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Journal pudge's Journal: Reagan Did Not Help 9

Journal by pudge

In The Colbert Report's "The Word" segment Monday, Colbert mentioned Joe McCarthy "singehandedly mak[ing] a list of which Hollywood liberals we should get rid of." That got a laugh. Then the caption came up, "Well, Reagan Helped." Which got a bigger laugh, and some clapping.

Except, of course, there is no truth of any kind to it. Reagan testified about the problem of communism in Hollywood, but absolutely refused to name names, and it's pathetic that so many people don't know their history.

There should be an intelligence test to get into the audience for TDS and TCR. That joke, among educated people, would have bombed. Or maybe it's the writers who need intelligence testing ... ?

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Reagan Did Not Help More

Reagan Did Not Help

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  • There should be an intelligence test to get into the audience for TDS and TCR. That joke, among educated people, would have bombed.

    Firstly, intelligent and educated are not the same thing. Many very intelligent people have know idea what Reagan said to the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

    Secondly, a joke does not have to be factually accurate to be funny. On the contrary, that particular joke could be considered funny because it overstates Reagan's part in list-making.

    Thirdly, a joke doe

    • Firstly, intelligent and educated are not the same thing. Many very intelligent people have know idea what Reagan said to the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

      And an intelligent person would have thought, then, "huh, what did he say?," and not assumed the implication was accurate.

      Secondly, a joke does not have to be factually accurate to be funny. On the contrary, that particular joke could be considered funny because it overstates Reagan's part in list-making.

      It wasn't.

      Thirdly, a joke does not hav
  • From "The FBI's secret UC files" [sfgate.com], by Seth Rosenfeld, San Fransisco Chronicle, Sunday, 9 June 2002:

    ... In 1985, the FBI released some documents about Reagan. A spokesman for Reagan said at the time that the president played only a "very minor" involvement with the bureau. The spokesman claimed that the FBI was merely contacting people who had testified before HUAC.

    Those documents described an April 10, 1947, meeting between FBI agents, Reagan, then SAG president, and his first wife, actress Jane Wyman at

    • Those documents described an April 10, 1947, meeting between FBI agents, Reagan, then SAG president, and his first wife, actress Jane Wyman at the Reagans' Hollywood home, where they identified colleagues "who they suspected were carrying on Communist Party work."

      Yeah, that's what some people say, but all the other records say differently.

      And over the years, the new documents show, Reagan's contacts with the bureau were far more extensive than he acknowledged or has been reported.

      Yeah, believe the "new" doc
      • believe the "new" document when it disagrees with the old. That's reasonable. *snicker*

        Do you know the story about the two versions of those documents [washingtonpost.com]?

        The FBI, working covertly with the CIA and then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, spent years unlawfully trying to quash the voices and careers of students and faculty members deemed subversive at the University of California, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

        For years the FBI denied engaging in such activities at the university. But a 17-year legal challenge broug

        • Do you know the story about the two versions of those documents?

          As much as can be known, which is very little. We don't really know much about the documents in question beyond them being quashed for years.

          But you think you know so much: which document claims Reagan named names? What, exactly, does that document say?

          But the records obtained by the Chronicle reveal who it was that Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman, named during a 1947 meeting with FBI agents ...

          What "records"? What precisely did they s

    • Re:secret snitching is still snitching (Score:4, Informative)

      by Jhon ( 241832 ) on Thursday May 04, 2006 @11:32AM (#15262791) Homepage Journal
      Newly released FBI records obtained by The Chronicle reveal that the actors named by Reagan and Wyman that day included Larry Parks ("The Jolson Story"), Howard Da Silva ("The Lost Weekend") and Alexander Knox ("Wilson"). Each was later called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and blacklisted from working in Hollywood.
      I'm not sure about the others, but I'm fairly certain Howard Da Silva was fingered by Robert Taylor and Larry Parks, not Reagan. I know this because I'm a bit of a history buff -- and when something/someone catches my fancy, I do a lot of background research. I'm particularly fond of the musical 1776 (in which Da Silva played Franklin).

      By the way... Howard Da Silva *WAS* a communist.

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