Media Matters for America, the “progressive” media watchdog group run by the former self-professed “right wing hit man” David Brock, and funded by some of the same people who poured millions into Democratic 527s in the 2004 campaign, is angry that Jimmy Carter and the Rev. Joseph Lowery have come under criticism for their attacks on President Bush during the funeral of Coretta Scott King. Why, the same sort of thing went on during the funeral of Ronald Reagan, Media Matters says, and no one complained. In a story headlined, “Media accused liberals of politicizing King funeral, ignored conservatives’ use of Reagan funeral,” Brock’s group reports that “Numerous media figures highlighted the alleged ‘partisan’ nature of Coretta Scott King’s funeral but failed to comment on the politicization of Ronald Reagan’s funeral.”
What is the evidence? Well, just look at the eulogy delivered by President George W. Bush, who was, Media Matters notes, “then in the midst of his re-election campaign” during Reagan’s June 11, 2004 funeral. Media Matters quoted several paragraphs of Bush’s eulogy to demonstrate just how overtly political it was — just like the speeches at Mrs. King’s funeral. For example, in 2004 Bush said of Reagan:
He came to office with great hopes for America. And more than hopes. Like the president he had revered and once saw in person, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan matched an optimistic temperament with bold, persistent action.
President Reagan was optimistic about the great promise of economic reform, and he acted to restore the rewards and spirit of enterprise. He was optimistic that a strong America could advance the peace, and he acted to build the strength that mission required.
He was optimistic that liberty would thrive wherever it was planted, and he acted to defend liberty wherever it was threatened.
And Ronald Reagan believed in the power of truth in the conduct of world affairs. When he saw evil camped across the horizon, he called that evil by its name.
There were no doubters in the prisons and gulags, where dissidents spread the news, tapping to each other in code what the American president had dared to say. There were no doubters in the shipyards and churches and secret labor meetings where brave men and women began to hear the creaking and rumbling of a collapsing empire. And there were no doubters among those who swung hammers at the hated wall that the first and hardest blow had been struck by President Ronald Reagan.
The portions in bold letters were highlighted by Media Matters as examples of particularly political portions of the president’s eulogy, comparable to the political passages in Carter’s and Lowery’s speeches. But Bush, assisted by conservative media bias, got away with it. “The media figures who covered the funeral did not call into question the propriety of a Republican presidential candidate celebrating Reagan’s economic and foreign policies in this setting,” Media Matters reported.
Media Matters urges its members to “TAKE ACTION!” by emailing protests to, among others, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, the Los Angeles Times, National Review, the Wall Street Journal, and several individual commentators. And those “progressives” will no doubt become angry when, for some reason, their protests are not taken seriously.