Schieffer Calls His Anti-Reagan Book ‘Accurate,’ But Admits ‘It Is Not Entirely True’
Accurate, but not true. It took 23 years, but on Sunday morning’s Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer contended “everything” in his 1989 book, which provided a derogatory look from the left at the Reagan presidency, was “accurate” – yet “not entirely true.”
The leading title of the book published in January of 1989, when Schieffer held the role of “Chief Washington correspondent” for CBS News, The Acting President: Ronald Reagan and the Supporting Players Who Helped Him Create the Illusion That Held America Spellbound.
The title matched the condescending view espoused by liberals at the time who attributed Ronald Reagan’s success to fooling gullible Americans through theatrics so they would accept conservative policies with which they disagreed and were supposedly detrimental to them.
(Larger jpg image of the book cover -- this is from the later paperback edition.)
Schieffer’s comment came during a May 27 Memorial Day weekend segment with Time magazine editors Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, authors of The President’s Club, and Robert Merry, author of Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians.
Schieffer set up an exchange:
I think one of the lessons that probably all of us recognize is that if you -- I wrote a book once about Ronald Reagan. It came out the month that he was, that George Bush was inaugurated. The book, I think, everything in the book is accurate, but it is not entirely true, because we didn’t know at that time that the
Soviet Union was going to fall in. I don’t give Reagan credit, total credit, for that but certainly his policies had a part in it. I think you really run a risk when you start trying to judge a presidency too soon.
Schieffer didn’t even wait for the end of Reagan’s time in office before sending his formulation off to the book publisher for printing.
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Comments
I heard ol' semi-dementia say
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 1:19am.
I heard ol' semi-dementia say this, and it didn't go by unnoticed, but I was more taken aback by his swerving into reality by questioning Boy Baraka's boasts and wondering what happened to 'hype and chains'. But now that I think about it - how can something be 'accurate', but 'not entirely true'??? I guess in LibLand, it's pretty common.............
You got it killa
Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 3:46pm.
This is now the new "progressive" catch-all. Fake but true. Accurate but lies. Accurate but mostly false. And etc. and etc. What's surprising to me isn't that the progs are willing to play this juvenile word-game. It's that so many American Sheeple are willing to buy into it. Either something is true or it's not. Conservatives need to get into this - when the prog media tells half the story to promote their agenda, the right needs to IMMEDIATELY rebut with the whole story. We (the right) need to show people, with concise fact-based rebuttals, how the LSM has been misleading them for decades.
Straight out of 1981
Submitted by Model850 on Wed, 05/30/2012 - 4:04pm.
This "accurate but not true" meme is straight out of the 1981 film "Absence of Malice" (and who knows where the writers of the film got it). I think the phrase occurs a few times in the film in one form or another but for me the most memorable instance is at the end where one reporter is interviewing her colleague, Megan Carter (played by Sally Field) about her relationship with the Paul Newman character:
Sarah Wylie: I need to know how to describe your relationship with Gallagher. Mac said to quote you directly. You can say whatever you want.
Megan Carter: Just... say we were involved.
Sarah Wylie: That's true, isn't it?
Megan Carter: No. But it's accurate.
My wife was...
Submitted by bigdaddy on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 1:54am.
...not entirely pregnant a couple of times and I ended up with two accurate daughters...
I guess that is the same as saying: "Almost certain fact."
Submitted by Rush Fan on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 2:12am.
`
Schieffer, Rather, Cronkeit...
Submitted by The_Barrel_Guy on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 2:28am.
At last the truth is out... These three CBS "icons" of television journalism are just a trio of lying old men... Please tell me... Why would anyone trust what is reported on CBS as anywhere near the truth?
Hmmmm. Not accurate but true. Where have I heard that...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 3:58am.
before? Oh, I know. From Dan Blather. (My spelling of his last name is not accurate, but true!)
Accurate but not entirely
Submitted by rockyracoon on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 5:23am.
Accurate but not entirely true...hmmm...well it is certainly a telling statement in my eyes.
Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.
I can't believe I'm defending Schieffer again!
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 8:12am.
But these comments indicate a belief that this is the equivalent of Rather's "fake but accurate." It's not.
He's saying it's incomplete because he didn't know when he wrote it that the Soviet Union would eventually fall.
Noel has it right: in his eagerness to get his book out there, portraying Reagan's presidency as another acting role, he ended up not including his biggest accomplishment.
Edit...my mistake, it's Brent, not Noel.
No wonder why CBS, and NBC
Submitted by yportbill on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 6:35am.
No wonder why CBS, and NBC news ratings have fallen so low. They may as well be non-existent.
A progressive/liberal
Submitted by oldfart on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 7:08am.
can never get to the position of 'I made a mistake'. Their view of the world was made in their youth by Puff the Magic Dragon where they live in harmony with everyone and where everyone thinks like they do in the Land of Hanalie.
False Witness
Submitted by HudsonRiverGirl on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 7:09am.
WE expect nothing but lies from the liberal left. So lacking in honor or integrity they seem to thrive on their perfidy.
What I said was truely false and an innacurate accuracy
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 7:19am.
How long before Schieffer tries to walk this statement back?
The Left HATED Reagan then...
Submitted by Fenwick on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 7:42am.
... and they STILL HATE HIM. They did everything they could to portray Reagan as a senile, war-mongering, extremist who fooled nearly everyone in America by "expertly playing the role" of a charming, optimistic President. Most Americans, however, didn't buy into their lies and that makes them even more furious that the Teflon President resisted their smears.
Now, they are using the deceit of "Reagan the Ever-Moderate Compromiser" to paint Republicans as right-wing wackos who would never accept him into the party today. One needs only listen to Reagan's speeches before and during his presidency to know that he was ALWAYS a limited-government, fiscal conservative who believed in the principles of the Founding Fathers. ALWAYS!
The lies and manipulation of facts are the shameless tools of the MSM to influence events rather than simply report them.
In other...
Submitted by GeneralAl on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 7:43am.
In other words, "What I have claimed to be entirely accurate might be at variance with the truth"! What a double talking jackasssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!
"Old Soldiers never die, they just fade away"!
Schieffer reveals one of the
Submitted by cocodrie on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 7:59am.
Schieffer reveals one of the core beliefs of liberals "It's a lie, but it's the truth if we say so"
He also displays one of their commandments "Thou shalt bear false witness against thy neighbor if it advances our cause".
Jesus Loves You so much He died for you
"Accurate but not entirely
Submitted by Bettendor on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 9:04am.
"Accurate but not entirely true." What is this? The doublethink of Oceania from the book "1984?"
UNCLE BOB-ITS TIME TO BE TAKEN TO THE HOME-
Submitted by JIMMY1660 on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 9:13am.
news reporter you are not-never have been-now you embarrass us and yourself.
President Reagan-was and is the Shining light.
Bob Schieffer
Submitted by kozmocostello on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 9:25am.
It sounds as though Bob Schieffer was fake but accurate before fake but accurate was cool. What Hunter Thompson once called "Gonzo Journalism" is now called "journalism."
"Accurate but not true. . ."
Submitted by rickbren on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 12:24pm.
. . .is sort of like being a little bit pregnant. . .
"I think you really run a
Submitted by mattm on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 12:58pm.
"I think you really run a risk when you start trying to judge a presidency too soon."
OK liar Bob, do you expect us to "learn" from your late discovery that lying and twisting facts and slandering a president are ill advised and apply it to the current Disaster in the White House, so we'll give him another four years, and then wait another 20 years afterward to finally admit that the guy you support is a total failure?
Not buying it, Bob. You need to exile yourself.
Only a LYING SCUM SUCKING LIBERAL
Submitted by OldJarhead77 on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 1:43pm.
Could say that with a straight (two) face!
Another case of composite truth, eh?
Submitted by SickofLibs on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 2:01pm.
This is spreading rapidly.
Accurate?
Submitted by OldBB on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 3:05pm.
Accurate, but not entirely true.
Translating from lib journo speak:
I'm a liar but I think I'm not entirely caught yet.