Out of the Mouths of Babes (CBS Evening News)

[Simeon Salus]

During the headline coverage of Reagan's rope line, Dan Rather introduced a segment containing the most precious quote from a ten-year old boy who'd come with his family to honor the late president:

"We came to see Ronald Reagan. He never lied, even if he accidentally did do something bad."

[punpirate]

1. Cute, but wrong...

... he lied several times in press conferences about Iran-Contra, and it wasn't until he'd put his foot in his mouth that the press jumped him. When they did, he grudgingly admitted that some parts of the Iran-Contra story were true.

[Straight Shooter]

2. Ha! He lied so much, they should name the WH Oval Office rug after him

Jeez. How many times did he have to rehearse that line his parents gave him before he got it right.

[Simeon Salus]

3. It caught me how the kids were caught up in the event

Dan Rather was describing the range of Capitol visitors "from those who'd known Reagan for years" to those "too young to have known Reagan at all."

Wonder where those boys heard that judgement...

So I guess we all can agree he did something bad. That's the kid-talk amongst those kids actually present on the rope line today. Was a great president. Was very old. Wife really old. Never lied. Accidentally did something bad. Explanation too confusing. He's dead anyway, so...

I thought it was an excellent journalism moment for much-maligned CBS News. It neatly captured a common delusion shared by millions of Red State Americans, likely airwave-bourne.

I feel for the families. The loss of a father and husband is always tough, and the press junket atmosphere can't be helpful.

[Mountainman]

4. "even if he accidentally did do something bad"

The kid is learning to be a good republican and a good freeper. Never take responsibility for anything you do wrong. Repubs only accidentally do wrong. The can't do any premeditated wrong.

[debsianben]

5. Couldn't be more wrong....

...and depressingly indicative of all the media disinformation about the Gipper in the last week.

The guy was a lifelong, almost pathological liar. It wasn't just that he lied to cover up his crimes ("I did not trade arms for hostages"), but rather than he had so much practice that lying was a habit, almost second nature, and he indulged in it routinely even when he had little to gain beyond striking a certain chord with whomever he was talking to at the time, e.g. telling Yitzhack Shamir in 1983 that he had been present at the liberation of one of the death camps, while of course in reality he spend WWII in Hollywood, or the inspirational WWII story he told the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, including the assertion that the pilot in question later won a congressional medal of honor....which was taken detail for detail out of a corny old movie.

Reagan was a lying piece of shit long before he was a politician., e.g. during the McCarthy witch-hunt when he was the head of the Screen Actors Guild, he refused to name names in his public testimony before HUAC, and then later did so in private.

[crossroads]

6. NO doubt what his Repuke parents told him...

referring to Clinton of course...
Can ya believe these people are real?
:eyes: