CNN's Cooper and Gupta Bemoan Reagan's Indifference to AIDS(CNN's INDIFFERENCE to the FACTS)

MRC ^ | Thursday June 10, 2004 | BrentBaker

[fight_truth_decay]

On Tuesday night CNN devoted a segment of Anderson Cooper 360 to how, as CNN's Dr, Sanjay Gupta put it, throughout his presidency "many would accuse President Reagan of ignoring AIDS," as if Reagan talking about it would have done more to prevent it than those in the homosexual community modifying their unsafe sex practices. Leading into a Reagan clip from 1987, Gupta complained that "the first time President Reagan would utter the word AIDS in public would be well into his second term, six years after the virus was discovered." In fact, Reagan talked about AIDS in 1985 and cited it repeatedly in his 1986 State of the Union address. Gupta relayed how one "AIDS activist" believes "the administration avoided AIDS all those years because of homophobia."

Interviewing Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, Cooper pointed out how "the San Francisco Chronicle said that Ronald Reagan was guilty, and I quote, of a 'shameful abdication of leadership in the fight against AIDS.'" When Fauci wasn't sufficiently anti-Reagan, Cooper reminded him: "The criticism is that earlier on in 1981 or '82, they had been more vocal they might have made a difference. I think part of the anger, too, is that Reagan's communication director, Pat Buchanan, you know, was quoted as saying in print that AIDS is the wrath of God upon homosexuals."

Unmentioned by CNN, how, as Deroy Murdock conveyed on National Review Online: "In a Congressional Research Service study titled 'AIDS Funding for Federal Government Programs: FY1981-FY1999,' author Judith Johnson found that overall, the federal government spent $5.727 billion on AIDS under Ronald Reagan. This higher number reflects President Reagan's proposals as well as additional expenditures approved by Congress that he later signed."

For Murdock's piece, which quotes Reagan's comments about AIDS in 1985 and 1986, as well as how Patti Davis denied her father was any kind of homophobe: http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/murdock200406081045.asp

(Cooper's segment on Reagan and AIDS aired the same night, MRC analyst Ken Shepherd noticed, that he devoted a story to the suddenly wise Nancy Reagan for opposing President Bush on stem cell research. He introduced that story: "Well, as President Bush remembers Ronald Reagan, he is also reminding America of his admiration of the Republican icon and of course, Reagan's wife Nancy, as well. But there is one sticky subject where the president and the wife of the former president part company, stem cell research. It is an anathema to many conservatives, but to a woman who just lost her beloved husband to Alzheimer's, it is a topic that transcends 'Raw Politics.'")

[fight_truth_decay]

bi-sexual cheating scum don't seem to feel bad about giving their wives the disease

or multiple partners.. weapons of mass destruction?

[supercat]

Thought experiment for liberals: suppose that an installer fails to properly seal a washing machine's drain and it leaks a little bit when the machine is used. Which is the better course of action:

1. Have the drain fixed as soon as practical and hold off on using the machine until then; bill the plumber for the cost of fixing the drain and for the cost of using a laundromat while the machine was unusable.
2. Continue to use the machine and avoid doing anything about the problem until the floor rots out. Sue the plumber for $20,000 to rebuild the floor and replace property that was on or underneath it.

There is a certain mindset that would suggest #2 is the better course of action, since it allows the homeowner to win more in a lawsuit.

[Billthedrill]

Good grief, not this again. Reagan was a Hollywood actor, for Pete's sake - he knew all about homosexuality and was good friends with a number of gay people. How could he have a career there and not be?

He was particularly close to Rock Hudson. Read HERE for a defense of Reagan from Hudson's lover. It might surprise some people.

[FITZ]

Every president after Reagan has talked about AIDS and it has not made the problem a faint memory.....so what gives???????????

It's strange --- talk hasn't stopped the spread of AIDS --- I think if anything all the government money poured into the issue only keeps it spreading --- if they would have quarantined all HIV positive cases and allowed them to die from the disease, it would have spread more slowly. Talking or not talking makes no difference either way.