Its good to finally have an honest evaluation of the Reagan years. While he was in office the media utterly failed to cover what was actually going on, as documented by Mark Hertsgaard in his book, 'ON BENDED KNEE, The Press and the Reagan Presidency':
"Hertsgaard presents a history and an indictment of the relations between the major news media and the Reagan Administration. He shows how the press, both through government manipulation and through voluntary self-censorship, abdicated its responsibility to report what was really going on in the Reagan Administration."
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/on-bended-knee-the-press-and-the-reagan-presidency_mark-hertsgaard/440543/item/181666/?mkwid=%7cdc&pcrid=448915190769&pkw=&pmt=&slid=&plc=&pgrid=104754618896&ptaid=pla-926048762119&gclid=CjwKCAiA6aSABhApEiwA6Cbm_8jFWmsuOAZRO2cozvQC58VburbPp7fmIvZnNJTE4-mdsJX6FsuoUBoCMzsQAvD_BwE#idiq=181666&edition=1020851