Newspapers and network newscasts are stuffed with stories on the death of President Ronald Reagan but the “uplifting tone” of most of them hide the fact that Reagan had a “very contentious relationship with the press,” Howard Kurtz says in his Washington Post Media Notes column.
“The media dubbed him the Teflon president, and it was not meant as a compliment,” Kurtz says. “Reagan was, quite simply, a far more controversial figure in his time than the largely gushing obits on television would suggest.”
“That so many journalists seem to have changed their view in 2004 may represent Reagan’s final triumph over the press,” Kurtz said.
Another more sober view with plenty of reference to history comes from The Nation‘s media critic Eric Alterman.
“To me the most astounding thing about Reagan was his ability to convince the many members of the media and much of the country that his fantasies mattered more than reality did,” Alterman said. “In this regard, I think we can point to his presidency as the moment the country went off the rails in terms of a willingness to address its real problems, rather than the ones we wish we had.”