Could Carter have won if Reagan's secret was out?

[snot]

29. Maybe.

Remember, Ted Koppel had a running program focussed on the hostage crisis and excoriating Carter for failing to free the hostages, literally night after night for what seemed like months (I believe the program was on most week nights, or something like that – it was more than once a week) – though I don't recall anyone having any suggestions as to how to accomplish that, apart from the rescue effort attempted under Carter but that failed through no fault of his own (one of the helicopters crashed and the mission had to be aborted). With or without Reagan, Iran had no intention of letting the hostages go in a hurry.

I never forgave Koppel for his exploitation of that situation, which I believe greatly damaged Carter's chances.

What the media chooses to focus on, and not, often communicates more than what they do say.