Cablenewser roundup of cable coverage of Reagan's death.

Cablenewser ^ | 06/06/04 | Cablenewser

[Pikamax]

Reagan: Praise For Keith Olbermann's Reports
Keith Olbermann's performance on MSNBC last night has received kudos from many chatters. "This was the finest I have ever seen Keith," one e-mailer said this morning. A TVSpy poster says "he was winging it the whole way through, you couldn't have asked for more." Another person says he was on par with a network anchor: "Keith's closing was a classic, 'President Reagan today slipped the surly bonds of earth to see the face of god.' "Keith just had an ease and grace about him that was without parallel last night," a TVHead-er says. 12:32:22 PM

Reagan: A Master of TV, A Manipulator of Media
"Ronald Reagan was born before television, but television was born for him," the Mercury News says Sunday. "No president before Reagan, and no president after, was ever as comfortable with, or such a master of, TV." Howard Kurtz described Reagan's relationship with the media on CNN this morning. "Reagan was probably the first modern president who really perfected what all [presidents aspire to], which is to go over the heads of the media," he said. Former WH correspondent John Palmer appeared on MSNBC. I wrote a research paper on Reagan's media relations last month; here are excerpts. 12:31:47 PM

Reagan: CNN "Couldn't Even Get Their Lines Right"
The TVSpy posters aren't afraid to express their opinion of CNN's early Reagan coverage. "Get your act together," one viewer says."We have all known that the news of Reagan could come at any moment, and CNN couldn't even get their lines right." Here's how one person describes initial coverage: "They are LAST with the news Reagan has died. Then they go to the beauty-queen anchor who stumbles her way through a lead to a Reagan obit package.... but they DON'T HAVE IT READY. She stumbles for another 30 seconds or so, the prompter glaringly absent, they finally cue it up. Weak." It seems to have improved on Sunday, though. 12:31:10 PM

[Brian Mosely]

Hehehehe..I like this one:

CNN aired an obit package from Frank Sesno, who left the network years ago...

[Keith in Iowa]

I like the comparison further down the page on http://www.cablenewser.com/ that likens FoxNews coverage to an Irish wake...I think Ronnie would have liked being rememberd the way FoxNews did it.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I think the networks were surprisingly objective in their Reagan coverage.

I didn't hear any of the liberal usual lies, like the homeless problem, decade of greed, blah blah

[mware]

I had a hunch that Matthews would be kind to President Reagan. I watched him last evening, and he treated President Reagan with what I thought was honor and respect.

[reformedliberal]

Matthews worked w/Tip O'Neil and he knows that Tip and Ron were at odds during working hours and friends after dark.

It may kill them, but no one wants to be seen speaking ill of the dead. Those rank and file who are spewing venom are hurting their side, IMO.

[GreenHornet]

I did a lot of "channel surfing" this weekend just to see how the various cable news and broadcast networks were covering the passing of Ronald Reagan. Yes, there were a few references to Iran Contra, but overall, I was surprised by how thoughtful, reverent, and positive the coverage was, regardless of the network.

[mware]

Yeap, I see Andrew Sullivan has one of the more vile threads from DU on his web site.

[nutmeg]

find later bump