In this week’s U.S. News, columnist John Leo adds reporting and crucial context to the CBS-Brolin-movie flap, including this underplayed point:
Reagan’s alleged antihomosexual remark is based on a line in Edmund Morris’s book Dutch. Morris wrote that his “research cards” (whatever that means) have Reagan saying “maybe the Lord brought down this plague” because “illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments.” The “research cards” appear to be the only source for this. Dutch is as shaky as any docudrama, with made-up dialogue and the author himself bizarrely inserted in the book as a fictional character who knew the young Reagan.