The Man and the Myth

THE PRESS has been unfair to Ronald Reagan, or so he would have us believe. More and more often, the President complains that he is being made to look like some kind of ogre, who takes perverse pleasure in cutting government programs for the nation's needy. "My program hasn't hurt anybody," he has maintained "No one has been thrown out in the snow to die." Just last week, he repeatedly pounded his fist on the podium at a news conference and thunderingly accused the press of fostering the notion that reductions in Social Security benefits may be coming soon.

It is certainly true that many columnists and news reporters have taken hard shots at the man. The New York Times recently ran a picture showing people on a food line one cold night; the brightly-lit White House was plainly visible across the street. Network news shows often interview people who have packed their families and belongings into their cars and hit the road to find work. The Village Voice compiled horror stories of poor, homeless people who testified before a Congressional panel just before Christmas. The tales included people sleeping in Salvation Army clothing deposit boxes and pretending they had sick relatives in order to enjoy the warmth of hospital waiting rooms. The vignettes were introduced as "the most enduring monument to Reagan's President--the creation of a subculture of misery."

Strong stuff, indeed. But is it fair? There are those who believe that "there are always two sides to every story," and that members of the press focus on things like the unemployment rate without paying similar attention to the Administration's successful efforts at bringing inflation down. But this may have more to do with the nature of news coverage than with the allegedly anti-Reagan politics of reporters and editors. It is hard to interview people who have even noticed the lower inflation rate, because prices still keep going up: it is only the rate of increase that has diminished. By contrast, the long unemployment lines and long food lines are visible and full of interesting, articulate people who had jobs and food before Reagan took power.

The press may seem a little eager to come up with human interest stories that show Reagan in a negative light. But the possibilities present themselves so often, it gets hard to avoid capturing some of life's little ironies. Right before Christmas, for example, the President stopped at his mother-in-law's home in Phoenix while on route to Palm Springs. The nation's ninth largest city has no public or private emergency shelters for its estimated 3300 to 6200 homeless people. In July, the city passed an ordinance making it a crime to sleep or lie down on public property; shortly before Reagan arrived, the rule was used to evict 30 homeless people from under a bridge during a rainstorm. Phoenix has also declared all garbage in alley-ways to be city property, and police say they will fine people foraging through garbage dumpsters for "stealing city property."

REAGAN'S PROBLEM is not the press, it is the way he has responded to what he perceives as media injustices. He could argue, for instance, that the actions of the Phoenix city government have nothing to do with him and that he has not intended to create a national atmosphere that say it's okay to ignore or attack the poor. But instead, Reagan makes himself look worse. He had this to say about TV stories on the unemployed: "Is it news that some fellow in South Succotash has just been laid off, that he should be interviewed nationwide?"

Those kind of off-the-cuff remarks belie the President's contention that he is being unfairly chastised. They also constitute a direct insult to people who are forced to live without jobs, food, or hope. After all, Reagan put his hand on a Bible in 1981 and swore to do certain things. If the media now want to call attention to millions of citizens facing despair, starvation, or death by exposure, the President should listen. Rhetorical attempts at martyring himself will not change Reagan's well-deserved image. Nor will they bring the country out of the dire straights into which the President has steered it.