the heart of Ronald Reagan.
There are so many stories you don’t hear from the people who are hateful, the people who are spiteful, the people who are jealous, the people who never liked Ronald Reagan.In a column last July I wrote that CBS was planning to produce a miniseries on my father, and noted that while I hadn’t seen the script, I understood it had been leaked around Hollywood and was anything but friendly to my dad.
After all, Hollywood has never warmed up to him, even when he went to bat for actors as president of the Screen Actor’s Guild and won them the right to get residual payments when their movies were rerun – a right he refused to give to himself because he thought that would be a conflict of interest. So his movies alone are exempt from residuals. They also forgot that they elected him president of the Guild nine times.
Moreover, not once – ever – did Hollywood even think about giving my dad an award in recognition of his many services to the film industry and the people who work in it. So I wouldn’t expect them to do a positive miniseries about somebody who gave them residuals so they could take the summers off.
And they also forgot to go to the people who knew him best – his family. Nobody at CBS came near any of us. They were probably afraid we’d tell the truth about the heart of Ronald Reagan and that would have spoiled their plans to show him as they wanted to see him, rather than as he was: a wonderful, caring human being and one of the greatest and kindest men ever to serve as President of the United States.
Mike Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Premiere Radio Network.
My recollection and the picture show him to be about six feet tall. The picture, taken by his official photographer, show he and I standing side by side, in profile, as I am introducing several officials of other organizations to him. He is standing just beyond me in the photo and appears to be the same or slightly taller than I, I am 5' 11".
Reagan challenged Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination for President in 1976. Ford, being the incumbent, had the advantage and beat Reagan for the nomination. Carter then beat Ford in the general election, which some attributed to the GOP's Watergate baggage.
Reagan ran against Carter in 1980 for President and won. Reagan won the nomination that year against a field of challengers, including George H.W. Bush, who agreed to be Reagan's VP when Reagan got the nomination. The presidential race in 1980 also featured former Republican Congressman John Anderson as a third-party candidate (I forget what he called his party that year). Some say Anderson's candidacy cost Carter some votes and thereby magnified the margin of Reagan's win, but I don't buy it. I think Anderson drew equally from both parties. Besides, Reagan displayed a broad coattail effect in that election that showed his inherent appeal to the electorate, Anderson's candidacy notwithstanding.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Tonight on Radio FreeRepublic
Unspun with AnnaZ
October 23rd, 2003 -- 10pmE/7pmP
"At least when right-wingers rant, there's a point!"
It was a close election! Ford pardoned Nixon, and it was all she wrote. It cost him the election.!!
I will use that as a prayer. May the merciful God whom he served make it so.
Let's Roll!
NordP
Just placed a call to our local CBS affilliate and spoke with te General Manager of the station.
I let her know that I would no longer be watching their channel due to the Reagan miniseries coming up and would also be contacting local advertisers.
She did mention to me she had a few calls concerning this and was wondering how I could pass judgement on something not yet seen, that maybe it would not be that bad.
I explained to her about the sript leaks on the Internet and the interview of Michael Reagan on Sean Hannity show among others. That this is an obvious attempt to smear a great man, a man that cannot defend himself.
She was a bit taken back by my forcefullness and my grasp of facts that she did not have. She was particularly concerned with my threat of telling local advertisers. Sorry, but that will be done by tomorrow night. All local businesses advertising on CBS that I see I will call tonight and tomorrow.
She was pleasant but a bit ruffled. Excellent!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.