NY Times, Wash Post Criticized for Nancy Reagan Obituaries

By Greg Richter | Sunday, 06 Mar 2016 07:29 PM


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The New York Times and Washington Post both went for the negative early in their reporting Sunday on the deathy of former first lady Nancy Reagan, and conservative commentators made note of it.
Washington Times chief political correspondent Byron York was first to tweet about The New York Times' obituary.

Here is the section York describes:
Mrs. Reagan helped hire and fire the political consultants who ran her husband’s near-miss campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976 and his successful campaign for the presidency in 1980. She played a seminal role in the 1987 ouster of the White House chief of staff, Donald T. Regan, whom Mrs. Reagan blamed for ineptness after it was disclosed that Mr. Reagan had secretly approved arms sales to Iran.
Behind the scenes, Mrs. Reagan was the prime mover in Mr. Reagan’s efforts to recover from the scandal, which was known as Iran-contra because some of the proceeds from the sale had been diverted to the contras opposing the leftist government of Nicaragua. While trying to persuade her stubborn husband to apologize for the arms deal, Mrs. Reagan brought political figures into the White House, among them the Democratic power broker Robert S. Strauss, to argue her case to the president.
Mr. Reagan eventually conceded that she was right. On March 4, 1987, the president made a distanced apology for the arms sale in a nationally televised address that dramatically improved his slumping public approval ratings.

Many on Twitter agreed with York's assessment.


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Meanwhile, Mediaite's Joe Concha noticed that Lois Romano, the writer of The Washington Post's obituary, was clearly no friend to the former first lady or to Republicans in general.
Romano appears from her Twitter account to loathe "the Republican party and also appears to have affinity for one female Democratic presidential candidate in particular going back years to her time at Politico," Concha writes. "Just how she got the official nod to reflect on the life of Nancy Reagan by the powers that be at The Washington Post is an utter mystery."
"Nancy Reagan had an undeniable knack for inviting controversy," Romano's piece for the Post begins. "There were her extravagant spending habits at a time of double-digit unemployment, a chaotic relationship with her children and stepchildren that could rival a soap-opera plot, and the jaw-dropping news that she had insisted the White House abide by an astrologer when planning the president’s schedule."
Reagan's Just Say No anti-drug campaign is barely mentioned, Concha notes, and though some have called her program overly simplistic, it was something "nobody (lucid) can argue wasn't a well-intentioned initiative to primarily keep kids off of drugs," Concha said, comparing it to first lady Michelle Obama’s Let's Move campaign.
Reagan's predilection for fancy clothes and the purchase of White House china during a time of economic recession are blasted, Concha notes, even though no public money was used.
Concha said the Post's obituary is an example of how,not just on social media, but in the mainstream press, "respect, class and dignity are all relics of the past."
