A recent study by FAIR – Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting – shows that when it comes to evaluating Ronald Reagan in the days immediately following his death, the news media contracted a case of self-induced Alzheimer’s.

“As the media spent the week memorializing Ronald Reagan, journalists are redefining the former president’s life and accomplishments with a stream of hagiographies that frequently skew the facts and gloss over scandal and criticism,” observes FAIR, a New York-based media monitoring group.

A June 6 article in the Washington Post claimed that Reagan was “one of the most popular presidents of the 20th Century.” ABC’s Sam Donaldson uncharacteristically proclaimed: “Through travesty, triumph and tragedy, the president enjoyed unprecedented popularity.”

And the Chicago Tribune reported on June 6 that ''Reagan’s popularity with the electorate was deep and personal…rarely did his popularity dip below 50 percent; it often exceeded 70 percent, an extraordinary high mark.”

What’s extraordinary are the lies being told about Reagan’s popularity.

Citing data from the Gallup Organization, FAIR noted that Reagan did not rate much higher than other post-World War II presidents. In fact, his 52 percent average ranked him sixth out of the past 10 presidents, behind Kennedy (70 percent), Eisenhower (66 percent), George H.W. Bush (61 percent), Johnson and Clinton (tied at 55 percent).

Reagan’s popularity frequently fell below 50 percent during his first term, reaching 46 percent during the Iran-Contra fiasco.

Reagan’s highest approval rating was 68 percent. Even though he was pilloried by Republicans, Clinton scored higher, with 71 percent. That same pattern held true as the two men left the White House.

“Ronald Reagan was the most popular president ever to leave office,” trumpeted ABC Anchor Elizabeth Vargas on June 6. “His approval ratings were higher than any other at the end of his second term.”

According to a Gallup poll taken in January 2001, Bill Clinton’s approval rating was 66 percent, three points higher than Reagan’s. Franklin D. Roosevelt also had a 66 approval rating at the time of his death in office after almost three and a half terms.

Journalists also did the public a disservice by providing decidedly unbalanced coverage.

An effusive New York Times story on June 7 claimed Reagan “was almost always popular and, many now say, usually right.” It added, “Reagan lived long enough to enable many of his old lieutenants, and some more dispassionate chroniclers as well, to argue that he had also been right on some of the bigger questions of his time.”

How did the venerable New York Times reach that conclusion? Six of the eight sources quoted were either Republicans or former Reagan staffers. FAIR asked, “Should readers be surprised that Reagan’s friends and former colleagues still think he was right?”

The media study observed, “Television news displayed an even more pronounced reliance on Reagan’s Republican admirers. The Sunday morning shows (6/6/04) almost exclusively featured Republicans; former Reagan chief of staff James Baker appeared on all three networks as well as FOX and CNN. FOX New Sunday featured, in addition to Baker, current national security advisor Condoleezza Rice, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Sheila Tate, former press secretary for Nancy Reagan."

MSNBC’s June 6 Hardball program featured Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole, Republican representatives David Dreier and Chris Cox, and Reagan strategist Richard Wirthlin.”

Reporters spoke endlessly of Reagan’s influence over world politics but mentioned his failures in passing, if at all.

"Reagan’s fervent support for right-wing governments in Central America was one of the defining foreign policies of his administration, and the fact that death squads associated with those governments murdered tens of thousands of civilians surely must be included in any reckoning of Reagan’s successes and failures,” FAIR stated. “But a search of major U.S. newspapers in the Nexis news database turns up the phrase ‘death squad’ only five times in connection with Reagan…”

FAIR stated, “The Reagan administration’s friendly policy toward Saddam Hussein was also a neglected media topic. During the Reagan years, the U.S. offered significant support to Iraq, including weapons components, military intelligence, and even some of the ingredients for manufacturing biological weapons like anthrax.”

Time magazine (6/14/04) deflected criticism of Reagan by observing, “Even when his views were most intransigent – when he wondered out loud whether Martin Luther King Jr. was a communist or failed for nearly all of his presidency to speak the word AIDS even once – Reagan gave Reaganism a human face.”

And the news media gave Ronald Reagan a pass.