CNN Insane To Jab At Reagan

As a conservative, I often question my sanity for spending time each day scouring the headlines and blog titles from liberal sources such as CNN, MSNBC, the Daily Kos, the Washington Post, etc. I know what I will usually find; melancholy accounts of the Iraq War, new revelations in the so-called scandals of the Bush administration, and unconcealed glee that the Democrats control the House and Senate. Each visit to these sites is a contributing factor to my gradually rising blood pressure, but it is important to monitor what is written and how it is presented to the public. While it is perfectly normal to question one’s own sanity for self-inflicting such political torment, it is not normal for a news channel to question the sanity of a revered former American president. That is, unless that channel happens to be CNN.

Thanks to an alert World Net Daily (WND) reader who, like me, wades through the media quagmire that is CNN.com, CNN was caught in the act of linking Ronald Reagan with “insanity” through a news headline on the CNN.com main web site page. The reader alerted WND and screen shots were captured from CNN.com last night that clearly demonstrate CNN’s original headline and the one editors replaced it with after WND blew the whistle on them.

Headlines on respectable news sites are expected to refer in some way to the topic of an article, but CNN apparently went out of its way to link the terms “Reagan” and “insanity” with the clear knowledge that the AP article had nothing to do with insanity or any mental illness. Where did CNN get the idea to link Reagan with insanity? The AP article, titled “Reagan’s wit, humor comes through In detailed diaries,” included one vignette of Reagan’s struggle with then teenage daughter Patti, who despised the limitations a Secret Service detail placed on her activities. Reagan wrote of Patti’s tantrums and literal screams at him and the agents to get rid of her protective detail, “Insanity is hereditary. You catch it from your kids.”

That humorous (and true, as any parent of a teenager knows) remark by Reagan is the only reference to “insanity” in the AP article, but in referring readers to the story, CNN chose to replace the AP headline with a disingenuous and completely out of context headline of its own: “Reagan diary gives new take on insanity.”

This despicable act by CNN is an object lesson in why conservatives must and do track the news from a wide variety of sources, even liberal outlets that our natural instincts tell us are not worth viewing. While some CNN.com readers were misled by the deplorable headline in the time it was on the site, WND’s rapid reaction in confronting CNN was a victory for truth. Small victories often turn the tide of war. WND deserves credit for confirming the reader’s report and confronting CNN immediately about its misleading Reagan headline. It is no coincidence that all of the GOP candidates for the 2008 nomination are attempting to embrace Reagan’s brand of conservatism and to emulate him as much as possible in their campaigning. CNN cleverly (so it thought) understood that linking Reagan with “insanity” would also link anyone trying to imitate him to “insanity” as well, thus the headline was an affront to all Reagan conservatives.

This headline story had a happy ending, as reported by WND:

In the wake of WND's exposure, CNN.com changed the Reagan headline on its homepage, removing any reference to "insanity." The updated headline read: "Reagan's wit comes through in diaries."

From wit to insanity, and back to wit again. The truth took a major detour under the direction of CNN’s editorial department, but the truth, as it always does, overcame. CNN’s executives have been pulling their hair out wondering how Fox News rose to #1 and remains firmly entrenched in that spot. They also puzzle ‘till their puzzlers are sore over how to regain credibility and viewers. The solution to CNN’s woes is simple and scriptural, which explains why they have missed it for so long: “the truth shall set you free.”