Yeah, but when they attacked Nancy Reagan, Reagan went after them hammer and tong. Gotta respect Ronnie for that. The media hates Republican First ladies. One reason, they are ALL a hell of a lot better looking than Hillary Clinton, lol.
They managed to portray Nancy Reagan as bitter and controlling, nonetheless. That was probably the view of her that most people accepted at that time.
I studied this kind of technique way back when I was in school. Why do businesses continue to spend billions on advertising, when nobody really believes it? Well, they think they don’t believe it, they think they see through it, yet they still buy the product.
The same with the media. Nobody trusts them, but they still mostly get their views of the world from these liars, and a lot of it rubs off on even the most skeptical readers and listeners.