When the press goes to the movies, a lot of claims are made about US presidents and movies.
Most of them are wrong.
For example, no, Yahoo, JFK did not screen From Russia With Love "the night before he was killed." Not only was he not at the White House (he was in Fort Worth, Texas) his schedule was too busy for a movie.
But you can apparently claim anything at Yahoo, facts be damned.
The same at USA Today.
A non-story took a beat down because Ted Berg (above) got his granny panties in a wad over Curt Schilling's refusal to bow down and worship Barack Obama.
So Berg typed up:
[Barry] Bonds’ show of support for the president came just hours after fellow MLB retiree Curt Schilling took a veiled shot at Obama for not screening the controversial Seth Rogen film The Interview
at the White House, insisting that Ronald Reagan would have even though
a) he probably would not have and b) if Obama actually did screen The Interview
at the White House, everyone would have criticized him for it because
he’s the president and should be doing more important things than
watching Seth Rogen movies.
There is so much wrong with that.
First off, for Barack to have screened it most recently, he probably would need to have done it in Hawaii -- where he's celebrating Christmas with his family -- and not at the White House.
Second Reagan "probably would not have" screened the film?
That statement is beyond stupid.
It offers no backing at all for the claim.
The reality is, no one knows what Reagan would do. He's dead.
But if he were alive today and in the White House?
He loved movies.
He was an actor.
Reagan was no fan of North Korea and since the popular narrative is Sony versus North Korea, he would have sided with Sony.
That's not really in debate unless you're an idiot like Ted Berg.
Does Ted not know the infamous statement Reagan made about Sony? After the big check? The one that he then had to apologize for? (In 1989, Reagan claimed Sony would return "decency and good taste to films.")
And what of Reagan nominating J. Raymond Bell for the office of Chair of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission? That was September of 1982.
Would Ted Berg care to tell us what Bell had been vice president of?
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
Does Berg not know Sony was Columbia Pictures?
And why might Reagan want to come to Columbia Pictures aid?
Among many reasons, the only film he and First Lady Nancy Reagan made together was Hellcats of the Navy which was a film distributed by . . . Columbia Pictures.
We don't know what Reagan would do.
We're not even fans of Reagan.
But we do know that a compelling argument can be made that he likely would have screened The Interview.
What we do know is that idiot Ted Berg offered nothing to back up his claim.
And we know that all known evidence indicates that the "probably" outcome on this would be Reagan backing Sony.
(And there are many more Columbia Pictures connections for Reagan that we could list.)