http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1068199,00.htmlUproar as soap fails to clean up Reagan's image
Liberal left accused of hijacking Hollywood as TV prepares to run warts-and-all biog of former US leader
Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday October 22, 2003
The Guardian
Facts are stupid things, as Ronald Reagan once observed. They can also be extremely difficult to pin down, particularly when they concern the ever controversial former president.
That is what CBS television has found since taking the risk-laden decision to make a mini-series about the life of the US actor turned president.
The show has already started an uproar a month before it is due to be broadcast. While Mr Reagan sits at home in California in the grip of Alzheimer's disease and unaware of the struggles swirling around him, the battle lines in America's latest culture war have been drawn.
<snip>
On the other hand, even the most fervent Reagan supporters will find it difficult to argue with the portrayal of his hands-off, laidback approach to governing. This was, after all, the man who famously said: "They say hard work never hurt anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?" <snip>