Reagan created the model for Trump. Reagan flipped the media industrial complex in America on its head and was not just a hero to the Republican Party; he was a hero to American media. Matt Trynauer, director of the documentary series "The Reagans," joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news

Paul Jay

Hi, I'm Paul Jay. Welcome to theAnalysis.news. Please don't forget there's a donate button at the top of the webpage, and if you're watching on YouTube, there's a subscribe button somewhere there, and we'll be back in a second.

Now, joining me to conclude our discussion about his Showtime documentary series The Reagans is Matt Tyrnauer, who's also the filmmaker of Valentino: The Last Emperor, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award for best documentary feature, and Where's My Roy Cohn? another must see if you want to understand the political forces that gave us Trump and today's political culture. Thanks for joining us again, Matt.

Matt Tyrnauer

Thank you.

Paul Jay

To start with, I want to talk a bit about how the media, particularly the news media, covered Reagan at the time and helped build this Reagan mythology. Here's a clip from the documentary.

excerpt from "The Reagans"

Our job with Presidents is to hold their feet to the fire. I was encouraged to be very tough at the White House, but when Reagan came in, my bosses changed direction. They were taking out things that sounded like criticism, removing them. Everybody was afraid to contradict him. The media was gentler on Reagan because of public opinion, I think. Reagan knew exactly how to play on the feelings of the American public.

Paul Jay

Further in the documentary there's another clip.

excerpt from "The Reagans"

Reagan's success was in part because he was the ultimate pitchman, and this is important to understand. Ronald Reagan's ultimate sales pitch wasn't to the American people, it was to journalism. He completely flipped the media industrial complex in America on its head, and by the time he left office in 1988, he was not just a hero to the Republican Party, he was a hero to American media because he had given them the sort of televised president that they had always wanted to see.

Paul Jay

When I heard that clip, which I believe is Lesley Stahl now with 60 Minutes, I was just floored that she could say such a thing without embarrassment. I mean, why didn't she quit? Why didn't she protest their editing her pieces, her bosses to make Reagan look better? I mean, that's crazy stuff.

Matt Tyrnauer

Well, as Jason Johnson says in the clip you just showed, Reagan was the televised presidency that the networks and the media industrial complex, which then was dominated by TV news, because this was pre-Internet remember, really wanted. There had been a big intermission from Kennedy, who was at the dawn of the age of television to Reagan, and the presidencies in between were not very telegenic. In fact, they were decidedly untelegenic.

Paul Jay

They were very radio.

Matt Tyrnauer

Well, you know, LBJ to Nixon, to Ford, to Jimmy Carter. I mean, you can't have four bigger duds, actually, than that in the TV era. Reagan was, for those of your listeners and viewers who haven't been watching the previous three parts, a movie star and a television star and a radio star before he became a politician and he had those skills.

Those were the skills he had,