Reagan Was An FBI Informer (reporting other actors whom he suspected of subversive activities)

[kpete]

Rosenfeld's book, Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals and Reagan's Rise to Power, is now out in paperback. It details how the FBI employed fake reporters to plant ideas and shape public opinion about the student movement; how they planted stories with real reporters; and how they even managed — with the help of then-Gov. Ronald Reagan — to get the UC Berkeley's President Clark Kerr fired.

To research the book, Rosenfeld pored over 300,000 pages of records obtained over 30 years from five lengthy Freedom of Information Act lawsuits against the FBI.

The records "show that during the Cold War, the FBI sought to change the course of history by secretly interceding in events, by manipulating public opinion and taking sides in partisan politics," Rosenfeld says.
http://www.npr.org/2013/08/16/212381996/student-subversives-and-the-fbis-dirty-tricks


For me, one of the gems of that report was learning that Reagan was an FBI informer:

Starting in Hollywood in the 1940s, Ronald Reagan developed a special relationship with the FBI. He became an FBI informer, reporting other actors whom he suspected of subversive activities, and later when he became president of the Screen Actors Guild, the FBI had wide access to the Guild's information. At one point, the Guild turned over information on 54 actors it was investigating as possible subversives.
http://m.npr.org/news/Arts+%26+Life/159373688

[zbdent]

1. But he was informing on "liberals", so, in the eyes of the psychos,

he's the ultimate patriot.

[Coyotl]

59. An important disticntion, reporting on political enemies when the left was literally criminalized.

The United States went through a period when your political affiliation could get you the death penalty. That should give some perspective on the extremity of the right and people like Ronald Reagan. They are political criminals in their own right due to the degree of intolerance they own and foster. Human beings have a right to their own political preference.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. His legacy is carried out by those who share his ideology to this day. We see it on DU.

This is why those folks who make attack posts about liberal actors are so deeply offensive to anyone with knowledge of the history of that industry who is a liberal of any sort.

[Iliyah]

12. Remember his saying

"The Democratic Party left me". Well apparently he left them for a more conservative paranoid stance. He also claimed that Medicare would be the death of America.

[Cronus Protagonist]

15. "Trust, but verify"

It seems to fit the current administration.

[pangaia]

24. "Don't trust in the first place," fits republican administrations.

[sabrina 1]

37. Well, he failed as an actor, so I guess this was the only way he could make a fortune, by turning

in his fellow actors, who in many cases were far more successful than he. The lowest species of worm.

I remember reading a comment from his first wife, who was asked what she thought of her ex becoming POTUS. She said something like 'he was the most boring man to be around. Whenever we had company, he would play his old movies over and over, boring everyone in the room.'

Reagan was the beginning the beginning of the downfall of Democracy or even a semblance of it, in the US. He was used to start the infamous Drug War which began the destruction of Civil Rights and it has gone downhill ever since.

[tofuandbeer]

42. +!

[eShirl]

47. The WOD wasn't started under him, but he did kick it into high gear.

[tomp]

53. the beginning of the beginning?

sorry, but america's downhill slide goes back way before reagan, either in the 50's or the 80's. Although in both era's he was right there with the worst of the worst.

[chimpymustgo]

61. Excellent point. He was an evil bastard.

[zbdent]

62. "The Democratic Party left me"

yep, yet another case of something not ever being his or her won fault.

Kinda like evolution leaving behind a bunch of conservatives ...

Conservative to blacks - "You'll never see a black president".

Conservative to NASA - "You'll never get a man on the moon."

Conservative to the Wright brothers - "You'll never get it off the ground."

Conservative to Henry Ford - "Get a horse."

Conservatives to teachers - "Nobody can educate a negro."

Conservative to Lincoln - "You'll never get people to agree to end slavery."

Conservative to the Founding Fathers - "I'll laugh as you kick your feet in the air from the end of a rope!"

Conservatives to Columbus - "Have fun falling off the edge of the Earth."

Conservative to "Man" - "What are you doing out of the tree?"

Conservative to monkey - "What are you doing in that tree?"

Conservative to land animal - "What are you doing out of the ocean?"

Conservative to multicelled organism - "One's fine to me."

Conservative to God - "TURN OFF THAT DAMN LIGHT!"

[asjr]

3. It has been a long time ago but I remember Sir Ronnie at

the Joe McCarthy hearings when he outed a number of actors and writers who presumably belonged to the communist party.

[hughee99]

25. Your memory must be better than mine.

I don't recall Raygun testifying in the Army McCarthy hearings at all. I just remember he testified in the HUAC hearings.

[asjr]

33. Correct. HUAC was going through my mind and I

guess I linked the two. My memory stuttered!

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Off point a bit, but I wonder if Reagan turning into an FBI rat was the straw that

broke the back of his marriage to Jane Wyman.

[hlthe2b]

7. I could see that as a major possibility....

As far as I know, she never lost her own liberal roots.

[xmas74]

30. edit

I always heard he did everything for Nancy but those dates just don't add up, do they?


What a POS.

[hobbit709]

5. All gods have feet of clay.

And in the case of St. Ronnie it's feet covered in shit.

[Itchinjim]

6. Why am I not surprised by this revelation?

The rat bastard was a snitch too. Go figure.

[HardTimes99]

8. K and R - nt

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

9. I heard this on NPR Friday.

Well worth listening to it at the link.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

10. "employed fake reporters" -- Google Operation Mockingbird

[deurbano]

20. Thank you for that suggestion.

I imagine those that tried to expose the operation (at the time) were dismissed as "conspiracy nuts"... and as "paranoid."

[Iliyah]

11. Don't ya'know that "Liberals" "Progressives"

will always be the enemy in the ideology of the true conservatives. Walt Disney was also working with the FBI as well.

[Major Nikon]

13. Saint Ronnie was dropping a dime on his union brothers

Which makes him an extraordinary asshole.

[Half-Century Man]

32. Was a Union leader/ Pres of Screen Actors Guild when he did that.

Grand High Poopba of shit heels.

[eppur_se_muova]

38. ... while also a producer for the network (NBC? CBS?), a violation of SAG rules.

As a producer, Reagan sided with the producers/directors/networks against the actors when negotiating the royalties arrangements to air movies filmed in the days before TV. He gave the networks -- who paid his big salary -- a very sweet deal, which royally screwed over the actors in old films, like the Marx Brothers and Bob Hope (Hope was wealthy because he bought California real estate back when it was cheap, not because of movie royalties).

[tofuandbeer]

43. Wow. What a snake, actually...he was dirt. Snakes are innocent.

[secondvariety]

14. No talent actor,

worst President in my lifetime and a fucking rat. Reagan hit the trifecta.

[Octafish]

16. Like Whitey Bulger, Pruneface enjoyed special protection through, or for, his Mob ties.

Dan Moldea tells the story: "Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob."

[eppur_se_muova]

36. Thanks, was going to rec that book if no one else did ! nt

[LuckyLib]

17. Hoover spied on everyone, including Ronnie's

Son Michael, who was running with some punk teen sons of the Jersey mafia. H told Ronnie to tell him to find some new friends.

[NuclearDem]

19. Reagan snitch! Reagan snitch!

[TBF]

21. Figures ... nt

[KansDem]

22. He was also lousy in bed...

Virgin starlet claims Ronald Reagan was a 'show-off' in bed after seducing her on set of 1950s film in which he played her father

In politics he was known as the great communicator.

But when it came to matters of the heart Ronald Reagan was a rude, insensitive show-off, one of his former lovers has claimed.

The actress Piper Laurie said that when she slept with the former U.S. President he bragged to her afterwards about his staying power.

Yet when she complained she was unsatisfied he replied she should see a doctor - because he definitely knew how to make a woman happy.

--more--
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2061105/Piper-Laurie-claims-Ronald-Reagan-bed.html

Another Hollywood legend shattered!

[Half-Century Man]

34. He was right...

...He left and they became happy

[eShirl]

48. psst Ronnie: they were faking it you oaf

and apparently better actors than you ever were
not that it was a high bar to achieve

[NealK]

23. I wonder how many lives that scumbag destroyed?

[PowerToThePeople]

26. f'ing stasi bastard. n/t

[DirkGently]

27. Lest anyone think he wasn't a creep pre-Governorship.

[leveymg]

28. As SAG President, Ronnie was FBI Confidential Informant "T-10"

[Fuddnik]

29. Read the book "Subversives" by Seth Rosenfeld.

Reagan and Meese were much bigger pricks than we ever gave them credit for.

His SAG members were begging him for assistance in keeping them from appearing before the HUAC and McCarthy hearings, without knowing that he had already turned them in.

J. Edgar Hoover illegally assisted his election as California's Governor.

He was a member of the John Birch Society.

On and on. A great read.

http://www.amazon.com/Subversives-Student-Radicals-Reagans-Power/dp/1250033381/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376757797&sr=1-1&keywords=subversives+the+fbi%27s+war+on+student+radicals

[progressoid]

35. Looks like a good read.

But I will have to go back on my blood pressure pills if I do read it.

[LuvNewcastle]

31. There was nothing admirable about that scumbag,

which of course guaranteed him a position in the GOP. It's a wonder that anyone in Hollywood even spoke to the motherfucker.

[eppur_se_muova]

39. Read Rachel Maddow's "Drift" for interesting background on RR ...

I thought I had forgotten how bad he was. Turns out there was worse stuff I didn't know about.

[Cha]

40. If figures.. sneaky little informant. I can imagine what actors

think of him in Hollywood these days.

Not counting jon voight, stephen baldwin, john ratzenburger, gary sinese, clint eastwood, etc etc etc.

[Starry Messenger]

41. k&r

[DallasNE]

44. I Thought We Already Knew That Reagan Had A Hand In Actors Being Black Listed In Hollywood

So the story here is only about the degree of involvement Reagan had with this.

[theHandpuppet]

49. Yep, I've known about this for many years

But the digger you deep into the crypt of St. Ronnie, the more rotten the corpse. He was a real piece of work.

Some might find this piece interesting:

“We Must Keep the Labor Unions Clean”: “Friendly” HUAC Witnesses Ronald Reagan and Walt Disney Blame Hollywood Labor Conflicts on Communist Infiltration"

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6458

[theHandpuppet]

63. He also had a hatred of unions long before he became President

But boy did his inherent, cowardly vileness get a whitewashing, both then and still today.

[DeSwiss]

45. K&R

[PCIntern]

46. I actually kept The New Republic magazine which exposed that to the 'masses'

in the 80's. It was a very big deal.

[merrily]

50. In 2008, I was disappointed to see Reagan on the 10 best U.S.

Presidents in all U.S. history lists of both Obama and Hillary.

[blkmusclmachine]

51. Reagan, FBI stooge.

[cantbeserious]

52. Quite Fitting - Americas Chief Soap Salesman - Selling His Colleagues Short

eom

[Enthusiast]

54. Saint Ronnie was bad to the core.

An American Nazi in plain sight.

[Zorra]

60. "It" makes my skin crawl to this day. His inner rot manifested in what he did to our country. nt

:

[Surya Gayatri]

55. Thanks for the OP, kpete, but not really new news. Raygun was the

most craven of opportunists, with saleable scruples and amoral ambition.

[darkangel218]

56. Shnoopy shniffer!!!

Argh!!!!

[greiner3]

57. Before Ronnie;

Was an FBI informer, he was a 'flaming liberal' himself.

He 'switched sides' after his divorce and subsequent marriage to the 'Dragon Lady' Nancy.

[alfredo]

58. Competition for leading man roles was fierce. Ronny found a way

to narrow the field of his competitors by ratting them out. He was also able to punish political opponents in SAG.