Nancy Reagan, the late former first lady, is getting the last laugh on the Washington Post which offered a rude obituary of former President Ronald Reagan’s bride Monday.
Our T. Becket Adams reports on how the paper changed the snarky tone of the story after it first posted. She died over the weekend at 94.
It probably wouldn’t have surprised Reagan, who used to joke about the paper’s bias.
Reagan’s acclaimed biographer, Craig Shirley, told Secrets that he included a Nancy Reagan joke about the Post, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times, in his latest book Last Act, about the Gipper’s final years.
He told us:
Nancy Reagan had the last laugh on the Washington Post. She used to tell a joke on how the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal would report the end of the world, each playing to type.
The Times would report “World Ends Tomorrow, See Page A37 for details.”
The Journal would report “End of World Tomorrow! Stocks Plunge!”
And the Post would report, “World Ends Tomorrow! Poor and Minorities Hardest Hit!”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
