Ronald W. Reagan, 1911-2004

Edited throughout the day

ABC News came on first with the bulletin that the president who had called Los Angeles home since the 1930s died at 1 p.m. this afternoon. CBS came on shortly after with Dan Rather, at 1:48 our time. Then NBC, CNN. Fox at 1:51 by my clock. At 1:55 p.m., the L.A. Times website lacked the news, the L.A. Daily News had a bulletin up, the New York Times also had a brief news splash. (The LAT caught up a few minutes later, posting the AP story—and now has up a photo and video gallery, a link to speeches and documents, and a timeline.) Great argument for human editors: Google's automated news page did not have the Reagan death up at 2:02 p.m., though Yahoo's did.

So much for sentiment: Channel 4 cut away from Reagan biographer Bill Boyarsky mid-anecdote at 2:27 p.m. to air NBC's coverage of the Belmont Stakes horse race. Channel 2 has already returned to golf.

Ad-lib honesty: ABC asked George Will why some presidents get to lay in state in the Capitol, as Reagan will, and some don't. Will: "I don't have any idea."

Traffic watch: In addition to street closures in Bel-Air, Santa Monica police have begun shutting down streets around the Gates Kingsley & Gates mortuary on 20th Street where Reagan's body will be removed. After a funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington, Reagan will be buried at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

Obits:
• Lou Cannon in the Washington Post.
• Marilyn Berger in the New York Times, with reaction sidebar from L.A. bureau chief John Broder.
• Johanna Neuman in the L.A. Times, with sidebars on his Cold War legacy by Doyle McManus and political legacy by Ron Brownstein, plus an unsigned editorial that will appear in tomorrow's front section because Sunday Opinion has already been printed.