15 Years Later, The Remaking Of a President

[kskiska]

By Howard Kurtz

The uplifting tone with which journalists are eulogizing Ronald Reagan is obscuring a central fact of his presidency: He had a very contentious relationship with the press.

Most reporters liked the Gipper personally -- it was hard not to -- but often depicted him as detached, out of touch, a stubborn ideologue. Sam Donaldson, Helen Thomas and company would do battle in those prime-time East Room news conferences that Reagan relished, and he would deflect their toughest questions with an aw-shucks grin and a shake of the head. Major newspapers would run stories on all the facts he had mangled, a practice that faded as it became clear that most Americans weren't terribly concerned.

(snip)

He was often depicted as a rich man's president with little feeling for the poor, as symbolized by the administration's "ketchup is a vegetable" school lunch debacle. Detractors said he was presiding over the "greed decade."

During the 1984 campaign, Reagan stood in front of a senior citizens' project built under a program he tried to kill -- but his aides didn't care, concluding that the pictures were more important than the reporters' contrary words.

(snip)

In his 1988 book "On Bended Knee," author Mark Hertsgaard complained that "news accounts generally failed to make clear the real-world implications of Reagan's inability or unwillingness to distinguish fact from fiction." That so many journalists seem to have changed their view in 2004 may represent Reagan's final triumph over the press.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20802-2004Jun6.html

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. I'm suprised that Howie isn't shilling like CNNFAUXMSGOPCNBC!

"The media dubbed him the Teflon president, and it was not meant as a compliment."

Reagan's teflon was not complimentary. Interesting, isn't it.

[TahitiNut]

4. It's the kind of 'Teflon' that causes cancer in the body politic.

And the Busholinis are the metastasis.

[lanparty]

10. I thought it was ...

... the hair gel. Something on that head kept his hair in the same place.

[hlthe2b]

2. Geez, whodda thunk it would be Howie Kurz

calling the press on their amnesia-induced idolatry?

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Now if only Howie would take the same kind of look

at the whoring he himself has done for the current numbskull-in-chief

[hlthe2b]

5. Actually, if you read the article, most of it sounds like he's talking

directly about GWB*..... Hmmmm, I wonder if this was intentional (not that there aren't similarities, mind you, but......)

[Art_from_Ark]

6. I did read the article

and the intentional connection with GWB, if there is one, is very subtle. The articles by Howie that I have read have mostly been digs at the people who are trying to point out Gee-dub's many fallacies.

[hlthe2b]

7. Maybe we can hope he's reached critical threshold....

But yes, you're right of course.... He's been quite the Bush* cheerleader... Yet, I never expected to see him say anything negative about the Gipper.... No more Hardball/Faux appearances for you, Howie!

[crossroads]

8. There *are* too many similarities...

for us to relax in our efforts to defeat shrub... clearly Reagan had this disease long before he got elected for the second term...
:shrug:

[crossroads]

9. Way to go... Howie!

glad ya came to your senses...
:dem:

[Moderator]

11. This is more of a retrospective analysis than breaking news

Hence, it is moving to the Editorials forum.