KETCHUP-GATE

WHAT DID CBS KNOW AND WHEN DID IT KNOW IT?

I love this story!

Rich Noyes of the Media Research Center writes:

The October 2, 1981 New York Times provides a window into the media mindset of the time, with a reporter posing this question to President Reagan at a press conference the day before:

"The style of your administration is being called millionaires on parade. Do you feel that you are being sensitive enough to the symbolism of Republican mink coats, limousines, thousand-dollar-a-plate china at the White House, when ghetto kids are being told they can eat ketchup as a vegetable?"

Sadly, the identity of the person who posed this particular question was not reported in the Times, but this was a spin heard in various forms throughout the media landscape in the early 1980s.

On Tuesday, I received the usual late-afternoon "Inside Scoop" e-mail from CBS News, announcing the topics for that night's "Evening News" and the next morning's "Early Show." As always, the e-mail started out with an interesting quotation and a "Did You Know" fun fact.

The fact from CBS News: "DID YOU KNOW? 4 tablespoons of ketchup has about the same amount of nutrition as a ripe tomato."

Now, where were CBS's researchers 25 years ago?

This is priceless.

CBS, the network that made "The Reagans," a disgusting hit piece starring Mr. Barbra Streisand (James Brolin) as President Reagan originally intended to air during the 2003 November ratings sweeps, quietly admits that ketchup is in fact nutritious.


Mr. Barbra Streisand as President Ronald Reagan

Amid outrage from conservatives, CBS determined that the film did not "present a balanced portrayal of the Reagans for CBS and its audience." It was shipped off to air on the Showtime cable network instead.

One of the film's weirder moments depicted Nancy Reagan, played by Judy Davis, ranting about ketchup.

In November 2003, John Leo of Jewish World Review wrote that Davis as Nancy was shreiking at Brolin as President Reagan: "Ketchup is a vegetable! It is not a meat, right? So it is a vegetable!"

Leo added that Davis said she hoped the script would encourage Americans to examine their leaders more closely.

Maybe Reagan critics should examine nutrition facts more closely.

For a quarter of a century, libs have mocked the suggestion by the Reagan administration that ketchup be considered a vegetable for school lunch programs. The man responsible for the ketchup uproar was David Stockman, Reagan's Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Early in Reagan's first term, Stockman proposed classifying ketchup as a vegetable as part of Reagan's budget cuts for federally financed school lunch programs. Recognizing the nutrition value of ketchup would have made it cheaper to satisfy the requirements on vegetable content of lunches.

The suggestion was widely ridiculed by Dems and the lib media. Eventually, the proposal was killed.

Since 1981, the libs have held up the "ketchup as a vegetable" fiasco as one of their favorite examples of the supposed heartlessness of Reagan and Republicans. When President Reagan passed away on June 5, 2004, Leftists again brought up the issue to ridicule him.

On June 6, 2004, AlterNet posted a list of "66 (Unflattering) Things about Ronald Reagan," written by The Nation's David Corn.

From AlterNet:

Editor's Note: This list of "66 Things to Think about When Flying in to Reagan National Airport" appeared in the Nation on March 2, 1998 after the renaming of Washington National Airport after Ronald Reagan. As Corn says, "the piece remains relevant today -- particularly as a cheat sheet for those who dare to point out the Reagan presidency was not all that glorious and was more nightmare in America than morning in America."

The firing of the air traffic controllers, winnable nuclear war, recallable nuclear missiles, trees that cause pollution, Elliott Abrams lying to Congress, ketchup as a vegetable, colluding with Guatemalan thugs, pardons for F.B.I. lawbreakers, voodoo economics, budget deficits, toasts to Ferdinand Marcos, public housing cutbacks, redbaiting the nuclear freeze movement, James Watt.

And the list goes on...

What a guy!

Corn and his lib cohorts were eager to attack Reagan (in the interest of being fair and balanced, of course), as the country mourned his death.

Ketchup took the sixth spot on Corn's lengthy list.

It looks like David Corn and all those angry, spiteful libs that have spent a quarter of a century criticizing President Reagan for the ketchup thing have egg on their faces.

A meager 4 tablespoons of ketchup has about the same amount of nutrition as a ripe tomato. The libs must believe that "fun fact" to be true because the word comes straight from the standard-bearer of truth in journalism, CBS.

I'd like to know how long CBS knew that ketchup was a nutritious addition to the diet. I wonder if Mary Mapes sat on the story. At the very least, don't you think this demands an internal investigation at CBS?

Hey libs, would you like a little ketchup with that crow?