WXPost ripsidents and By 'Carroll Kilpatrick the conviction that much of the press would question the President's motives The author is White House correspond- regardless of what he said or did. John ent for The Washington Post. Connally told a press conference in the White House this summer that if rrHE QUESTION HAS been repeat- the President flew to the moon the -I. edly asked whether a press secre- press would not credit him with brav- tary trained as a newspaperman rather ery but charge that he was trying to than as an advertising executive would have been able to alert President escape. That comment indicates the ex- Nixon to the tragedy-in-the-making be- tent of the hostility that has developed fore Watergate engulfed the adminis- with the Watergate crisis; at times the tration. The question can never be an- administration has all but broken rela- swered with certainty, but a major les- tions with the Washington press corps. son of Watergate is that the ballyhoo What the Nixon men have never and image-making tactics employed in fully accepted is that other Presidents recent years served the President have been subjected to abuse and to badly. When frankness was needed it intemperate criticism from Congress was least in evidence. and the press. It is part of the adver- It would be a mistake, however, to sary process, and it is often taken place too much blame for the adminis- tration's public relations errors on much too far. Lincoln was pictured as Ronald Ziegler. It is the President who a baboon, Hoover was said to delight must bear the heaviest burden of re- in seeing babies starve, FDR was de- sponsibility. He and his closest aides picted in cartoons of his day as little told Ziegler what to say, how to say it, short of a lunatic, and Eisenhower was and when to say it. He brushed aside portrayed as a simpleton. None of Ziegler's recommendations for more those extravagances can be defend- presidential news conferences. Never- ed, of course. But they are part of theless, a stronger, more experienced American history, which the advertis- man than Ziegler might have recog- ing men in the White House seem nized the gathering storm sooner and warned the President more insistently. never to have learned in their high Ziegler's directive was to be a sales- school courses. man and to act as the President's go- Rather; when the Nixon men find between with the public, opening the themselves in difficulty they tend to White House curtain only in the most withdraw further away from the press. limited way. Ziegler was shrewd Thus Gerald L. Warren, a former enough to recognize that his responsi- newspaperman, has now been named bilities ran beyond that, but it is chief spokesman, a title Mr. Nixon doubtful that the men he took orde(rs originally had planned to give Ziegler from, including H. R. Haldeman, John after the 1968 election. At a time when D. Ehrlichman and the President him- the job should be strengthened, the self, saw Ziegler's role in the proper Nixon men seem to have decided to re- context. duce its importance. A President who As Henry Steele Commager argued does not relish the job of communicat- in The Washington Post in May, the ing with the people himself needs a Nixon administration viewed the gov- vigorous and commanding spokesman. ernment as a "giant public relations c+.9 enterprise." Commager said that the HE TEST OF A press secretary, of administration assumed that "policies course, is how well he reflects the are to be argued not oh principle but T man he serves. Pierre Salinger was an on the merits of their packaging, as it excellent reflection of John Kennedy. Bill were; that everyone and everything Moyers was not the perfect reflection. can be manipulated, never mind what of Lyndon Johnson, and he was drop- methods are used, never mind how the ped in favor of George Christian, who products turn out." was. Ziegler, the most criticized of c+.D them all, has been a true reflection of HE PRESIDENT'S approach, as the President. He reflected the image T well as Ziegler's, was conditioned the President wanted to put forth. In- by a long suspicion of the press and by deed, Mr. Nixon expressed his satisfac- AG 2 6 1973 The Spokesmen tion with Ziegler in a tribute at the an- helping each other. I have been trying nual dinner of the White House Corre- to keep you informed of the news of spondents' Association on April 14, Washington from the point of view of just before the Watergate crisis ex- the presidency. You, more than you ploded and Ziegler declared that past realize, have been giving me a great Watergate statements were deal of information about what the "inoperative." people of this country are thinking." The President said then that he be- And shortly before President Tru- lieved Ziegler had served both the man left the White House, a reporter President and the press "with equal asked if he thought the presidential loyalty and devotion." Praising Ziegler news conference helped in the proper further, Mr. Nixon said: "I believe that functioning of government. "Yes, I Ron Ziegler, with great poise, with really do," Truman replied. "It is one great patience, with great courtesy, way the President has to get his ideas has met that dual responsibility. He over in the way that people can under- has been loyal to the President and stand. I have had just about as much loyal to the Press, and I am glad to pay fun out of them as you have had." tribute to him tonight." But, the Presi- Obviously, "fun" is not a word Mr. dent went on, "I must say you have Nixon would use about a press confer- really worked him over." ence. Yet he is highly competent in tha True, the press did work Ziegler give-and-take of a press conference, over. But the main reason was that he and most of those he has held have was the only handy target when the done him more good than harm. Yet press believed that much information they are clearly a burden if not a seri the public had a right to know was be- ous nuisance to him; the one he held ing suppressed. Mr. Nixon has held last week was his first since March 15. fewer news conferences than any Pres- Just two months before President ident in 40 years. The questions news- Kennedy was assassinated, he was men would like to put to him have asked about proposals for reform or been put instead to Ziegler. Ziegler has urged more presidential news con- the press conference, such as limiting ferences, partly because he thought a conference to a single subject or- re- quiring that questions be submitted it they would serve the President's inter- writing. He did not favor the proposed est and partly because they would changes. "It seems to me," Kennedy make his job easier. But Mr. Nixon has said, "that it (the press conference: refused to appreciate that the press serves its purpose, which is to have the conference is a useful tool for him, a President in the bull's eye. And I sui, safety valve for any political figure, and now a necessary part of the demo- pose that is in some ways revealing." cratic process in this country. President Nixon has preferred to pua his press secretary in the bull's eye G-+.9 And one day recently, Ziegler, who hat, N THE INTRODUCTION to a recent tired of being in the bull's eye, said I collection of Franklin D. Roose- plaintively to a group of reporters: velt's press conferences, Jonathan "You guys will never believe me when Daniels, who served briefly as FDR's I tell you I was telling the truth as press secretary and also as Harry Tru- knew it about Watergate." man's, wrote that it is in the regular The problem is not one that involve press conference that the modern only the press and the White House. President speaks "most certainly as involves the government and the pub himself." Speeches, messages and lie, for the press is merely an imper other statements often represent the feet instrument connecting the tw labor of many minds. But the press and attempting to reflect an accurst conference displays "the man unique picture. Trust is the absolutely essen and the man alone," Daniels said. tial ingredient all around. And tha In 1941, after years of buffeting by trust has been shattered. Perham the press, FDR said at a White House everyone shares in the responsibility t 'Correspondents' Association dinner: some degree, but it is above all th "For eight years, you and I have been President who can repair the damage. .