CBS' Reagan Movie Widely Criticized for Inaccuracies
By Jimmy Moore
Talon News
October 27, 2003

CBS is scheduled to televise a miniseries depicting an openly liberal interpretation of the life of former conservative Republican President Ronald Reagan. In the two-part drama entitled "The Reagans," the conservative icon who is credited with helping win the Cold War and bringing about the defeat of communism in the 1980s is depicted as a heartless and sometimes absent-minded leader, according to Reagan supporters.

Reagan, who has been in failing health due to the onset of Alzheimer's disease since leaving Washington, is portrayed by left-wing Hollywood actor James Brolin. He is the husband to outspoken liberal activist Barbara Streisand, who was frequently on the set during the shooting of the movie.

Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, who produced the miniseries, say they confirmed every piece of information in the story with at least two sources. But they admitted to embellishing some portions of the story in order to make it more cinematically appealing. The final version of the movie was approved by the CBS legal department.

Meron and Zadan maintain that their liberal political stance as well as the actors in the movie does not show up in the movie as an unfair bias against Reagan.

"This is not a vendetta, this is not revenge," they told the New York Times. "It is about telling a good story in our honest sort of way. We all believe it's a story that should be told."

A spokesperson for the Reagans stated that they do not wish to comment on the CBS movie at this time. However, Nancy Reagan has asked television giant Merv Griffin to help her halt the broadcast of this movie until all of the inaccuracies are corrected, the Drudge Report posted on its website on Saturday.

Conservative radio talk show host Michael Reagan, son of the former president and his first wife, actress Jane Wyman, says the few excerpts of the upcoming CBS miniseries he has seen are an inaccurate and distorted view of his father's legacy and that his family is "all upset about it."

"It's horrendous, it's absolutely horrendous," he told FOX's Sean Hannity on Friday. "The eight minutes' worth of clips that I saw [showed] Nancy as the head of the government, and Dad was just the buffoon going along for the ride, with everybody laughing at him. It is so sad."

One of the most upsetting aspects of the movie to Michael Reagan is the profanity that it shows his father using.

"They also have my dad taking God's name in vain in an angry, angry way," he told Hannity. "They have him calling another person in anger an S.O.B."

He continued, "I've never seen my Dad that angry, and I've never heard him use the 'G-D' word in my life."

Michael Reagan says the obvious hatred the liberal left has for his father led them to create this fictitious movie about his life, including poking fun at his Alzheimer's disease.

"[Liberals] dislike my father, and you can see that," he continued with Hannity. "They actually infer that Alzheimer's was setting in at the time the whole thing was going on with Ollie North and Iran-Contra -- which is absurd."

In an interview with the New York Times, Marlin Fitzwater, one of Reagan's press secretaries during his eight-year term in office, inquired whether the major accomplishments of the Reagan presidency will be included in the broadcast.

"Does it show he had the longest and strongest recovery in postwar history?" he asked in the interview with the Times. "That the economy, stimulated by the tax cuts, was creating something like 200,000 jobs a month, for years?"

According to details of the script released to the press, there is nothing in the movie about how Reagan brought the United States an unprecedented period of economic growth and job expansion after the Jimmy Carter presidency.

In addition to Ronald Reagan, his wife Nancy is portrayed in an unflattering manner by actress Judy Davis. Although she is painted as a strongly supportive wife, she is also shown to display some odd characteristics.

The producers of the movie present her as a compulsive controller who relies on a psychic to guide her. In addition, they make her look like she is a physically abusive mother to her children and a prescription pill addict.

Also, according to the script, Nancy Reagan held control over many decisions in the White House, including decisions regarding public policy and staff changes.

Michael Reagan, who is the stepson of Nancy, said this depiction of her is "obscene."

"All the bad things you've heard about Nancy -- I mean, this show just hates her -- absolutely hates her," he told Hannity.

CBS, which has previously aired a mini-series on the life of Jesus Christ as well as another controversial one last spring on the life of Hitler, says this movie is historically accurate based on biographies and other sources.

"The miniseries is a compelling and historical account of Mr. and Mrs. Reagan's remarkable relationship set against the backdrop of the former president's political career," CBS representatives wrote in a statement. "The film has been meticulously researched and offers a respectful and balanced portrayal of the Reagans."

Representatives for the network say they will not back down and will still air the miniseries during the fall television sweeps on November 16 and 18 despite the swell of criticism they have been receiving.

CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves, who has long supported liberal Democrat politics, says airing this miniseries is necessary to represent Reagan in a way he believes is most accurate.

"This was very important for me, to document everything and give a very fair point of view," he told the New York Times.

But even portions of the miniseries have been found to be entirely false. In one scene, Reagan supposedly responds to a question about the plight of AIDS victims by quoting the Bible.

"They that live in sin shall die in sin," says Brolin in his role as Reagan in the movie.

Secretary of Defense under Reagan, Caspar Weinberger, said proclamations such as that are not typical of the man he served under.

"That does not sound like the President Reagan I know," Weinberger told Reuters. "I can't imagine him saying anything like that. He was not given to pronouncements of that kind or that pomposity."

In fact, the movie's playwright Elizabeth Egloff unashamedly concedes that she made that up for the movie.

Film critic and conservative radio talk show host Michael Medved says he is concerned about the impact this movie will have on the public perception of Reagan since modern society is so driven by the entertainment medium.

"The major source of media influence in our society isn't journalism; it's entertainment," he told The Washington Times. "The American public is a much more voracious consumer of entertainment media than of information media, and this show is a good example of it."

Former Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson is extremely skeptical that a liberal actor playing the role of his former boss will not present the role factually.

"It sure makes me suspicious," he told FOX News. "With James Brolin as Ronald Reagan, something is definitely up."

Robinson said that the liberal stereotype that Reagan was not an intelligent man will likely be embellished greatly for this movie.

"It sounds to me as though this script takes this idea that the man is tremendously appealing personally, that he's gifted with words, but that there's nothing in his head and he just somehow lucks into all the accomplishments of his presidency," he expressed to FOX News. "That's a preposterous notion."

He added, "They simply want to belittle the man. It's just outrageous."

Former senior policy advisor to Reagan, Martin Anderson, says the "left wing" is obsessed with trying to explain away the Reagan years as a political anomaly.

"The bottom line is I think if the left is so upset about Reagan 15 years after he left office, they've got a real problem," he concluded to the Washington Times.

Michael Reagan made light of the fact that Brolin was playing his father.

"I'm glad that Brolin has found a job. It gets him out of the house and gives him something to do," he wrote on his website. "Once again, Ronald Reagan has found work for someone in Hollywood."