European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 18, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                On the tube Ron Reagan shows Liberal appetite late at nightly Lou Cannon the Washington Post Nee upon a time Ron Reagan raised eyebrows by cavorting in his underwear on saturday night live. Starting this past week he is trying to raise the consciousness of late night to viewers with a Frank and funny interview show that he says has the a a subversive purpose of making people think. Whether the youngest child of Ronald and Nancy Reagan can establish a Niche for such a program in after hours Market dominated by Johnny Carson Jay Leno David Letterman and Arsenio Hall is unknown. But it is Clear that Ron Reagan himself has been doing some thinking about troubling issues and about the famous family in which he is the most accepted offspring. A everybody in any family assumes a role or is Given a role a Reagan said in an interview. A in my family for better or worse i was handed the role of the Good kid. Now it did no to make any difference that i in fact got into More trouble than any of my siblings. I was thrown out of school. I was caught in bed with girls. I smoked dope but still it did no to matter because i was the Good kid the favorite son. It was not a role that i Ever aspired  nonetheless it is the role that he has played with professionalism and skill. Despite his Youthful escapades and an indifferent academic record he was a dropout from Yale Ron Reagan has been a successful Ballet dancer a Graceful writer for publications such As Playboy and rolling Stone and a National correspondent for Good morning America. He has been a happily mar. Ried a As he puts it to Doria Palmieri since 1980. Now 33, Ronald Prescott Reagan because of his different Middle name he a never a a Junior continues to Star As the Good kid. He has remained on Good terms with Maureen and Michael Reagan his fathers children by Jane Wyman. He argues with his father about politics but flies to his Side when he is in trouble As he did when his father was shot in 1981 and when the president was plunged into despair by the Iran Contra revelations in 1986. And Ron Reagan has managed to stand by both his Mother and his sister Patti Davis in their running feud that was a minor theme of Davis thinly disguised autobiographical 1986 novel Home front and the preoccupation of her new novel a House of secrets. In a typical attempt to take the sting out of it Reagan explains that Home front was co authored. He has not read the current novel. A i have a lot of sympathy for Patti and her problems a said the Good brother. A i done to always agree with the Way she works out these problems but she has every right to do it her  he is doing it his Way on the Ron Reagan show a daily one hour program on 110 stateside stations of the Fox network. While the promo material quotes Reagan As saying the show is a dedicated to the proposition that the audience is intelligent a in an interview Reagan cheerfully bit the hand that feeds him by denouncing commercial tvs Lack of intelligence. A television is relentlessly stupid because it s s not an entertainment or information medium but a marketing outlet a he said. A was we All know its the commercials that count not the shows. More Money More thought More pm Phasis is placed upon the  the Good kid has turned out to be a Radical and a thoughtful one at that. A i am fairly far left a said Reagan who believes that a television is the Beacon of commercial capitalism. The Ron Reagan show tackles such issues As youth gang culture and the exploitation of women issues on which the Host thinks the american system has been tried and found wanting. One of capitalism a problems he said is a the requirement of an  in taping episodes of the show on rap Black directors and the gang culture Reagan became impressed with the claim of Blacks who believe there is a a program of genocide directed at their communities. A you go into Compton and South Central l.a., you la see More liquor stores More gun shops More tobacco advertising than anywhere else. You talk about the drug problem the War on drugs which is a Sham but those people think that drugs Are being funnelled into their communities quite deliberately As England pumped up the opium Trade in China in the 19th Century. And they be got a  in his critique of the drug War a Sham a Ron Reagan is a Long Way from the a just say not Espousal of his Mother. In his negative assessment of capitalism he is a philosophical Light year away from his father whose speeches still celebrate the glories of the marketplace. But when Ronald Reagan was a year older than his son is now he was a Liberal Democrat in Hollywood who joined the idealistic United world federalists and two groups that he subsequently Learned were heavily influenced by the communist party. If the former president remembers that period of his life he May be sympathetic to the views of his son who respects his father but does not Admire his politics. Ron Reagan reacted supportively to his Mother when she was savaged in the recent Book by Kitty Kelley but thinks that political scandals of the Reagan years deserve investigation. A a it a easy to dismiss something like a luncheons with Frank Sinatra because its just so off the Wall a he said. A a what a harder to dismiss is the a october surprised the charge by former members of the Carter administration that Reagan Bush Campaign operatives agreed with iranians to delay release of . Hostages in Tehran until Reagan was elected. I take that seriously and Welcome the investigation. If it results in the political demise of George Bush that Sok with  18, 1991 sunday a Page 15