AN ACT of intolerable cruelty is about to take place. In two weeks, CBS is set to air a shameful, slanderous, smear job of a miniseries that inaccurately portrays one of America's greatest presidents. "The Reagans" paints the 40th president as a callous conservative unsympathetic to the plight of those with AIDS and generally aloof of the responsibilities of the presidency. The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ed Gillespie, has asked CBS President Les Moonves to allow a group of presidential historians and close friends of Reagan to review the content of the miniseries before it airs. If CBS wishes to maintain any integrity as a fair and unbiased media institution, it should grant the request and hopefully alter the script to more accurately reflect the life of Ronald Reagan.
One of the biggest problems critics have with "The Reagans" is several fictitious statements the film's writers ascribe to the former president. A leaked copy of the final script contains scenes from the miniseries that allege that on the day the bodies of the U.S. Marines killed in the 1983 Beirut bombing were returned, Reagan uttered, "I am the Antichrist." In another scene Reagan is sitting with his wife discussing the growing AIDS epidemic, and Reagan purportedly says, "They that live in sin shall die in sin." The author of the screenplay for "The Reagans" openly admits that there is no evidence that Reagan made either of those statements. If such is the case, then those two statements have no place in a historically accurate miniseries about the man.
Obviously, the outcry is not solely focused on one or two controversial lines in the miniseries. What strikes at the heart of conservatives and even the millions of professed Democrats who voted for Reagan is CBS's pained attempt to paint a man who accomplished so much for this country as someone he most certainly was not. Though we now have a decade buffering our current place in time and the 1980s, has America really forgotten the real Ronald Reagan? The man cut taxes and adopted an economic policy that led to a recovery creating 20 million new jobs. Reagan led the United States to victory in the Cold War and solidified this country's place as the world's preeminent democracy.
Reagan will surely be remembered for his 1981 tax cut, and the incredible positive effects the legislation had on the economy, as well as famous lines like "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." However, the untold stories of Ronald Reagan are what made him not only a great president but a great man. In an article appearing in Human Events Online on October 31, Reagan's son, Michael, noted that, "The mini-series won't tell you the whole story about my dad's visit to Japan. When he learned that on the 747 on which he was traveling only the first-class section would be occupied, he went out and got families of servicemen 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 in over a year. They won't tell you how he took them to Japan and brought them back home on the plane without its costing them one cent."
Many defenders of the Reagan miniseries ponder why such a stink has been raised about the inaccuracies of the show. These people need a severe reality check. Ronald Reagan is 92 years old, crippled with Alzheimer's and living out his last days bedridden with his wife Nancy by his side. How exactly are the Reagans supposed to defend themselves against CBS's character assassination? Americans are not stupid. They know it's sweeps month for the networks, they know the miniseries is a ratings ploy and they know CBS is trying to cash in by taking the beloved former president out for a drive down Smearjob Lane.
If CBS does not honor RNC Chairman Gillsepie's request for an independent review of the miniseries before it airs, boycott the show and boycott the network. This isn't a matter of censorship -- it's a matter of historical accuracy and Hollywood's attempt to ruin the legacy of Ronald Reagan. Think twice before you "welcome home" CBS on Nov. 16 and 18.
(Joe Schilling's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at jschilling@cavalierdaily.com.)
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