» SubscribeMain section
-
Top story
Media Monitor: Ronald Reagan and Commemorative Amnesia
141/
Media coverage promoted the dead Ronald Reagan as a heroic and visionary president. The divisive and bitter policies pursued whilst he was president were barely mentioned: trickle-down tax cuts for the rich, the contra wars in Central America, severe cutbacks in social programmes such as food stamps and Medicaid, expanding the nuclear arsenal, firing 13,000 air traffic controllers, and the defence of apartheid.
Instead much of the media coverage accepted and promoted as fact the Republican right’s version of his presidency: he won the Cold War, he renewed patriotism, he was a lover of freedom and democracy, he was a decisive and passionate leader. Indeed this version of events was not limited to the USA. The Economist had Reagan on the front cover as the man who defeated Communism.
Even his bizarre, inaccurate statements are forgotten. He believed that submarine-based nuclear missiles, once launched, could be recalled; maintained that real earnings were increasing in the United States when they were decreasing; told visitors to the White House that when he was in the military he had filmed the Nazi concentration camps (he served in Los Angeles where he made training films).
The fact is that the media, in covering his death, repeated exactly what it did when he was president. The Reagan White House not only tamed the media, it transformed it into a willing mouthpiece of the government in its coverage of issues ranging from economic policy to arms control.
In 1988 Mark Hertsgaard wrote On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency, drawing on interviews with journalists, news executives and administration officials. He cited examples of self-censorship by the news media but thought there were two other basic factors: one was the PR apparatus which pioneered many of the news-management techniques to provide interesting stories and appealing visuals which are now taken for granted.
The other was to do with the views and attitudes of the media towards elite opinion, and most of the nation’s elite either supported Reagan or were afraid to criticise him. The media failed to report and analyse Reagan’s policies when he was president. As one US commentator said, during coverage in the week of his death, 'The media all to often gave him a free ride when he was alive, and that ride has continued this week.'
Last modified: Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Previous miscellany stories
Russia: Clamping Down on Independent Media
Doing Its Job?
Mordechai appeals restrictions
Paul Foot
International Petition Calls for Israel to Lift Restrictions Against Mordechai Vanunu
New Link: Global Echo
ABUSIVE IMAGES
Reporting the Miners' Strike
MEDIA MONITOR: Charter for the Minority Press
Without Comment
Book Review: Privacy and the Press
US Free Press
Murdoch Watching
MEDIA MONITOR: ITV told 'Keep it local'
THE MEDIA AND THE MINERS
Campbell In Denial
WITHOUT COMMENT
Judge drops Bloody Sunday threat
RACISM AND THE MEDIA - UPDATE ON FREEPRESS 138
Public Interest Tests
Campaign welcomes new BBC chair
Protecting Your Sources
Digital radio: when more means less
MEDIA MONITOR: Nasty Racist Reporting
MEDIA MONITOR: Criminal Negligence
WITHOUT COMMENT
book review: Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq, ed David Miller (Pluto Press £12.99)
BOOK REVIEW: Journalism Principles and Practice, by Tony Harcup (Sage, £18.99)
BBC: Wrong or Wronged?
Press Regulation in Eire
-
Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
-
Previous stories
Miscellany
Russia: Clamping Down on Independent Media
Doing Its Job?
Mordechai appeals restrictions
Paul Foot
International Petition Calls for Israel to Lift Restrictions Against Mordechai Vanunu
New Link: Global Echo
ABUSIVE IMAGES
Reporting the Miners' Strike
MEDIA MONITOR: Charter for the Minority Press
Without Comment
Book Review: Privacy and the Press
US Free Press
Murdoch Watching
MEDIA MONITOR: ITV told 'Keep it local'
THE MEDIA AND THE MINERS
Campbell In Denial
WITHOUT COMMENT
Judge drops Bloody Sunday threat
RACISM AND THE MEDIA - UPDATE ON FREEPRESS 138
Public Interest Tests
Campaign welcomes new BBC chair
Protecting Your Sources
Digital radio: when more means less
MEDIA MONITOR: Nasty Racist Reporting
MEDIA MONITOR: Criminal Negligence
WITHOUT COMMENT
book review: Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq, ed David Miller (Pluto Press £12.99)
BOOK REVIEW: Journalism Principles and Practice, by Tony Harcup (Sage, £18.99)
BBC: Wrong or Wronged?
Press Regulation in Eire
