On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency Review

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(More customer reviews)ON BENDED KNEE: THE PRESS AND THE REAGAN PRESIDENCY is (now) a historical snapshot and a thorough analysis of that emerging picture. The focus of attention is upon the exact relationship between (not surprisingly) the press apparatus of the Reagan Administration and the press itself. And his conclusion -- that Reagan faced a press that rarely even thought about trying to draw blood -- is something that any Reagan supporter would find hard to argue. After all, author Mark Hertsgaard even gets some quotes from Reagan Administration officials who basically agree with his argument.
ON BENDED KNEE was published in 1988 (the book mentions the on-going Presidential campaign of that year, but seems blissfully unaware of its conclusion), and the main feature separating this political book from political books of today is that there appears to have been actual research put into it. While some modern books seem content to rest their conclusions on the backs of half-remembered interviews on CNN or from rumors they gleamed off the Internets, Hertsgaard interviewed over 175 persons. Persons from both the press and the Reagan Administration.
It's these interviews that drive the book. Hertsgaard's technique is to proceed chronologically, letting the quotes build up an individual story, and then inserting his own analysis to show how these specific events fall into an overall pattern. Hertsgaard spends time analyzing both the construction/distribution of the Reagan "message" and how that message was parsed by the media. The pattern seems eerily similar to the post-9/11 coverage of today's government and those parallels will seem obvious and ominous.
I found this to be a very convincing argument. Hertsgaard obviously has a point of view (negative on both the Reagan policies and on the press coverage they received), but he's very logical and meticulous in laying out his case. People looking for how the Reagan people played puppet-master with the press may be disappointed, as the overwhelming attention is placed on the self-censorship that took place within the press itself with little need of any influence from the Administration. However, he does take some time to show how the Reagan Public Relations circle manipulated news and images to place their man in the best light possible.
It's interesting to read about the birth of many awful aspects of the media which were new at the time, but which are now depressingly ever-present. The author looks at the Presidential Election of 1984 and points out how the media focused more attention on the horse-race, on the latest polls and on the question of who will win at the expense of covering where each candidate actually stood on the issues and whether those positions were wise or foolish. Hertsgaard correctly points out how such attention on trivia rather than issues does a disservice to the audience and, ultimately, the politicians themselves.
Many of the book's subjects are still hot topics of political conversation today. The blurring of news and entertainment. The fact that more news outlets are owned by fewer and fewer companies and individuals. The timidity of a press, terrified at the thought of doing anything that might be considered "liberal". Still important issues, this is where many of them had their beginnings.
Unfortunately, such reporting is commonplace nowadays. I'd love to see a follow-up from Hertsgaard written today, analyzing the trends he first noted here. It would probably be a depressing and predictable read, but it would have to be an important one. ON BENDED KNEE may be discussing events of twenty years ago, but the points he raises still have resonance today.

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