66 Things to Think About When We Watch The Reagans on Showtime.
As anyone reading today’s papers knows, CBS (I hereby rename it the Craven Broadcasting System) announced yesterday that it had yanked “The Reagans” from its November lineup after being inundated with accusations from conservatives, led by Nancy Reagan, that it had done a hatchet job on the former president. (Click here to read Matt Bivens’ survey of events leading to the docu-drama‘s cancellation.)
This latest media flap reminds me of the last time Reagan’s name generated major controversy–back in 1998 when Washington DC’s National Airport was renamed in honor of our 40th president. The Nation‘s Washington editor, David Corn, was inspired to publish a funny and enlightening editorial, which we’ve reprinted below.
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66 Things to Think About When Flying Into Reagan National Airport by David Corn
The firing of the air traffic controllers, winnable nuclear war, recallable nuclear missiles, trees that cause pollution, Elliott Abrams lying to Congress, ketchup as a vegetable, colluding with Guatemalan thugs, pardons for F.B.I. lawbreakers, voodoo economics, budget deficits, toasts to Ferdinand Marcos, public housing cutbacks, redbaiting the nuclear freeze movement, James Watt.
Getting cozy with Argentine fascist generals, tax credits for segregated schools, disinformation campaigns, “homeless by choice,” Manuel Noriega, falling wages, the HUD scandal, air raids on Libya, “constructive engagement” with apartheid South Africa, United States Information Agency blacklists of liberal speakers, attacks on OSHA and workplace safety, the invasion of Grenada, assassination manuals, Nancy’s astrologer.
Drug tests, lie detector tests, Fawn Hall, female appointees (8 percent), mining harbors, the S&L scandal, 239 dead U.S. troops in Beirut, Al Haig “in control,” silence on AIDS, food-stamp reductions, Debategate, White House shredding, Jonas Savimbi, tax cuts for the rich, “mistakes were made.”
Michael Deaver’s conviction for influence peddling, Lyn Nofziger’s conviction for influence peddling, Caspar Weinberger’s five-count indictment, Ed Meese (“You don’t have many suspects who are innocent of a crime”), Donald Regan (women don’t “understand throw-weights”), education cuts, massacres in El Salvador.
“The bombing begins in five minutes,” $640 Pentagon toilet seats, African-American judicial appointees (1.9 percent), Reader’s Digest, C.I.A.-sponsored car-bombing in Lebanon (more than eighty civilians killed), 200 officials accused of wrongdoing, William Casey, Iran/contra.
“Facts are stupid things,” three-by-five cards, the MX missile, Bitburg, S.D.I., Robert Bork, naps, Teflon.
David Corn, March 2, 1998, The Nation
(And check out Corn’s new book, The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception recently released by Crown Publishers)
