Subject: And Now a Word From the Hypochondriacs 
Date: Published: 1/2/90 (127 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    And Now a Word From the Hypochondriacs
    ----
    By L. Brent Bozell III

    Dear President Reagan:
    As you've probably noticed by now, we have labeled the
 '80s the "Reagan Decade" and have concluded that it was
 dreadful.
    Back in 1983, Sam Donaldson warned the country of what was
 ahead:  "There is plenty of room for disagreement over whether
 Ronald Reagan should receive a passing or failing grade for
 these past two years.  But there is a consensus in Washington
 that unless he changes his game plan ...the grade for the
 next two years will almost certainly be an F.  "
    The New York Times also knew back then that "the stench of
 failure hangs over the Reagan White House."  David Broder of
 the Post observed that, "`Reaganism,' it is becoming clear,
 was a one-year phenomenon."
    But, no, you wouldn't listen, and disaster struck -- and
 struck again.  As the recession ended, Irving R. Levine of NBC
 warned that "the danger is that as the economy picks up, it
 could become too much of a good thing."  CBS's Charles Kuralt
 pointed out that while "some analysts say that the country is
 now close to full employment ...the high employment rate
 is causing problems."  When the unemployment rate dropped to
 its lowest point since May of 1979, Connie Chung (then of
 NBC) detected trouble.  "The low unemployment rate is not
 entirely good news.  Fewer people are looking for work."
    It wasn't just the economy.  You claim you "liberated"
 Grenada.  We agree with the New York Times, which called the
 invasion, "a reverberating demonstration to the world that
 America has no more respect for laws and borders, for the
 codes of civilization than the Soviet Union."  You provided
 arms to the mujahideen of Afghanistan, but we had to rely on
 Bob Faw of CBS to tell us that "as rockets made in the USA
 keep falling here and flares to deflect those rockets keep
 burning small children, resentment toward the United States
 grows."
    You fought to arm the Contras even though, according to
 PBS's Bill Moyers, you knew all along that "the Contras used
 weapons from the `enterprise' against civilians.  It's a
 terrorist war they're fighting.  Old men, women and children
 are caught in the middle or killed deliberately as the
 Contras use violence against peasants to pressure their
 government.  Thousands have died ...as the casualties
 mounted, the secret government in Washington knew that the
 Contra leaders were not such noble freedom fighters after
 all."
    You were just as wrong about Eastern Europe.  Didn't you
 read New York Times reporter Ferdinand Protzman's piece about
 how "East Germany is the communist world's vaunted economic
 success story, held as proof that hard work, discipline and
 thrift can translate Karl Marx's theories into reality"?  
 Weren't you listening when NBC's John Cochran told us that in
 Hungary "the people have accepted the supremacy of the Party"
 and that Communist Party leader Janos Kadar was "the most
 popular politician in Hungary"?  The regime was just as
 popular in the Soviet Union.  In the words of ABC's Walter
 Rodgers, "the problem is that many Soviets don't want
 western-style human rights which they tend to equate with
 anarchy."
    With peace at hand, you bungled everything by refusing to
 surrender your Star Wars foolishness.  From Barrie Dunsmore at
 ABC, we learned that "here they had the possibility of
 eliminating nuclear weapons, nuclear missiles, at least in
 Europe -- that seems to have gone away, and Star Wars is the
 reason."
    Your social agenda was equally disastrous.  Because of your
 Supreme Court appointments, we got the Webster decision on
 abortion, tempting women to use home remedies, which "sadly.
 .  ., could damage a fetus instead of kill it," in the words
 of Newsweek senior editor Melinda Beck.  The drug crisis, says
 the Boston Globe, "has grown acute in the ghetto because of
 the mean, regressive priorities of the Reagan years."  You
 share responsibility for the Valdez oil spill, said New
 Republic editor Hendrick Hertzberg, because "the Reagan
 administration's contribution to the debacle consisted of
 eight years of disdain for environmentalism, hatred of
 `government' and worship of `the market.'"
    And look at the homeless.  Although three scientific
 studies have concluded the total number of homeless ranges
 from 250,000 to 650,000, we will continue to use the juicier
 3 million.  Then again, as our colleague Charles Osgood of CBS
 has predicted, "it is estimated that by the year 2000, 19
 million Americans will be homeless."  Why stop there?  CNN's
 Lou Waters has said that there are "up to 40 million
 Americans living on the knife-edge of homelessness."  Take
 your pick; we do.
    The '80s were a disaster, you caused it and our
 end-of-the-decade reviews prove it.  As CBS's Kathleen
 Sullivan keened, "While the wealthy got most of the
 attention, those who needed it most were often ignored.  More
 homeless, less spending on housing.  The gap between the top
 and the bottom grew in the '80s ...the AIDS crisis began
 in the '80s.  Some say the decade's compassion gap made it
 worse."
    Abigail Trafford of the Washington Post points out that
 "an unfortunate legacy of the Reagan Revolution is a swelling
 medical underclass; alcoholics and drug addicts who deluge
 emergency rooms, and fill prisons, AIDS babies and crack
 newborns in overwhelmed pediatric wards, homeless children
 with anemia, schizophrenics and other mental patients in
 shelters and jails and on the streets."
    Our TV brethren last week recalled these 10 years of
 travail and you probably thought their specials were weepy
 and whiny.  In print the decade didn't look much better.  The
 Washington Post's national weekly edition led its review
 issue with the headline, "Say Goodbye to the '80s:  Aren't You
 Glad They're Over?  " And USA Today ruminated, "The '80s were
 years of excess.  We swaggered through the portals and grabbed
 as much as we could.  We were greedy and gluttonous.  As long
 as we wore starched shirts, we could belch at the table.  And
 Ronald Reagan led us."
    Well, not all of us.
    The National Media.
    ---
    Mr. Bozell heads the Media Research Center in Alexandria,
 Va., and publishes its monthly newsletter, MediaWatch.

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