Beloved by the media.(Ronald Reagan)

Nation, The, June, 2004 by Hertsgaard, Mark

Ronald Reagan lived a charmed life in many respects, none more so than in his relationship with the news media. Indeed, his accomplishments as President are impossible to understand without recognizing the way he and his advisers turned the media, especially television, into a national megaphone for his policies. Most obituaries of Reagan have noted the decisive role that public relations played in his White House, and it's true that the former actor's PR apparatus pioneered or perfected many of the news-management techniques now taken for granted by press and public alike. The media's own complicity in the process has generally gone unmentioned, however, perhaps because it is journalists who write the obituaries. Although the Reagan White House did not shrink from...

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