Free Republic

An eye-opening four-part series reexamining one of the most powerful and polarizing political couples of our time. Award winning documentarian and journalist Matt Tyrnauer combines archival footage, exhaustive research and first-person accounts from the couple's inner circle to craft a revealing portrait of their unlikely rise from Hollywood to the presidency - and Nancy Reagan's powerful position at the helm of their unprecedented partnership. A story of power, its legacy and a political performance few knew until now.

About 10 days ago I watched the first part of a 4 part series on the life and times of Ronald and Nancy Reagan and posted about it here. This is my review of part 2 of the series. While part 1 showed him as greagarious, loveable and a bit of a buffoon part 2 got downright nasty. He is portrayed as a racist who used code words to scare white people into voting for him to halt the black scourge sweeping America. He was the original dog whistler, though his son (who is the worst ingrate) said he never...

This is the third part of a 4 part documentary on the life and times of Mr. and Mrs. Reagan. In this chapter they leave most but not all of the racism behind to show how he was a tool of industry, a union busting, regulation destroying corporate shill masquerading as a man of the people. And the people, of course, because they are stupid sheep who really need compassionate Democrats to lead them, ate it up and voted against their own self interest. They note how the Middle Class was destroyed, budget cuts were made at the expense of...

Finally got to watch the final episode of Showtime's documentary on The Reagans. This time he's presented as a man who used the fools of the religious right as a voting and fundraising scheme by lying to them about wanting to repeal Roe v Wade. Not sure if that was a strategy he thought up on his own or if it was orchestrated by Nancy's astrologer, who also figures prominently in this episode. We also found out that he only approved of the Strategic Defense Initiative because it reminded him of a movie he was in and how one sentence...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Capping an extraordinary conservative furor over a movie virtually no one has seen, CBS said Tuesday it will not air "The Reagans" and shunt it off to the Showtime cable network instead.

"This was a left-wing smear of one of the nation's most beloved presidents and CBS got caught," said Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center.

An upcoming CBS miniseries that reportedly casts former President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy in a negative light has prompted a boycott. A former chief of staff to a U.S. congressman has teamed with colleagues to set up a website urging television viewers not to watch the two-part series and boycott its advertisers for 30 days during the peak of the holiday shopping season. [Editor's note: Since the posting of this story, the Boycott CBS site has become inaccessible due to a system overload. A new site, with the same address, is expected to be running by Friday.] James...

TIME (ET/PT) TITLE RATING REMIND ME previous day next day 6:45 AM Diary Of A Madman 8:30 AM Deception (1993) 10:00 AM The Sum of Us 11:45 AM Hannah And Her Sisters 1:35 PM Roxanne 3:30 PM Enigma 5:30 PM What's Going On? : Street Kids 6:00 PM Men With Brooms 8:00 PM The Reagans 11:00 PM Captives 12:45 AM Beverly Hills Bordello : All Night Long 1:15 AM It's My Party 3:05 AM Passionate Deceptions 4:30 AM High Road To China THE REAGANS RATING: TVPG - L SHOWTIME ADVISORIES: Adult Language, Adult Content Dolby Digital 5.1 / CCAP 2...

Another episode of the CBS sit-com Becker, which stars the liberal Ted Danson playing a doctor in a one-man practice in New York City, airs tonight on CBS. In last week's episode, upset by the closing of a "residential life" home for the mentally- challenged, "Becker" went to see the city's Deputy Director of Social Services, who launched into a lengthy rant about the evils of how tax cuts have reduced the amount of money available to government and will lead to "crappy schools which will turn out yet another generation of voters who are too stupid and greedy to...

Daschle's un-Reagan-like cowardice Posted: November 7, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com You have to hand it to Sen. Tom Daschle. If anything, the Democrats' minority leader is predictable – no matter the issue, he can always be counted on to take the wrong side. But maybe he can't help it. Maybe he's just been a member of a party with no morale compass for so long, he is unable to distinguish right from wrong. Democrats, you know, rarely make such black-and-white distinctions – unless, of course, they're disparaging white people as racists in order to court black votes. The most recent...

Trashing the Reagans, targeting BushBy ROBERT D. NOVAK To watch the entire commercial-free, three-hour version of The Reagans on the Showtime cable television network this week was an ordeal. The cartoon character presented as Ronald Reagan does not resemble the real president. But this assault on a beloved conservative icon does relate to the 2004 presidential campaign now under way. The events here actually are fictionalized less than is the case with many other made-for-TV movies. The problem is the portrayal of Reagan by actor James Brolin, a liberal Democratic activist as is his wife, Barbra Streisand. Even when he...

<p>"The Reagans," the controversial made-for-TV movie finally made its way into American homes this week — but not nearly as many homes as originally planned after CBS moved it to its smaller, premium cable channel Showtime. I watched the entire three-hour melodrama in order to participate in a special Showtime panel discussion, aired after the movie, along with five other people who were invited to comment.</p>

As David Brooks noted last week, the Democrats are rapidly falling into a minority mentality. The stridency, the lack of realism, the bizarre oppositional stances (who ever thought the Democrats would oppose drug prescriptions for Medicare!) -- all speak of a faction whose members becoming increasingly aware that they are irrelevant. Nowhere is this clearer than in last Sunday's long-awaited broadcast of The Reagans. True, the script wasn't very flattering -- although it certainly wasn't as bad as reported. And true, the show's recollections of the 1980s read like "Liberalism's Greatest Hits." But why should Republicans want to censor this...

Despite the media uproar of "The Reagans," its premiere on Showtime didn't exactly set the cable world ablaze, according to Zap2it.com. According to news reports, a little over 1 million viewers watched the three-hour movie, which did bring a larger-than-average audience to the pay-cable network Sunday, but not one big enough to rank in the Top 40 cable programs for last week. Eschewing the Showtime offering, about 3.5 million people watched the season finale of HBO's "Carnivale" Sunday. However, HBO is available in about three times as many homes as Showtime, which reaches between 12 million and 13 million subscribers....

Despite the media uproar of "The Reagans," its premiere on Showtime didn't exactly set the cable world ablaze, according to Zap2it.com. According to news reports, a little over 1 million viewers watched the three-hour movie, which did bring a larger-than-average audience to the pay-cable network Sunday, but not one big enough to rank in the Top 40 cable programs for last week. Eschewing the Showtime offering, about 3.5 million people watched the season finale of HBO's "Carnivale" Sunday. However, HBO is available in about three times as many homes as Showtime, which reaches between 12 million and 13 million subscribers....

WASHINGTON -- To watch the entire commercial-free, three-hour version of the "The Reagans" on the Showtime cable television network this week was an ordeal. The cartoon character presented as Ronald Reagan does not resemble the real president. But this assault on a beloved conservative icon does relate to the 2004 presidential campaign now underway.The events here actually are fictionalized less than is the case with many other made-for-TV movies. The problem is the portrayal of Reagan by actor James Brolin, a liberal Democratic activist as is his wife, Barbra Streisand. Even when he is depicted giving a serious speech in...

To watch the entire commercial-free, three-hour version of the ''The Reagans'' on the Showtime cable television network this week was an ordeal. The cartoon character presented as Ronald Reagan does not resemble the real president. But this assault on a beloved conservative icon does relate to the 2004 presidential campaign now under way. The events here actually are fictionalized less than is the case with many other made-for-TV movies. The problem is the portrayal of Reagan by actor James Brolin, a liberal Democratic activist as is his wife, Barbra Streisand. Even when he is depicted giving a serious speech in...

During Showtime’s Monday night panel, Controversy: The Reagans, two liberals, Marvin Kalb and Lou Cannon, denounced the inaccurate portrayal of Ronald and Nancy Reagan in the movie switched from CBS to an airing Sunday night on Showtime. In addition, a co-producer of the film contradicted Showtime’s CEO and admitted that the movie was not historically accurate, answering “no” when asked if the movie was “meant to be historically true?” Meanwhile, on FNC’s Hannity & Colmes on Monday night, Ronald Reagan’s adopted son Michael condemned the portrayal he saw of his father, complaining: “They made my father look like Mr. Magoo.”...

December 03, 2003, 9:13 a.m. By Deroy Murdock “You're president of the United States," Nancy Reagan, reminded Ronald Reagan as he sat up in bed in 1983. She begged him to do something about the growing scourge of AIDS. "If you don't talk about it, nobody will talk about it. Nobody will do anything, and all these people — these children, these young boys — they're all going to die. And the blame will be on our heads, Ronnie." President Reagan quietly kept reading through his half glasses. He seemed very cozy, clad in his bathrobe, beneath his blankets....

The controversial TV program "The Reagans" finally aired on Showtime this past weekend. CBS had been scheduled to broadcast it, but declined to go forward with the docudrama after a chorus of mostly conservatives protested the production's alleged liberal, anti-Reagan bias. Having viewed it on Showtime, I am more convinced than ever that these friends of Reagan should have kept their mouths shut and allowed the program the wider audience it would have had with CBS. I know, I know. President Reagan consistently polls near the top of surveys that ask Americans to name our greatest president. I also know...