Obama Embarrasses and Instructs the Media on Reagan

Newsbusters' has a tribute to Ronald Reagan which details some of the biased political attacks and personal meanness directed at him in the media from 1983 to 2009.

But, now Reagan is President Obama's go-to president. Not FDR, JFK, LBJ or Clinton, but Reagan. Who would have guessed that TIME magazine would photoshop the two together in an admiring, affectionate stance? And with the headline that Obama (hearts) Reagan? How embarrassing for all those media snipers (not to mention the presidential historians who still can't bring themselves to say an encouraging word about the greatness of Ronald Reagan). Well, the "intellectual" president has put the dunce cap on them.

The Media Research Center has a more complete version up of media attacks on Reagan "with PDF), including 22 video clips and matching MP3 audio". Take a stroll with them down memory lane. Actually, these are some of the more civil things that were said about Reagan.

RDS (Reagan Derangement Syndrome) held sway long before BDS (Bush) or PDS (Palin). Newsbusters' Tim Graham rightly points out the crushing atmosphere Reagan faced:

"Think of everything Reagan did, and then add: He did it all before Fox News. He did it all before the Rush Limbaugh phenomenon. He did it all before the instant battle cry of his defenders could hit the Internet. He did it all before C-SPAN caught on and people could enjoy the game of watching entire speeches and debates and then observing how the network tricksters discombobulated them into liberal hatchet jobs. He did it all when the only conservative regular on the big networks was ABC’s George Will, who appeared once weekly as a panelist on This Week with David Brinkley."

Thankfully, the bias and hypocrisy in media treatment of Reagan have been exposed indirectly by President Obama's embrace of Reagan. Just comeuppance that a media hero would unravel the media narrative. Unfortunately this has not generated embarrassment sufficient to change media behavior. But the embarrassment itself is worth something.