One Reporter's Opinion:
Know Him by His Deeds
Reprinted
from NewsMax.com
George
Putnam
Friday,
Oct. 31, 2003
It is this reporter's opinion that
the revisionists, the mythmakers and outright liars
who write the histories of great men and women have
distorted the biographies of Washington, Jefferson,
Lincoln, both Roosevelts and Sir Winston Churchill.
Now, apparently, it's Ronald Reagan's turn in the
bucket.
CBS is about to broadcast a
two-part miniseries, "The Reagans." It
depicts happenings and conversations in Reagan's life
that never took place. Producers of "The
Reagans" do not deny that, and the young
scriptwriters depict one of the great presidents of
the 20th century as a dope, forgetful, inattentive -
a callous individual with a domineering, pill-popping
spouse.
We know the lies told about George
Washington and the others. Now we witness the
immature minds of the Hollywood set ignoring evidence
and publicly committing their poison pens to an act
of remarkable cruelty. As R. Emmett Tyrrell puts it,
"It's on a par with claiming Roosevelt's
paralysis impaired his performance in office."
Public outcry from Americans who
love the Reagans has resulted in Leslie Moonves,
chairman of CBS, backing off, realizing that such
distortions don't belong - even in the important
sweeps period.
Drudge, who apparently gained
access to a sneak peek at the CBS fiasco, says the
CBS legal department has called on the producers of
the upcoming miniseries to either back up their
scandalous assertions or severely edit the script.
Drudge speaks of a scene in the film in which wife
Nancy allegedly pleads with Reagan to help people
battling AIDS. The script has Reagan stating,
"They that live in sin shall die in sin,"
then refusing to discuss the issue further.
The CBS presentation ignores the
fact that the Reagan administration began the
greatest amount of spending on AIDS research and
prevention in history. The movie also depicts Reagan
as intolerant and uncaring toward gays and those who
suffer from AIDS.
Reagan also spent his entire life
fighting, among many other things, racism - and that
began with his days as a college student. Let me cite
an experience related to me by one of Reagan's former
teammates who called from Whittier, Calif., to tell
me this story.
Reagan played right guard on his
college football team. Next to him at the center
position was the only man of color on the team. The
night before an important out-of town game, Reagan's
team was to be given a steak dinner. As they sat down
to eat, the restaurant owner approached the man of
color and said, "You can have your dinner, but
you've got to eat it in the kitchen."
Quietly furious, Reagan asked his
fellow teammates to each contribute a few dimes and
nickels so they could leave and go elsewhere for
dinner ... and then the team walked out en masse,
went down the street to a local hamburger joint and
that was their dinner. The next day they enjoyed a
smashing victory. Just one small incident of many
showing where Ronnie Reagan came from.
Another myth, among many, is that
Reagan didn't have a thought in his head or the
ability to write. In fact, he was highly intelligent,
studied issues deeply, knew exactly what his agenda
was and implemented his ideas with utmost care and
consideration.
"Reagan: A Life in Letters" reveals that he was intimately concerned
and knowledgeable. Another book, "Reagan: In His Own Hand," a compilation of his writings, is
self-evident. Not to mention that Peggy Noonan, Bruce
Hirschenson and others who aided in editing for
Reagan will tell you that he wrote almost all of his
own speeches, columns and radio commentaries well
before he became president in 1980. But the CBS
miniseries would have you believe that he was
incapable of such efforts.
My Own Experience, My Own
Reflections
On many occasions, I would sit with
Sam Cohen, the father of the neutron bomb, and
Laurence Beilenson, author of "The Treaty
Trap," and Laurence would share with us
handwritten letters and exchanges between himself and
the president on vital current issues. The letters
were amazing, but most of all they demonstrated the
president's exceptional communication skills and
understanding of world affairs.
It is amazing to me that anyone
with an objective viewpoint could not acknowledge
Reagan's momentous eight-year presidency, filled with
events a less formidable man could not have endured:
the astounding near-death assassination attempt, the
enormous arms buildup, his diplomatic confrontation
with Moscow, his reformation of economic policy, his
re-election, two off-year elections, attending to
guerrilla warfare and terrorism worldwide.
Meanwhile, his detractors in this
phony CBS presentation attack Reagan as inattentive
to his staff, hard-hearted, neglectful of the AIDS
epidemic, with a bossy wife, and all the rest of
their manufactured myths.
Let me remind them it was Reagan
who initiated our massive defense buildup. He
deployed Pershing and Cruise missiles in Europe. He
sent weapons and other assistance to anti Communist
guerrillas fighting for self-determination in
Afghanistan, Angola and Nicaragua. These measures
were fiercely resisted by his liberal detractors, who
now not only decry Reagan's policies as
confrontational and likely to lead to nuclear war,
but also are shot through with jealously of the great
love he enjoys from the people, of whom he said,
"You have made me proud to call myself an
American."
Most of the individuals who have
come to a distorted picture of Reagan have not known
him as I have almost from the beginning. They never
met his father, John, his mother, Nelle, or his
brother, Neil. They didn't begin as those of us who
were children of the Depression began, trying to
scratch out a living, working in the fields of the
Midwest, harvesting, threshing, milking the cows and
slopping the hogs -- trying to keep body and soul
together and struggling to get an education. That
experience built fiber that separated the men from
the boys, and together we all dreamed of a better
world.
I recall Dutch Reagan, a sports
broadcaster on WHO Des Moines, covering the Cubs at
their summer training on Catalina Island; serving as
a lifeguard, reportedly pulling 77 kids out of watery
situations; then on to a movie career (we know of his
superb efforts as president of the Screen Actors
Guild, where he was an expert on parliamentary
procedure).
All of this, plus so much more,
contributed to the building of the man whose path in
life weaved its way in and out of learning
experiences, always with an eye toward and an
understanding of government and politics. My friend
Doris Day said she dated Ronnie and when I asked,
"How'd it go?" she said, "He was a
great dancer, a lot of fun ... but the trouble was,
he never stopped talking politics, and frankly it
became a bore."
There is so much to tell you of my
personal contacts on a day-to-day basis with this
amazing man -- his labor negotiations, his
understanding of the Communist threat, the memorable
speech for Goldwater, his plea for smaller
government, tax reduction, a strong military, his
passion for adhering to our Constitution ... or the
times when Ronnie and I combined our efforts on a
series of editorials and commentaries when he was
between assignments and before becoming governor of
California.
One says it best when thinking of
Reagan: He makes you proud to be an American. He
inspires PRIDE in America, LOVE of America.
Reagan's accomplishments are so
numerous, yet building the military and the Strategic
Defense Initiative (SDI) made the difference. CBS,
how about telling THAT story -- just one amazing
achievement of so many to one of the greatest
presidents of all time. I believe he's the only real
leader we've had since FDR.
There's no puzzle here. There's no
myth. Longtime colleagues and associates know Ronnie
best. Come to us, CBS, if you want the real story. If
you want to know about sovereignty of our nation, how
to cut taxes and interest rates, how to build the
military and our defense, listen to Ronald Reagan and
you'll understand why the majority of us take such
pride in America and in true leadership when we
recognize it.
There is so much to say, so little
time to say it. If we remember nothing else, let his
words resound throughout all time: "Mr.
Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Remember, too,
what Margaret Thatcher said: "Reagan ended
Communism and won World War III without firing a
single shot."
Ronnie, in your silent solitude,
know that every American patriot and much of the
world loves you for your deeds. Whenever I think of
Ronnie, the words shout: "DUTY, HONOR,
COUNTRY!"
This reporter has never subscribed
to boycott, but where CBS and this phony miniseries
on Reagan is concerned, I think the American people
are unforgiving ... and will not forget!
Nancy, go get 'em!
Related Links:
Nancy Reagan Should Sue CBS Drudge: Script Proves CBS Will Smear Reagan
Editor's Note:
Get Reagan books at NewsMax's special low price and
get 4 months of NewsMax Magazine FREE:
"Reagan: A Life in Letters"
"Reagan: In His Own Hand"
* * * * * *
The legendary George Putnam is 89
years young and a veteran of 69 years as a reporter,
broadcaster and commentator ... and is still going
strong. George is part of the all-star line-up of
Southern California's KPLS Radio – Hot Talk AM
830. Click here for George's complete bio.
Editor's note:
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Read more on this subject in
related Hot Topics:
CBS The Reagans
Media Bias
The War Over
the Gipper
Conservatives
erupt. CBS cowers. The director walks. The untold
story behind the meltdown of ‘The Reagans’
mini-series
By Sean Smith
and Marc Peyser
NEWSWEEK
Nov. 10 issue
— President
Reagan is lounging in his pajamas trying to watch TV
when Nancy starts that old argument again. “Al
Haig’s got to go,” she tells Ron. Nancy
never liked Haig, and now she’s needling her
husband again. “You know what he did when you
were in the hospital?” she asks. “I know he
thought he was going to take control, but that’s
not so bad,” Ron says amiably, between bites of
an Oreo. Finally, she swoops in front of the
president, placing her blood-red nightgown between
him and the television, and gets him where it hurts
most. “Get rid of Al, Ronnie, or you’re
never going to end the cold war!” Bingo.
“All right!” he says. “Now get off my
goddamn back, will you?”
YOU THINK that
fight sounds ugly? It’s nothing compared to the
brawl over CBS’s “The Reagans.” This
mini-series (scheduled for Nov. 16), is full of
scenes from a marriage like the one above, some of
them loving, a few of them nasty and many of them
certain to tick people off. Two weeks after a leaked
script ignited protests, “The Reagans” has
become radioactive—and nobody’s even seen
it yet. A Web site called boycottcbs.com recorded
more than 45,000 hits in less than a week. Such
commentators as Bill O’Reilly have made
“The Reagans” the plat du jour on
their menus, and the Republican National Committee
now demands that CBS let historians vet the show. But
the ugliest battle is inside CBS itself. Stars Judy
Davis and James Brolin decline to do any press.
Director Robert Allan Ackerman has opted out of the
editing, and CBS executives are now cutting it
themselves. As one person close to the film says,
“It’s being edited with a machete.”
Sources tell NEWSWEEK that the network has even
considered selling the $9 million film to Showtime.
What’s even more
amazing is that none of this happened sooner.
“The Reagans” was always meant to be a
warts-and-all portrait of an American icon, with
ample attention to the president’s hands-off
approach to governing, his wife’s
behind-the-scenes power plays and their estrangement
from their children. Still, CBS thought the movie
was, so to speak, fair and balanced. It credits
Reagan with defeating the Soviet Union, and its
central theme is the First Couple’s love affair.
The script was vetted by two teams of lawyers, and
producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, who would not
be interviewed by NEWSWEEK, have insisted that every
fact (though not every line of dialogue) is supported
by at least two sources. Before a New York Times
story last month detailed conservatives’
complaints, network executives reportedly loved the
movie. “They all thought it was brilliant,”
says someone who worked on the film.
But the day the
Times’s story broke—”The Reagans”
crew calls it “Black Tuesday”—the
movie instantly became trouble. CBS chairman Leslie
Moonves, who approved both the script and a juicy
eight-minute trailer, ordered the lawyers to look at
the movie again, and asked for assurances that the
facts were all in order. When he was told everything
was fine, Moonves started editing anyway. “There
are things we think go too far,” he told
CNBC’s Tina Brown last week. (Moonves also
declined to be interviewed by NEWSWEEK.) At that
point, Ackerman removed himself from the editing in
protest and the actors stopped talking. “Nobody
seems to know what’s going on,” Ackerman
told NEWSWEEK. “Whatever is going on is going on
very secretly.”
As of late last week,
the film had been through at least three edits. The
most incendiary line—where Nancy asks the
president to do more for AIDS victims and he replies,
“They that live in sin shall die in
sin”—has been cut. So has footage of a
young Ron Reagan Jr. doing ballet. (Go figure.) Most
of the other cuts come from Nancy’s scenes. For
all the concern about how the president is portrayed,
Davis’s take on Nancy looks like Lady Macbeth in
a couture dress. “The film version is so
milquetoast compared to what her daughter
wrote,” says Carl Anthony, a producer of the
film who once wrote speeches for Nancy.
“It’s odd to me when people get all worked
up, because it’s called a dramatization. They
forget what that means.”
Will the changes satisfy
skeptics? Don’t bet on it. “I had some
Republican call me yesterday,” says Jeff Wald,
Brolin’s manager. “He said, ‘You guys
should be ashamed of yourselves. He has
Alzheimer’s and can’t defend himself.’
Could Jackie Kennedy defend herself when they did the
movie on her?” Michael Paranzino, who launched
boycottcbs.com, says nothing short of a complete
remake would get him to cancel his campaign. “I
think they should pull it from November,” he
says, “bring in consultants who aren’t
hostile to Reagan and try to come up with a truly
balanced picture.” Of course if CBS does dump
the movie on Showtime—both owned by
Viacom—much of the heat would dissipate into the
cable ether. But some who worked on the film worry
about the long-term implications of “The
Reagans” controversy. “This is
censorship,” says one source. “A pressure
group has had a major network rip this movie to
shreds.” But we can look forward to one fun
outcome: the director’s-cut DVD.
© 2003 Newsweek,
Inc.
MERV GRIFFIN
DEFENDS REAGANS
Sun Nov 02 2003
16:42:53 ET
MSNBC's SCARBOROUGH
JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST: Merv, thanks so much for being
with us and entering SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY again. It's
great to see you.
MERV GRIFFIN, REAGAN FAMILY FRIEND: It is great to
talk to you, Joe.
My word, what a little passing remark did on your
show this past summer, when I said I just heard
through the television grapevine that they are
actually writing a hatchet movie on Ronald Reagan. I
can't believe that. What's happened to everybody?
SCARBOROUGH: Oh, I know. And, Merv, when you were on
our show this past summer from L.A., you told me. You
said, you are just not going to believe what they are
doing to Ronald Reagan.
But I have got to ask you, is it even worse than you
expected this summer?
GRIFFIN: Oh, much worse. I have seen some of the
promos, where Nancy screams at -- screams -- that
fragile, wonderful woman doesn't scream -- screaming
at all the White House aides.
Then, we all have read parts of the script on The
Drudge Report, John Ruttenberg's (ph) wonderful
column in "The New York Times," with scenes
from the movie. It is a disgrace. And I can't believe
the publicity that CBS is putting out. I saw an
interview the other night with Les Moonves. And he
said: Well, I don't understand all the flak.
He said that in essence. I'm not quoting him exactly.
Because, he said, the movie is -- nobody has seen it.
It is in the editing room. So we are taking scenes
out and everything.
But every network that I have ever done a television
movie for -- and I have produced a few -- you go to
the television movie department. They order the
script. You tell them what -- you pitch the idea.
They order the script. You read the script. The
network makes changes. I don't like this. I don't
like that.
They don't go out and shoot the movie with the
existing script if they don't like the tenor of the
whole thing. That is foolishness to me.
SCARBOROUGH: Yes, it certainly is.
GRIFFIN: That is a cop-out of the worst kind, a
cop-out of the worst kind.
SCARBOROUGH: Yes. You are very close to Nancy Reagan.
And I tell my friends, one of the most exciting
things that happened to me in the past several years
is when you said, hey, Joe, let me call Nancy for
you. You dialed her on the cell phone. You put her
on. It was a remarkable moment for me.
But you all have been close for such a long time. How
is your dear friend, Nancy Reagan, holding up against
CBS' slanderous attack, not only on her dying
husband, but also on her personally?
GRIFFIN: Well, she doesn't understand it.
Her days are filled with caretaker duties for a man
who is in the last stages of Alzheimer's, lying on
his bed, doesn't know anybody, doesn't know Nancy. I
guess he stares at the ceiling all day. long. Nancy
has been there for nine years. That is how long this
disease has taken, and holding his hand. And when he
can have a meal, she eats with him. She has never
left his side, other than when we get her out and
say: Come on, Nancy. You have got to get out. Go to
dinner, go to lunch, see a movie, do something.
And she will consent once in a while. But always,
there's a time restriction: I have to be home at
exactly 9:00, because Ronnie may wake up.
She doesn't understand it. Nobody understands it.
SCARBOROUGH: And theirs is one of the great...
SCARBOROUGH: Go ahead.
GRIFFIN: It is cowardly. It is absolutely cowardly.
Why would they do it, when they know that both the
president and Nancy can't answer back? I have gone to
all -- I have called all of the friends. I have
called various assistants who I have met throughout
the years of Ronald Reagan. Nobody has ever been
consulted about this.
So, where are they getting this junk?
SCARBOROUGH: Yes.
SCARBOROUGH: And Ronald and Nancy Reagan's love story
is such a remarkable story. They have been so
faithful, so devoted to each other.
GRIFFIN: Absolutely.
SCARBOROUGH: And to put Nancy Reagan through this at
the end of Ronald Reagan's life, just, it seems
despicable. And you know something else that is
despicable is what they are doing to Ronald Reagan,
when he can't back. CBS make the president out to be
a bigot and a homophobe, with lines like this one
about gays and AIDS.
GRIFFIN: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: They have Reagan this -- Reagan saying
-- quote -- "They that live in sin shall die in
sin."
And every time I read that, I laugh, because
everybody that's known Ronald Reagan says, that's not
the way the man spoke. Have you ever heard anything
hateful or any bigoted statements coming out of the
mouth of Ronald Reagan?
GRIFFIN: Never. Never.
And I think the scriptwriter of this movie has
already admitted she put those words in his mouth.
And I think the lawyers have advised CBS to take that
out. And I think they have. That, I'm not sure of,
but who knows.
But there's so much behind this. Why now? First of
all, it is sweeps month. That's when the networks put
on all of their greatest shows, they say. And, of
course, they get ratings and they make money. There's
an AP story out today -- I just read it -- in our
local "Desert" paper here, "The Desert
Sun." And it says that CBS has said, well, media
research has reported to us we are probably going to
make a lot of money and get a lot of ratings.
But they forget that the public is smart. The public
knows when somebody is being trashed. And they don't
forget. The public knew out in California when they
elected Arnold Schwarzenegger that it was time to get
back to somebody without all of that political
history and shouting and yelling. They know. And
that's why they elected Arnold.
It's the same with the Reagans. If this plays, they
are going to know what CBS is doing. First of all, we
all know -- and it has been printed in The Drudge
Report -- that Les Moonves is a great friend of Bill
Clinton's. There's pictures of Bill all over his
office and stuff. Is that going to be their next
movie, the Bill Clinton trash story and Hillary? I
don't think so.
SCARBOROUGH: No, of course it won't. Yes.
GRIFFIN: That's right. It is election time. There's
all kinds of political junk in the air. The
Democratic nominees are yelling at each other, which
the public won't forget at election time. The stuff
that's going on, trashing each other, is awful. But
does this have to be done? No, it doesn't. Awful.
SCARBOROUGH: Merv Griffin, nobody...
SCARBOROUGH: Go ahead.
GRIFFIN: I want to tell something I have never told
before. OK, they report that one of the scenes in the
movie is when he calls himself the Antichrist on the
day the Marine bodies were being returned from
Lebanon. He said: I am the Antichrist.
Well, the beauty of it was, I spent that day with
them prior to him going to Andrews Air Force Base to
greet the bodies coming home from Lebanon, and then
all the parent were there. He was devastated. He had
nothing to say about the Antichrist. He didn't -- he
doesn't talk like that. He was simply devastated.
I went back. I had lunch, just the three of us. We
talked in the afternoon. He talked a great deal about
it. It is just -- that's one scene that I was on the
spot and know that that never happened.
SCARBOROUGH: And, of course, if CBS, if anybody from
CBS had called you up and asked you about any of
these scenes, you could have set them straight. But,
as you have said tonight, they haven't called
anybody. They are apparently not interested in
getting the facts.
GRIFFIN: No.
SCARBOROUGH: Now, you know more about television and
the television industry than anybody out there.
Certainly, somebody at CBS, Les Moonves, somebody has
to understand that slandering a dying man is not --
it may be a good ratings ploy in the short run, but
doesn't that damage a network's credibility over
time?
GRIFFIN: Of course it does. Of course it does.
And CBS has always been a distinguished network. The
network itself skews older than ABC and NBC. They
have an older audience. That older audience are the
same ones who loved Ronald Reagan, still love him.
What are they going to think? That's not something
you do in there. It's shocking.
SCARBOROUGH: Yes. I want to talk about some of the
inaccuracies that are in the movie and have you
respond.
SCARBOROUGH: And, of course, we talked about how the
screenwriter made up a quote about Reagan on AIDS. Of
course, they say Reagan gave Hollywood names to the
FBI blacklist, which is unsubstantiated, that he
based missile defense on a 1940s movie that he was
in. They say Nancy beat their daughter Patti and also
say that Nancy was hooked on pills. And they say that
Ronnie developed Alzheimer's way back in 1984, when
he was still president.
GRIFFIN: That's right, in 1984, when he issued a
public statement saying the greatest enemy in America
is AIDS.
SCARBOROUGH: Right.
GRIFFIN: His greatest part of his presidency -- well,
first of all, the first term was all about the
economics, rescuing it from the Democratic Party, who
had administered America before that. And if you
remember, I think wasn't unemployment at 18 percent
and interest rate, 21 percent?
So they laughingly in the press called it
Reaganomics, his ideas for switching around and
changing it all. And, all of a sudden, Reaganomics
became real, because it was a great recovery, great
economic recovery for America. And everybody
appreciated it.
Look at all he did in his second term. You tell me he
had Alzheimer's and was gaga? That was when he met
with Khrushchev, that famous meeting. You saw him
coming out of the door in Reykjavik and angry at
Gorbachev. You saw him saying, tear down the wall.
You saw all of the great things. Then, I spent a lot
of time after his presidency. When they came home, I
said: Come on, I'm going to take you -- I have an
island down in the Bahamas called Paradise Island. We
are going to go down there and have a vacation, took
them down for three weeks.
Believe me, he never had any symptoms of Alzheimer's
at all.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, I'll tell you what. We have got to
go to break right now. And I want you to hold that
thought.
I do have to say, though, it is very interesting that
Ronald Reagan, in effect, won the Cold War at
Reykjavik, and after 1984. So it would be quite an
interesting story if he won the greatest battle of
our time while he had Alzheimer's. It's just
ridiculous.
SCARBOROUGH: I'm back with Hollywood legend and
Reagan family friend Merv Griffin.
Now, Merv, before the break, you were going to talk a
little bit more about Ronald Reagan and Alzheimer's.
Go ahead.
GRIFFIN: There was a lot of confusion after his
presidency, because people thought that he sometimes
acted strange.
Well, I know what the problem was. He came to my
son's wedding. And it was a beautiful wedding. And I
had Jack Sheldon, the trumpet player, and his
orchestra there. And the president and Nancy were at
our table and all the families. They always showed up
for longtime family-friends events and everything.
Really sweet. They loved family events.
And so, at one point, I looked over at the president
at the table. And he was looking very strange to me.
And I said to him, is everything all right? And he
looked at me kind of funny. And then he went --
meaning the trumpet. You see, he couldn't hear
anybody was saying at the table, because the trumpet
player, on his notes, were getting into his hearing
aid, which blocked out everything else.
And that often happened at parties, where you would
talk to him, but he didn't quite understand what you
were saying, because all the peripheral noise was
taking the lead in his hearing aid. So that confused
him. But when you were sitting one on one and alone,
there was no confusion at all. He just had terrible
problems with those things. GRIFFIN: Clinton had two
of them. But by the time Bill Clinton got his hearing
aids, they were a great deal more modern and up to
date.
SCARBOROUGH: Right.
Now, when I mentioned the personal attacks on Nancy
Reagan before, you grimaced, because of the lies they
are telling about her. And, as you know, a massive
boycott is under way. And you just mentioned that CBS
Les Moonves is on the run. Here is what he had to say
about changing the movie.
LES MOONVES, PRESIDENT, CBS: No. 1, nobody has seen
the film. So any criticism now, in the middle of
October, for a film that is not finished is rather
odd, we think.
Look, we have looked -- like we do with every movie,
we have looked at the rough cut. There are things we
like about the movie. There are things we don't like
about the movie. There are things we think go too
far. So there are some edits being made, trying to
present a more fair picture of the Reagans.
SCARBOROUGH: Has Nancy Reagan been heartened the
outpouring of support for her and her husband during
this awful ordeal?
GRIFFIN: Yes, she is very -- she is so pleased that
everybody -- she had no idea what a firestorm it
would have created. She saw you on last night's show.
And she saw the young boy, Mike Paranzino, on. And
she was overwhelmed that she had a Web page,
BoycottCBS.
A lot of the things that people have been presenting,
how you can get to CBS and do something about it, or
the sponsors, it really -- it's been very moving for
her. But she understands. She knows what the First
Amendment is. She knows that you can come out and
trash anybody if they are a public person.
SCARBOROUGH: She obviously was in the spotlight, not
only as a first lady of California, but also as a
first lady of the United States. She understands it
is tough. But, certainly, she has to even think
herself, knowing all of that, that this is just way
over the line, this slander of a dying president.
GRIFFIN: Yes. Right.
And she understands political clashes and all of that
kind of stuff that happens. But she doesn't
understand cruelty. And I think that is where -- what
we all feel who know her.
SCARBOROUGH: Yes.
GRIFFIN: She is a delightful, wonderful woman. And
the way they portray her is pretty sickening.
The public is starting to react to it. I know that
young man said his Web page is just filling up. He
had no idea. It is a great watchdog kind of idea. I
would hope they would do something about it. But, in
that statement by Les Moonves, that is not the way
television works. At the expense of shooting a movie,
you don't shoot the whole movie and say, oh, no, we
have to cut scenes out here, cut this out, cut this
out, cut this.
That is very expensive to do. They would have seen
that in the script. The overall picture of the script
is trash. It's a hatchet job. And you wonder why...
SCARBOROUGH: I'm sorry.
Oprah Winfrey had Barbra Streisand on her show
recently and asked about her husband, James Brolin,
playing Ronald Reagan. And this is something you
talked to me about before.
And Oprah said: "How's that for you, Ms.
Democrat? Yes." And Barbra Streisand replied
with a smile and said, "I said, well, as long as
they tell the truth about Ronald Reagan, I have no
problem." Oprah got the joke and said, "OK,
OK, all right, Streisand." And then Streisand
replied: "So, yes, it's also very funny. I mean,
it's funny."
Merv, can you believe that Hollywood liberals would
find it funny to beat up on this great man, when he
is lying on his deathbed. And I will just be really
blunt with you. What has Barbra Streisand done,
because Ronald Reagan freed a continent and destroyed
the Soviet Union?
GRIFFIN: Well, she gives benefits to raise money for
candidates in the Democratic Party. That's what she
does. And I think she would like to be head of the
Democratic Party or something else.
But it is very strange. If she had all that inside
information on how do you treat him and I hope they
portray him as he really is, well, how does she know?
She has never met Ronald Reagan, unless she has got
special antennas up there.
SCARBOROUGH: Yes, I don't think she does. I don't
think she does.
GRIFFIN: No. And The Drudge Report said she was on
the set every day. And I know Barbra. She likes to
come in and change everything. I'm sure she changed a
few lines, and usually lights.
Yes, I think there's an involvement there. I think
there's a big back-plan on all of this. Maybe we will
see her doing a special on CBS. Who knows.
SCARBOROUGH: Who knows. Well, that would be very
curious if she did.
One final question. Again, you are very close with
Nancy Reagan. You've been very close with President
Reagan for some time. What should Americans do out
there to let the Reagans know how much they mean to
them and how hurt they are by what CBS is doing with
this movie? What should an average, ordinary American
like me or somebody in Kansas or somebody in Maine
that loves Ronald Reagan, what should they do?
GRIFFIN: Write to the president of CBS, New York
City, and just tell him exactly how you feel.
END
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT
XXXXX NOV 02, 2003 19:45:18 ET XXXXX
STREISAND DRAWS DISTANCE FROM 'REAGANS'; CBS
CONSIDERS NEWS SUPPLEMENT; MORE SCENES REVEALED
**Exclusive Details**
SingerActorDirectorProducerMotherActivist Barbra
Streisand this weekend distanced herself from any
involvement in CBS-TV's upcoming film THE REAGANS,
although the film stars her husband and is being
produced by Streisand frequent collaborators, Craig
Zadan and Neil Meron.
"Ms. Streisand has never even read the
script!" Streisand declared on her website's
Truth Alert
[leading readers to believe that she first became
aware of multiple, specific script scenes from the
DRUDGE REPORT.]
Controversy continues to swirl around the movie, set
for air later this month, with CBS now considering a
"news supplement" addition tagged to the
end of the two-part film, to both fill time from late
edits made to the project, and to cool cries of
heavy-handed political bias at the network.
Meanwhile, Reagan daughter Patty Davis is considering
a public comment of concern over liberties taken by
CBS in telling the story of Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
CBS's senior vice president of movies and miniseries,
Bela Bajaria, is being blamed internally at the
network for the growing backlash against the project,
CBS sources said this weekend.
"Look, it was going to be about the Reagans and
their family," a senior network source said.
"A love story! We lost control of it... it
transformed. Politics was seasoned in. What was
delivered is not what was pitched to me or anyone
else here, that I am aware of."
Bajaria told the LOS ANGELES TIMES last summer that
in REAGANS she wanted to tell "an amazing love
story that spans four decades."
"We don't expect this to be controversial,"
she explained.
****
p. 180 of final REAGANS script-- SCENE WITH DON REGAN
TALKING TO MICHAEL DEAVER ABOUT NANCY
REGAN: So, Deaver -- tell me. You've known Madame
Fuhrer a lot longer than I have. How the hell do you
manage to put up with her?
****
Last week in Los Angeles former First Lady Nancy
Reagan was being described by close friends as
"discouraged" over the film, as
controversial new details emerge.
One of the most painful accusations raised in the CBS
movie is that President Reagan was suffering from
Alzheimer's disease -- 9 years before he was
diagnosed, a charge Nancy has told friends is an
outrageous lie!
p. 185-186 -- SCENE WITH NANCY TALKING TO DR. HUTTON,
THE REAGANS' PHYSICIAN, AFTER REAGAN'S CANCER SURGERY
IN JULY 1985
INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR --
Nancy talking to Dr. Hutton:
DR. HUTTON: The good news is, we caught it at an
early stage. Now all he needs is a little radiation,
and he should be fine.
Pause.
NANCY: Doctor... do you think this could explain why
Ronnie... I mean, some of his behavior...
DR. HUTTON: What behavior?
NANCY: His... his forgetfulness... and he's... he's
tired, all the time...
DR. HUTTON: You'd be forgetful and tired, if you were
President of the United States.
NANCY: Yes... but he's not the same... something's
wrong.
DR. HUTTON: Don't worry, Mrs. Reagan. If something
were wrong, we'd know about it. Say, that "Just
Say No" program of yours is getting a lot of
play, isn't it?
NANCY: Doctor, I'm trying to tell you, Ronnie's not
well...
DR. HUTTON: Of course he's not well, he's just had
surgery for cancer. Once he gets back on his feet --
maybe a little vacation -- you'll see. He'll be fine.
He's a warhorse.
NANCY (trying to believe him): Thank you, Doctor.
He gives her arm a squeeze, and heads down the hall.
Nancy stands there, trying to collect herself. Kathy
Osborne comes up to her with a cup of tea.
NANCY'S ASSISTANT: Here's your tea. It's a little
strong, but you can add some more milk to it, and it
will be fine.
Nancy turns to her, bitterly:
NANCY: Everybody keeps saying that. "It's fine.
Everything's fine," they tell me. (pause) Well,
everything is not fine. It's not fine. It's not.
****
Also of major concern is the impression that Ronald
Reagan was homophobic, which is referenced throughout
the script.
P. 123, Backstage at a performance of the Joffrey
Ballet where young Ron is performing.
INT. BACKSTAGE -- THEATER -- NIGHT
The Secret Service move Nancy and Reagan THRU A CRUSH
OF DANCERS, MEDIA, WELL-WISHERS toward the men's
dressing room
INT. MEN'S DRESSING ROOM -- CONTINUING
It's backstage at the Moulin Rouge. Mirrors, shadowy
lights... MALE DANCERS in various states of undress,
showering, getting dressed for a night of parties, as
the Secret Service explodes into the room to check it
over...
RON: Oh Christ. Sorry, everybody -- it's my parents.
Suddenly the door opens, the Reagans are whooshed
into the room. The dancers freeze, in genuine awe.
Reagan tries to cover his discomfort:
REAGAN: It's okay, boys. It's only us, and God knows,
we've seen plenty of dressing rooms. Don't be
embarrassed.
But the dancers are embarrassed, especially as the
room fills with PHOTOGRAPHERS AND REPORTERS, catching
Nancy as she runs over to Ron, and plants a big kiss
right on his lips:
NANCY: Oh, Ron! You were so wonderful!
RON: Thanks, Mom.
Reagan stares uncomfortably at Ron's make-up (reds,
greens, yellows, a la Nureyev) and sticks out his
hand, man-to-man.
REAGAN: Yes, sir. You were always a natural athlete.
Football, basketball. (loudly) You're all boy.
NANCY: (gushing) Ron, we had no idea -- did we,
Ronnie -- we had no idea how great you were!
RON: No, I'm not great. I started too late. But I
love it. Mom. I do.
REAGAN: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly. There was nothing
wrong with them, either, Strong. Stronger than most
fullbacks. Did I ever tell you about the time I had
dinner with Gene?
RON: Doria! Come in!
Ron's talking to Doria (his wife), who has appeared
in the doorway. She smiles, shyly.
NEWSPAPER HEADLINES --
Newspaper photo of Reagan, Nancy, Doria, and Ron all
smiling broadly, arms around each other. The headline
blares: "He's Not Gay, Says Proud Papa."
-----------------------------------
Developing...
-----------------------------------------------------------
Filed By Matt Drudge
Reports are moved when circumstances warrant
http://www.drudgereport.com for updates
(c)DRUDGE REPORT 2003
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT
XXXXX TUE, NOV 04, 2003 17:09:32 ET XXXXX
CBS: 'REAGAN' FILM WAS BIASED
**Exclusive**
CBS head Les Moonves made the ultimate
decision to pull THE REAGANS off the November
schedule after concluding the film was
"biased" against the former president, top
sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.
"It just doesn't work," Moonves told
staffers in a bold move of conscience. "Listen,
we are not afraid of controversy, we'd go out there
if it came in at 50-50, pro and con, but it simply
isn't working. It's biased."
Moonves, a self-described liberal democrat, on
Tuesday took full responsibility for canceling the
movie, sources tell DRUDGE. "He made up his own
mind after seeing it," a top source said.
"He's made a brave, decisive move."
Meanwhile, REAGANS producers are feeling great
disillusionment with CBS and the entire series of
events, it has been learned.
"We got a call from a midlevel flunky at CBS
telling us to get it ready for SHOWTIME,"
reveals a source close to the production team of
Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.
Developing...
-----------------------------------------------------------
Filed By Matt Drudge
Reports are moved when circumstances warrant
http://www.drudgereport.com for updates
(c)DRUDGE REPORT 2003
CBS Statement
Regarding 'The Reagans'
Tuesday November 4, 11:53 am ET
NEW YORK, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/ --
"CBS will not broadcast THE REAGANS on November
16 and 18. This decision is based solely on our
reaction to seeing the final film, not the
controversy that erupted around a draft of the
script.
Although the mini-series features
impressive production values and acting performances,
and although
the producers have sources to verify each scene in
the script, (Bob's Note: In some of the articles
above there is factual evidence that this sentence is
simply a lie to save face for CBS), we believe it does
not present a balanced
portrayal of the Reagans for CBS and its audience.
Subsequent edits that we considered did not address
those concerns.
A free broadcast network, available
to all over the public airwaves, has different
standards than media the public must pay to view. We
do, however, recognize and respect the filmmakers'
right to have their voice heard and their film seen.
As such, we have reached an agreement to license the
exhibition rights for the film to Showtime, a
subscriber-based, pay-cable network. We believe this
is a solution that benefits everyone involved.
This was not an easy decision to
make. CBS does tackle controversial subjects and
provide tough assessments of prominent historical
figures and events, as we did with films such as
'Jesus,' '9-11' and 'Hitler.' We will continue to do
so in the future."
Source: CBS
Copyright
© 2003 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2003 PR
Newswire. All rights
reserved.
Patti Davis on why
the Ronald Reagan depicted in the biopic is nothing
like the father she knows
Tuesday, Nov. 04, 2003
'The Reagans,' From One of Them
By PATTI DAVIS
Finally, CBS is doing the right
thing about "The Reagans." Under pressure
the network has decided not to air the two-part
biopic, steering it instead to the cable outlet
Showtime (like CBS, owned by Viacom). But just
because a far smaller audience will now see the film
(Showtime draws maybe a million viewers on a top
night) doesn’t make this story any more
accurate. According to the screenplay for “The
Reagans,” my father is a homophobic
Bible-thumper who loudly insisted that his son
wasn’t gay when Ron took up ballet, and who in a
particularly scathing scene told my mother that AIDS
patients deserved their fate. “They who live in
sin shall die in sin,” the writers and producers
had him say.
CBS execs say the line about AIDS
victims has now been deleted. I asked Bert Fields,
one of America’s best known entertainment
attorneys, who is not my lawyer but is a friend, to
call CBS head Les Moonves and point out how painful
the line was. My mother, through her attorney Ira
Revitch, also wrote to Mr. Moonves asking for its
removal. Not only did my father never say such a
thing, he never would have. If you have any doubts,
read the recently published book of his letters. They
reveal a man whose compassion for other people is
deep and earnest, and whose spiritual life is based
on faith in a loving God, not a vengeful one.
I was about eight or nine years old
when I learned that some people are gay —
although the word ‘gay’ wasn’t used in
those years. I don’t remember what defining word
was used, if any; what I do remember is the clear,
smooth, non-judgmental way in which I was told. The
scene took place in the den of my family’s
Pacific Palisades home. My father and I were watching
an old Rock Hudson and Doris Day movie. At the moment
when Hudson and Doris Day kissed, I said to my
father, “That looks weird.” Curious, he
asked me to identify exactly what was weird about a
man and woman kissing, since I’d certainly seen
such a thing before. All I knew was that something
about this particular man and woman was, to me,
strange. My father gently explained that Mr. Hudson
didn’t really have a lot of experience kissing
women; in fact, he would much prefer to be kissing a
man. This was said in the same tone that would be
used if he had been telling me about people with
different colored eyes, and I accepted without
question that this whole kissing thing wasn’t
reserved just for men and women.
You should know this story because
it’s something the producers Craig Zadan and
Neil Meron won’t tell you. They have exhibited
astounding carelessness and cruelty in their
depiction of my father and my entire family. They
never consulted any family member, nor did they speak
to anyone who has known us throughout the years. In
the New York Times on October 21st, one of the
writers admitted that the line about AIDS victims was
completely fabricated. In that same article, Jim
Rutenberg reported that the producers claimed no
major event was depicted without two confirming
sources.
When you are part of a public
family, a different standard applies. Every part of
your life is regarded as accessible. I accept things
that other people see as strange, like magazines and
news organizations compiling obituary pieces for my
father in 1994 after he wrote his now-famous letter
to the country saying he had Alzheimer’s.
Requests for an interview or article, to be held back
until the time of his passing, didn’t sting me
or even seem inappropriate. Death is a delicate
matter, but it will come, and my father is part of
history. It’s a far different thing to learn
that people who have never met you wrote a script
meant to eviscerate your family and it has now been
filmed and scheduled for broadcast.
Reading the script actually made me
feel better in some ways. It is, quite simply,
idiotic. Everyone is a caricature, manufactured and
inauthentic. My father is depicted as some demented
evangelist, going on about Armageddon every chance he
gets. My mother is cast as a female Attila the Hun,
and I and my siblings are unrecognizable to me. There
are absurdities, like depictions of Mike Deaver and
political aides camping out at our house during my
father’s early political career — in every
scene, there they are, hanging around the house day
and night. I suppose this is meant to explain why,
when my sister Maureen visits, my mother tells her to
sleep on the floor. Funny, but I have no recollection
of any of this. Nor do I remember conducting an
impromptu yoga class at my wedding reception. (I
promise you, no one at my wedding was chanting Om or
Shanti.)
But the idiocy of the script
can’t dilute the cruelty behind it. To
deliberately and calculatingly depict public people
as shallow, intolerant, cold and inept, with no
truths or facts to back up the portrayals, is nothing
short of malevolent. Many of the people depicted in
the script are dead — Lew Wasserman, my sister
Maureen, my grandparents, Don Regan. They can say
nothing about their portrayals. And my father,
obviously, cannot correct the lies told about him.
Consider the scene in a girls’
boarding school I supposedly was attending when my
father was elected governor of California (I was
never at an all-girls’ boarding school.) They
have a classmate saying to me, “Hitler’s
just been elected governor.” No one writes a
line like that with any other agenda except to wound.
Later in the script, Don Regan refers to my mother as
“Madame Fuhrer.” I’m quite sure he
never did, but the feelings of those behind this
project is made clear. Anger and vitriol always leak
through if you’re a writer with those demons
inside you.
I know a bit about that. In my
early career as a writer, I was an angry one. In 1992
when I wrote an autobiography, we were still a family
in turmoil and while I did write about healing and
letting go of the past, I still had a firm grip on
those grudges. Throughout the years, there have
occasionally been offers to purchase the rights to my
autobiography and I have always declined. Foolishly,
I believed I had control over my own material.
Apparently I don’t. There is a scene in
“The Reagans” in which my character steals
tranquilizers from my mother’s medicine cabinet.
I wrote about having done that and trading those
pills for amphetamines — an addiction that
ravaged me from the age of fifteen well into my
twenties. Many women in the Sixties were prescribed
tranquilizers, and my mother never noticed hers
missing, so she couldn’t have been using them
too often. You won’t get this context in the CBS
movie; they just wanted you to know there were drugs
on the premises.
My father would probably say,
“This too shall pass.” And it will. We will
continue to come to his bedside, knowing that death
waits in the doorway and will one day reach for him.
We will continue to cherish the fact that we walked
away from our old battlegrounds and discovered how
much better peace feels. We will look at each other
through the clear glass of the present, not the
mud-spatter of the past. What a pity the producers
missed out on that part of the story.
Patti Davis is currently working on
a novel
Copyright © 2003
Time Inc. All rights reserved.
A Sad Day for
Artistic Freedom
This section contains statements
and speeches by Ms. Streisand.
Posted on November 4, 2003
I am deeply disappointed that CBS,
the network that in 1964 gave me complete artistic
control in creating television specials, now caved in
to right wing Republican pressure to cancel the
network broadcast of the movie The Reagans. (And I
say MOVIE - because this is NOT a documentary - it's
a television drama.) The movie will now be aired on
Showtime, where the difference in viewership is in
the millions.
One can only imagine the kind of pressure that would
compel CBS to take such an extraordinary action. This
was an organized Republican spin machine at work.
Remember the Dixie Chicks controversy? It wasn't the
larger general public that called in to radio
stations and burned CDs, it was a small group of
right wing activists. In fact, now the band is more
popular than ever, with a sold out summer tour.
I don't believe Democrats often, if ever, try to
muscle the First Amendment like this. For example, in
1983, no one stopped NBC from airing Kennedy, a
biopic that portrayed President Kennedy and other
members of his family and administration as deeply
flawed, even though the movie could have potentially
been hurtful to Jackie Kennedy, who was still alive
to see it, as well as to her children.
This is censorship, pure and simple. Well, maybe not
all that pure. Censorship never is. Due to their
experience with the restrictive English government,
the framers of our constitution specifically included
a ban on prior restraint in the First Amendment,
which is an attempt to stop information from getting
out there before the public has a chance to see it at
all - exactly what is going on in this case. Of
course, CBS as a company has the legal right to make
decisions about what they do and do not air. However,
these important decisions should be based on artistic
integrity rather than an attempt to appease a small
group of vocal dissidents. Indeed, today marks a sad
day for artistic freedom - one of the most important
elements of an open and democratic society.
"This was
very important for me, to document everything and
give a very fair point of view," says Leslie
Moonves, the CBS chairman and a top Democrat
supporter [he sat next to Hillary Clinton during her
husband's re-nominating convention].
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT
XXXXX FRI OCT 24, 2003 09:42:38 ET XXXXX 
Actor James Brolin as
President Ronald Reagan poses on the set of CBS'
"The Reagans