“Grudgingly, in partial explanation of their failure to damage Reagan seriously, the media adopted his admirers’ enthusiastic description of him as the Great Communicator. On November 6, 1984, he proved his right to that title by winning reelection 49 states to 1. At that point, a good many conservatives were beginning to suspect that the media—and for that matter the liberals generally—had been overrated as adversaries. Granted, Ronald Reagan was clearly something pretty special when it came to winning the hearts of the American people; but it no longer seemed quite so impossible to win national elections, even with the major media solidly in the opposition’s corner. To many conservatives, it was a blessed relief to know that there were at least some things the media couldn’t always do.”
Source: The Coming Battle for the Media: Curbing the Power of the Media Elite (1988).
Keywords: media,elections,conservative-leadership
