ABC Touts Ron Reagan Jr.'s Alzheimer 'Revelations' About his Father for 24 Minutes Over Five Days
By Scott Whitlock | January 18, 2011 | 12:36
Over a span of five days and three programs, ABC donated 24 minutes of coverage to Ron Reagan's new book and the allegations that his father had symptoms of Alzheimer's while being President. On Tuesday, he appeared on Good Morning America for almost eight minutes of promotional coverage.
Guest co-host Elizabeth Vargas teased the segment by proclaiming, "Coming up in just a moment, new revelations about President Reagan and when he developed Alzheimer's." Wouldn't "allegations" have been the fair way to describe the claims of Ronald Reagan's liberal son?
In addition to appearing on Tuesday's GMA, the book was discussed on the Monday, Sunday and Saturday edition of the program. Vargas interviewed Ron Reagan for almost nine minutes on Friday's 20/20. Additionally, World News anchors highlighted the insinuations on Friday, Sunday and Monday. The grand total comes out to 24 minutes and 12 seconds of interviews or coverage.
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Yet, Ron Reagan's allegations about his father were couched with qualifiers, such as this one: "...In retrospect, given what we know, it's a reasonable supposition that [he might have had early symptoms.]"
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STEPHANOPOULOS: But the early signs you saw. You were seeing little clues.
REAGAN: I had no- no. I wasn't thinking, "Gee, I am seeing signs of Alzheimer's here." I was hypersensitive, of course, to somebody I know very, very well. He had already been shot and nearly killed. He's in his mid 70s. He's in the toughest job of the world and I worried about him all the time, for all kinds of reasons.
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VARGAS: Well, you did tell me that because of what we now know about Alzheimer's, now you're sure that what you were seeing was the precursors of Alzheimer's.
REAGAN: No, I didn't say that I was sure. I said that in retrospect, given what we know, it's a reasonable supposition that that might have been the case. I can't diagnose-
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VARGAS: I want to get back to one of the other revelations in the book that you talked about the people, that people have been talking about, which is when your father fell off the horse in Mexico shortly after he left the Oval Office. You say in the book he had brain surgery.
REAGAN: No, I don't.
VARGAS: And people seized on that. You say they opened up the skull, quote, "to relieve pressure on the brain." You say that happened in San Diego.
REAGAN: Yes, they did. No- I made a- This was a fact that I got wrong and we caught it too late. The book had gone to the printer. It was actually Tucson. In my mind, it was San Diego. But it was actually Tucson. And it was the second stop he made two stops at a hospital. First in Tucson, where they just kind of patched him up after he was thrown from the horse, I should say. And then, two months later, he went to the Mayo Clinic. And there is where they burrowed a hole in his skull to relieve pressure on the brain. that was the first suspicion, the first time that anybody in the family heard suspicions of Alzheimer's that was when it was broached. We'll do tests in a year. And see where we are then. After a year, more suspicion. A little hard to make a definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer's back then without actually doing brain surgery.
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REAGAN: No, I'm saying, I can't say that I was seeing signs of Alzheimer's. I had little worries. They may, in retrospect, have been very early inklings of this. But I can't say that for sure. You're right. I'm not a doctor. I'm just trying to deal with this in an open and honest way as I experienced. That's all.
Read more: newsbusters.org
[ IOW the whole Reagan had alzheimers in office meme is unsupported suppositions made years after the fact to hype a book to liberals. Naturally the press is running with it.
Reagan - so damned great, they're still trying to smear him after he's dead! ]
Read more: newsbusters.org |
