Kay McFadden / Times staff columnist
Media join united front at service

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For the many political figures in attendance yesterday, the service for Ronald Reagan at Washington's National Cathedral was a time to set aside differences in honor of our 40th president.

The media were not to be outdone. News outlets quickly joined themselves to the display of unity in a mass acknowledgment that Reagan might, after all, have been a great man.

It was an astonishing turn of sentiment from organizations that 25 years ago were among his most dogged adversaries.

Former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw, who was at the ceremony and acted as a correspondent for his old employer, donned sackcloth and ashes: "I am thinking about the news media and how we failed to thoroughly cover and communicate the very essence of Ronald Reagan."

He was joined in eager assent by present-day anchors Wolf Blitzer and Judy Woodruff.

"I do think there's new information coming out now about Ronald Reagan," said Woodruff, adding, "With the distance of years, we have the ability to talk to people, to read, to get information that we missed in the hurly-burly."

Other news organizations weren't as direct in acknowledging the shift in attitude or offering a reason for it.

But their praise of all things Reagan was equally effusive, as when NBC's Tom Brokaw congratulated "Mike Deaver and the rest of the gang" for their skill at keeping Reagan's legacy alive.

This isn't quite the same as praising the actual legacy. Nevertheless, only its positive aspects were mentioned yesterday: the end of communism, the revival of national pride, the eternal optimism.

Even after the service, many anchors and analysts continued to shy away from a critical examination, as if it would be in bad taste.
 
Maybe they just were reluctant to disassociate themselves from the harmonic convergence of A-list guests. News people are susceptible to celebrity identification, and you could hear reflected glory as they pointed out each famous face to viewers.

"It is the cream of the political and judicial establishment of the country," said ABC anchor Peter Jennings, who was in full familiar-with-the-great mode. He noted Prince Charles, "who like his mother the queen was deeply taken with Ronald Reagan."

Amid the reverence and star sightings, only two networks got down to brass tacks while reiterating the achievements of a man who was nothing if not political.

Fox News Channel, unchecked by liberal remorse, busily got to work on how Reagan's ideology would perpetuate itself. This yielded some of the day's freshest information.

For instance, Fox anchor Brit Hume asked former Reagan administration official William P. Clark what he and his peers would do while briefly reunited in Washington.

Clark replied that over the next couple of days, there would be a gathering of former Reagan Cabinet members and aides to decide how best to shape Reagan's ideas to future policy; for instance, "the dignity and sanctity of human life."

ABC managed to get in the occasional tart reminder that the admiration due Reagan as president did not necessarily cover everything Republican in glory.

Jennings, spying former Rep. Newt Gingrich outside the cathedral, recalled the "less civil" style he brought to Washington.

When ABC correspondent Terry Moran cited President George W. Bush's effort to link himself to Reaganesque themes such as a deep faith, guest commentator and Reagan biographer Lou Cannon quickly noted the difference: Reagan didn't talk about his beliefs nearly as much, nor did he make them as explicitly Christian.

Television's treatment of the service itself was perfection. In a rare moment of restraint, news anchors stopped yapping and allowed the full gravity of the occasion to sink in.

From a visual perspective, access was extraordinary. The coverage may have been pooled, but audiences did not suffer from the lack of competition; those in charge let cameras be placed where they could provide intimate glimpses of the participants.

But intimate glimpses were not accompanied by their verbal corollary, exceptional insight.

Shakespeare's funeral oration for Caesar insists that the evil men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with the bones. The absolute reverse was true yesterday.

Like the Republicans who rode to victory in the 1980s, the media hitched themselves to Reagan's coattails, proving once again that they are long, indeed.

Kay McFadden: kmcfadden@seattletimes.com