SHOWTIME has announced it will be releasing a docu-series about President Ronald Reagan and his family titled, “THE REAGANS,” and if the press release is any indication, it will be yet another predictable hit piece on a Republican president from Hollywood.
SHOWTIME writes in the press release that the series “contextualizes the legacy of Ronald and Nancy a generation later while exploring the palace intrigue of the Reagan White House years. … By shining a light on the truths behind the Reagan myth and critically analyzing Ronald Reagan’s quest for power, his mode of governing, the ripple effects of his economic policies and the unprecedented role Nancy Reagan played in the White House, the series redefines the Reagans a generation after they stood at the center of the national and global stage.”
Wait: it gets worse: “Covering Reagan’s rise from movie star to politician and tackling his questionable record on race, the administration’s near collapse amid the Iran-Contra scandal, and inaction in the face of the HIV pandemic, THE REAGANS offers an epochal look at a recent past that has much to do with our turbulent present.”
In 2013, The Butler, produced by The Weinstein Co. and starring Forest Whitaker as a White House butler who served presidents from 1952 to 1986, was slammed as critics said the film insinuated Reagan was a racist.
Paul Kengor, author of two books about Reagan, The Crusader and God and Ronald Reagan, stated, “I’ve talked to many White House staff, cooks, housekeepers, doctors, and Secret Service over the years. They are universal in their love of Ronald Reagan.” Kiron Skinner, the author of several books about Reagan and the Cold War, pointed out that when he was challenged on his record on race in 1975, Reagan responded, “In my eight years [as governor] more negroes were appointed to executive and policymaking positions in state government than had been appointed by all the previous California governors put together. You are absolutely right that our job is getting our story across,” as The Hollywood Reporter stated.
Reagan’s son Michael asserted, “There you go again, Hollywood. You’ve taken a great story about a real person and real events and twisted it into a bunch of lies. … If you knew my father, you’d know he was the last person on Earth you would call a racist. If (screenwriter Danny) Strong had gotten his ‘facts’ from the Reagan biographies, he’d have learned that when my father was playing football at Eureka College one of his best friends was a black teammate. Strong also would have learned that my father invited black players home for dinner and once, when two players were not allowed to stay in the local hotel, he invited them to stay overnight at his house.”
Michael Reagan concluded, “Despite what Hollywood’s liberal hacks believe, my father didn’t see people in colors. He saw them as individual Americans. If the liberals in Hollywood — and Washington — ever start looking at people the way he did, the country will be a lot better off.”