Reagan’s adopted son trashes filmmaker’s documentary, says ‘Gipper’s’ legacy has been hijacked
By ANITuesday, February 22, 2011
WASHINGTON - Michael Reagan, the adopted son of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, has accused a television filmmaker of hijacking the Reagan legacy through a documentary titled “Reagan”.
Last week, 65-year-old Michael, the adopted son of Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, trashed Eugene Jarecki’s “Reagan” documentary, which airs on HBO at 12:30 p.m. US time today, the Daily News reports.
Michael, who founded the Reagan Legacy Foundation, wrote on Fox News.com that Jarecki’s film is “a clever attempt to hijack my father’s legacy.”
He also characterized the documentary as an “insidious rewrite of history” that, for instance, “repeats the tired canard that Reaganomics transferred wealth from the poor to the rich.”
“Eugene Jarecki is rummaging through the tomb of Ronald Reagan, looking for a legacy to steal,” Michael concluded.
What Reagan doesn’t reveal is that he is featured prominently in the film, which has been lauded by the Right and the Left for its evenhandedness.
The New York Times called it “unblinkered but respectful”.
The New York Post gave it four stars.
Jarecki tells us he was “kind of honored” that Reagan wrote about “Reagan.” but surprised by what he chose to put in-and leave out-of his critique.
The filmmaker says his goal in making the film was to “invite people to think more deeply” about the 40th president, whose 100th birthday was recently observed and whose legacy has too often been co-opted by people of all political stripes who “invoke his name when they want to sell the American people privately held agendas of their own.”
Jarecki says, “I sense Michael”-who just published a book of his own, “The New Reagan Revolution: How Ronald Reagan’s Principles Can Restore America’s Greatness”-”is uncomfortable with other American citizens reflecting on the 40th president from any distance.”
He adds: “Criticizing someone for their effort to promote more dialogue, betrays a certain insecurity about the subject.” (ANI)
