PBS’s Meacham: Why ‘Lionize’ Reagan Who ‘Treated the Poor Poorly’ & ‘Committed Nearly Impeachable Offenses’?
On Friday’s Need to Know program on PBS, co-host Jon Meacham - formerly of Newsweek - seemed to agree with filmmaker Eugene Jarecki’s characterization of former President Ronald Reagan as someone who "treated the poor poorly," "broke laws," and "committed nearly impeachable offenses" as he asked the producer of the film Reagan why people should be "lionizing" the former President. The PBS host posed the question:
Let’s go to your criticisms of the President in the film. Basically we have a President who treated the poor poorly, did not tend to the sick, broke laws, committed nearly impeachable offenses by your own reporting. Why should we be lionizing him in the broad public domain? You certainly don’t.
Earlier in the interview, Meacham had also wondered if it could be argued that Reagan was a "kind of Manchurian candidate from the military industrial complex." Meacham:
You’ve made the Trials of Henry Kissinger. You have made Why We Fight about the military industrial complex and there's a moment in the Reagan film that evoked those films for me to some extent where you have Reagan coming out of working for GE mostly in the ‘50s and meeting up with his kitchen cabinet, the big businessmen in California. Is it possible to argue that Ronald Reagan was a kind of Manchurian candidate from the military industrial complex?
After the PBS host asked Jarecki if Reagan "would be comfortable in today’s Republican Party," Jarecki charged that modern-day Republicans "lie" about what Reagan stood for and try to use him for marketing purposes because their own political ideas are not popular:
There’s a huge gulf between how Reagan felt about issues, what he actually did in office, and the lies that are told to us, the myths that are spun today. ... Because a lot of these actors don't really have policies and programs that would appeal to the public. They don't sell well and so you need good packaging. Ronald Reagan is a proven brand. Just as he was once used by General Electric, so, too, today he is being used by so many people who want to sell a particular product and want to use Reagan's brand.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Friday, February 4, Need to Know program on PBS:
JON MEACHAM: You’ve made the Trials of Henry Kissinger. You have made Why We Fight about the military industrial complex and there's a moment in the Reagan film that evoked those films for me to some extent where you have Reagan coming out of working for GE mostly in the ‘50s and meeting up with his kitchen cabinet, the big businessmen in California. Is it possible to argue that Ronald Reagan was a kind of Manchurian candidate from the military industrial complex?
EUGENE JARECKI, DIRECTOR OF FILM REAGAN: I think Reagan is many things. And the thing you can never say about Reagan is, well, this is what he was. Because, as soon as you say that, it’s like Wack a Mole. He’s over here and he turns out to be something totally different. So people who want to say that Reagan is a puppet of anyone absolutely would miss the boat on how incredibly smart, driven and really how much he was the engineer of his extraordinary life.
...
MEACHAM: Let’s go to your criticisms of the President in the film. Basically we have a President who treated the poor poorly, did not tend to the sick, broke laws, committed nearly impeachable offenses by your own reporting. Why should we be lionizing him in the broad public domain? You certainly don’t.
JARECKI: I don’t think we should lionize public figures at all. That’s contrary to our values as American citizens in a republic that is of the people by the people for the people. It isn’t of kings, of presidents, and by death box. The whole idea of our country is that we are the makers of our lives, we are the makers of our policies, we choose these people to do the work for us and with us. And so I think there's a grave danger in, with the way we idolize Kennedy and the way we idolize any of our leaders - Reagan and anyone else - or the way we over-vilify them. They are not the ones who make our destiny and they’re not the ones who will unmake it, and we do a grave disservice to democracy and ourselves by offloading that responsibility on these individuals.
MEACHAM: In the politics of the moment, you've got a Republican Party that endlessly invokes his name. Do you think he would be comfortable in today's Republican Party?
JARECKI: I spoke to many people who knew Ronald Reagan very intimately. Peter Robinson, his speechwriter, James Baker, George Schultz, Ron Reagan, his son, Michael Reagan, his son, you got the sense that the Reagan that they knew intimately is an enormously different person from the fictional Ronald Reagan that is invoked by political actors across America. There’s a huge gulf between how Reagan felt about issues, what he actually did in office, and the lies that are told to us, the myths that are spun today. And why is that? Because a lot of these actors don't really have policies and programs that would appeal to the public. They don't sell well and so you need good packaging. Ronald Reagan is a proven brand. Just as he was once used by General Electric, so, too, today he is being used by so many people who want to sell a particular product and want to use Reagan's brand. It does him a disservice, and, of course, it misleads us as Americans as how he would have thought about issues and therefore, if we love him, how we might want to think about issues.
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Comments
Yeah, and Sam Donaldson ...
Submitted by Tom Blumer on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 9:24pm.
... in a supposed "tribute" to Reagan, wrote that during his presidency, "women and minorities were neglected."
What hogwash.
Meanwhile, white unemployment is down from 8.7% to 8.0% since the recession ended in June 2009, while black unemployment has gone from 14.8% to 15.7%.
As to Meachem -- The poverty rate dropped from 15.2% to 12.8% during the last six years of Reagan's budget responsibility. The poverty rate went up in 2009 to 14.3%, its highest level in a long time, because Barack Obama chose destructive stimulus over doing nothing and over further permanent tax relief. Relief of one-third of the stimulus would have done wonders for the economy.
Meachem et al tagged the wrong guy for "treating the poor poorly."
Unemployment?
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 9:53pm.
I don't think statists and liberals use unemeployment or underemployment as indicators of governmental and societal success. If unemployment was at 30%, but the disparity between low and high income was recuced significantly, that would be a sign of success. And it wouldn't matter that the disparity was a result of the "rich" making less money, only that the ratio was reduced.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
Just plain boom. boom WOW!
Submitted by Tomorama on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 9:25pm.
I haven't smashed someones nose in for many years, but I would love the chance to do so with Meacham.
He always has the look that someone farted................. sorry, his face looks like that too many or maybe he's constipated.
All I know is that he is an a$$hole and in the pantheon of good people there is Reagan and he is at the bottom with the other John Edwards like thinkers.............
Manchurian candidate??????????
I and others have been calling the binkyprompter reader in chief Manchurian candidate morphing into Manchurian Carter.......
I hate Liberals..................
What do you expect?
Submitted by Emil on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 9:37pm.
Another left wing progressive liberal. Has he ever had a kind word for a conservative, I think not. He and his writings are consigned to the scrap heap of uncontrolled partisan commentary.
Insanity
Submitted by rammingspeed on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 9:44pm.
Meacham's Manchurian Candidate mis-analogy is one of the best ever attempted by the anti-intellectual elitist left. Not one word of explanation of how he cobbled together that insane notion, of course. He's not to be taken seriously by professionals in the field, and should be shut out of future discussions of this type until he can show where in God's name he came up with the Manchurian Candidate whiz bang.
Wow
Submitted by donabernathy on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 9:48pm.
"broke laws," and "committed nearly impeachable offenses" as he asked the producer of the film Reagan why people should be "lionizing" the former President."
Bwahahahahahahahahaa
We must be talk'n about Bill Clinton... Right..... Oh that's right Billy Boi was Impeached, Did Break the Law..... and now according to Balloon Head Commie Liberals ... IS President of the World
Bwahahahahaahaha
roflmao
Thanks Mr. President
Submitted by malthus on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 9:56pm.
People forget Reagan saw that 'doing good' was the responsibility of the people, and business. He brought that out in Americans - hard work and charity. Besides giving us a boom for employment it was something he did personally by writing personal checks to people who told him they were needy. I don't think any of the charges the RATS brought against Ronnie were ever proven or successfully prosecuted.
Meecham thinks altruism and provision is the Government's responsibility, it takes a small, myopic and self centered person to see life that way.
PBS=Pure B.S.
Submitted by mattm on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 9:59pm.
1. The libs, who hand out a pittance in exchange for a vote, are the ones who treat the poor poorly.
2. The biggest offense committed during the Reagan administration was when the Dems, lead by Ted Kennedy, for purely partisan reasons, sided with the Sandistas instead of the Freedom Fighters in Nicaragua.
3. Besides the economic boom that lasted well into Clinton's regime, Reagan, along with Margaret Thatcher and John Paul II, brought freedom to millions who had previoulsy lived under Soviet slavery.
In Defense of Meacham
Submitted by Thunder Lizard on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 10:01pm.
Even though his view of Reagan is twisted, at least he is honest in his continued liberal hatred of Mr. Reagan. Andrea Mitchell and other liberals who despise Reagan, are doing their darndest to remake the image of Reagan and tie it with Obama to bolster his faltering popularity. ( See that thread below about the exchange between Noonan and Mitchell. ) Mitchell and her ilk are being dishonest and just trying to decieve the country.
Lionizing
Submitted by JohnK on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 10:44pm.
Why lionize Martin Luther King, Jr., who plaigiarized others' work to obtain his degree, and who regularly cheated on his wife?
Or do we just ignore that because of the good things he accomplished?
a 3 year old plant?
Submitted by Denny Crane on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 1:30am.
Other than that statement being really strange and having nothing to do with this thread, it sounds like plant material.
We Are The 53%
Denny,
Submitted by Dave. on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 1:44am.
I concur.
This one has the stench of race-baiting rotten foliage all over it.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Yep
Submitted by Denny Crane on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 11:14pm.
My thoughts too.
3 years and only posting a couple of times.
2nd post was something about defunding NPR, but this one is slimy and stinky racebaiting.
We Are The 53%
JohnK
Submitted by amyshulk on Tue, 02/08/2011 - 4:29am.
I took your post as highlighting the hypocrisy of the left ignoring flaws when it's a hero they can utilize to further their point, and claiming they can't look past them when it's a person their opponent would lionize.
Ronald Reagan
We need to cut CPB out of the budget ASAP
Submitted by needle on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 10:51pm.
I wish Congress would hurry up and cut the Corporation for Public Broadcasting out of the budget.
Right now we are funding these leftist scumbag spokesmen for Democrat Party with taxpayers' money and money borrowed from the Chinese to be paid off by our grandchildren.
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
In the opinion of this Democrat...
Submitted by Jer on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 11:11pm.
A great President. A good man. And a better actor than most critics would have you believe.
Thank you, Mr. Reagan. You were the right person at the right time in the right job.
Jer
Jer, that
Submitted by HockeyKid on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 9:44am.
comment alone bought you miles of breaks from me going down the road.
When I was young, I lined up with the mindless lefties of my generation to denegrate Reagan in his run against Carter, even resorting to those tired "Bonzo" jokes.
A few short years later, as an (not just legal) adult, I would come to know the real Ronald Reagan as I served under his leadership in the military, and later at his White House. One of my proudest possessions is the signed photo I have of him, along with his farewell letter to me as a (very minor functionary) member of the White House staff. He is a giant.
So thanks, Jer. I am reminded of a much better man than I.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Defund PBS Now!
Submitted by Van Halen on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 11:16pm.
Defund PBS Now!
Meechem
Submitted by ThisnThat on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 8:14am.
demonstrates exactly why libs want to keep PBS alive -- where else can you get taxpayer support for the manufacturing and distribution of lies and disinformation?
__________
“Didn't win the Medal of Honor? Didn't even serve? Then lie about it. We'll support you." — 9th Circuit Court
Where Else?
Submitted by JustAl on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 9:28am.
The national endowment for the arts.
As opposed to.....?
Submitted by jon_torlin on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 11:53pm.
Nearly impeachable? As opposed to DuhOne who has done many things that are BLATANTLY impeachable? And that he has broken the law several times, not to mention international law?
I guess it really is ok to speak ill of a dead man after all. Plenty more to speak ill of though.
-Jon
This man's opinion is worth
Submitted by Captain Repus on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 12:04am.
This man's opinion is worth just about the amount his failed news rag was sold for - $1 (before tax).
The only employment he is worthy of is NPR and Morning Joke. With a little luck, the NPR gig will be one of the Republican Congress's first targets - Comcast will hopefully take care of the second area if they have any business sense or moral worth.
Rush Limbaugh Cannot Defend
Submitted by gotmail87 on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 12:38am.
Rush Limbaugh Cannot Defend Ronald Reagan http://bit.ly/ghISbt
Why don't you make like a shiny green fly and just buzz-off...
Submitted by Dave. on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 1:07am.
...troll.
Surely somewhere out on the blogosphere there is a steaming pile of freshly dropped BS that you can orbit until your heart's content.
Have you tried Daily Kommie Kos, Dipsh*t Underground, Huff 'n Puke, or Moron.org?
You should, because then you would be in green fly heaven with all the steaming BS you would find.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Dave...
Submitted by Jer on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 1:19am.
I can't help but notice you've dispensed with the customary "Welcome to NewsBusters, troll" formalities.
But I can't say that I blame you in this case.
Jer
Jer,
Submitted by Dave. on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 1:28am.
LOL - I'm turning 47 next month.
Time is more precious now. :-)
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
nutter
Submitted by kangaroo on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 9:23am.
Looks like that same nutter chick that is over at The Blaze postin the same links to crap.
"When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on"--Thomas Jefferson
*
Submitted by Dave. on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 1:01am.
Oops, wrong place.
Vote for the American in November
Jon Meacham
Submitted by donabernathy on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 1:24am.
Sellin' propaganda like a birth control pill
sellin' your soul to the eye on the back of the dollar bill.
-Immortal Technique-
roflmao
"Formerly of Newsweek" ?
Submitted by Texndoc on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 1:24am.
Listen, this man took a famous news magazine and made it so un-readable for any Conservative that it failed and sold for a dollar. I couldn't care less his opinion on the weather.
Meacham
Submitted by rockyracoon on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 6:10am.
Is still hammering the great Ronald Reagan over an issue he and other lamestreamers stopped covering the moment BJ Clintoon was sworn in as POTUS.
Hey Jon don't you think you need some new material?
Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.
Fired
Submitted by stan25 on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 6:29am.
They fired Juan Williams and kept this dolt? Shows how deep in the sand, heads are buried at NPR and other state controlled media outlets.
Hateful little worm. The
Submitted by amyshulk on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 7:11am.
Hateful little worm. The ability of people like him to cheer the ends justify the means when it's part of his worldview but to act as if it's horrific when it comes from the other side makes me question their "smarts"
Ronald Reagan
Rush Limbaugh Cannot Defend
Submitted by gotmail87 on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 7:21am.
Rush Limbaugh Cannot Defend Ronald Reagan http://bit.ly/ghISbt
Is there another purpose to your posts,
Submitted by troglodyt on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 7:38am.
other than to get site traffic?
I LOVE the look on Meacham's face
Submitted by ChrisNH on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 7:37am.
Just look at the angst and rage on Meacham's face in the photo above. All Lib media hacks are like this these days as they try--unsuccessfully--to gloss over the simple fact that their beloved Liberalism has FAILED. They are trying everything in their power to convince you that you're not really seeing what you're really seeing. You're not really seeing our country go down the drain at the hands of unfettered Liberal control. But no matter how hard Lib media hacks tru, the evidence is mounting to the contrary. And that has all of them roiled up in knots.
And the liberals love poor people
Submitted by 10ksnooker on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 9:18am.
It's why they make people poor ... Unemployment is now realistically in the high teens.
Reagan said it best "it's not that liberals are ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so." It's a bit of wisdom that is most effectively illustrated by the left side of the blogosphere.
And now that
Submitted by HockeyKid on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 9:48am.
AOL has bought HuffPo and made Arianna the chief of AOL News' content, they'll be watching their membership drop precipitously, too.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Unfortunately for Meacham
Submitted by Free Thinker on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 9:55am.
Unfortunately for Meacham history will outlive him and all the other critics of Reagan. Long after they are dead and gone only historical facts will remain and there is nothing they can do about that. If Meacham wants to sound like an uninformed idiot now so be it, utlimately Reagan will always win the debate over his legacy. This is the same thing I admire about Geroge W. Bush, he knows history will be his judge, not critics who never sat in his seat and will fade away never to be remembered.
With progressive liberals in
Submitted by Ashrak on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 10:46am.
With progressive liberals in charge of government, complete with 60 votes in the Senate,which avoids filibuster complaints, National debt and yearly deficits "necessarily skyrocketed", Energy costs are up and continue climbing, Cahtah inflation has already begun, unemployment doubled, more soldiers are dying, enemies are embldened, and it has gone so far that the man occupying the oval office went around the world bowing to kings and other heads of state.
Americans are to bow to no man, much less the American President do so. It's an "equality" thing Everything the progressives hate about Reagan, they love about Obama. Cahtah was soundly rejected all over this country after folks got a good look at him and not even media could produce a snow job big enough to stop it. The same thing will happen to Obama, and for the same reasons, soon enough.
It took a Cahtah to get a Reagan, soon we might be able to say it took an Obama to get a Palin. Reagan set the progressive agenda back decades and they know darn well that Palin will do the same thing. This is why they treat those two Patriots the way they do - they fear them.
The bowing thing went out
Submitted by NevadanConservative on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 1:07pm.
with Jefferson. He was the one who SHOOK HANDS with foreign ambassadors.
BHO is in bad shape with the Founders as it stands. John Adams' blessing on the White House alone should have done for him, and I would not be a bit surprised at the shade of Jefferson haunting him nights.
NVCon
HIS OPINIONS (AND MAGAZINE) WERE WORTH $1
Submitted by Sgthulka on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 10:49am.
Remind me again why I should care about Meacham's comments.
Are these people completely devoid of any sense of shame? I'd be embarassed as hell to say anything if my company was basically closed for $1.
Reagan was the greatest
Submitted by Newsbusterbrown on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 11:31am.
Reagan was the greatest president of my lifetime (starting with Johnson). It's not even close, too.
Not sure exactly where he places among the great presidents, but he's easily in the top-ten without even thinking about it.
Take that, Meacham! :-)
“There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.” - Ronald Reagan (1964 Republican Convention)
Keep it up, PBS. You'll be
Submitted by johnsonl on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 11:37am.
Keep it up, PBS. You'll be broadcasting on your own dime, pretty soon. Maybe ACORN is hiring.