University of California, Hastings College of the Law UC Hastings Scholarship Repository Formation of the National News Council Judicial Ethics and the National News Council 11-1973 The aN tional News Council's s News Clippings, 1973 November 5 - 1973 December 26 The aN tional News Council, Inc. Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.uchastings.edu/nnc Recommended Citation The aN tional News Council, Inc., The National News Council's s News Clippings, 1973 November 5 - 1973 December 26 (1973). Available at: http://repository.uchastings.edu/nnc/172 This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Judicial Ethics and the National News Council at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Formation of the National News Council by an authorized administrator of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. illflTtt-t'tq.7n1is G'rUUtitt The process by which such press councils corne to their MiNNEAPOLIS, MINN. decisions is as important (sometimes more important) D. 240.275 SliI'!. 674,302 than the decision itself. Interestingly, the .l\\·o ch:cf executives of the counc il s in DEC 1 4 1973 question-former California Supreme Court Chief Jus­ tice Roger Traynor of the national group and Minnesota Supreille Court Judge C. Donald Peterson - both sug­ gested that open deliberations may stir up problems with the laws of defamation. The meetings were held near Racine in the \Vindspread reviews Conrerence Center, a m,l[velous rustic lodge designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for t he operators of the Johnson \Vax works. Later it was given to their foundation for varioLls sessions JiI.;.; thi.s fOj' consider<,tion of eloquent ideas. One meeti!1g last year of journalists, educaLors Meeting question not open and shut ai1d attorneys :lorrived at the obvious conclusion that the public has little or no concern about press freedom and B:; Irv Letofsky the right to know. Slaff Writer A Minnesota council member. Universitv of Minnesota Racine, Wis. Professor J. Edward Gerald, while admitting he wants "The new members of the nudist colony," said Jim Bel r­ open meetings when rver he plays the role of reponer, mann, "arc embarrassed for a while and then the v Come proclaimed that he wants government by law, not by to like it." Bormann is the longtime new sman at \VCCO, journalism. later kicked upstairs to grander duties as public nff:l irs director. I can't be sure how he comes to know :;0 much One of the instigators of the state council, Robert Shaw, about nudists but I endorse his fleshy analogy. manager of the Minnesota Newspaper Association, argued back that "The people have a right to see people It came durin~ a debate on why meetings on public mat· on a public body in action ... What ters should be open to public people, like their reprcsen­ we are talking about (dosed ses­ tatitves from the press. It was, apparently, not a sUC I':eS3- , " .~':" ~ . f\.~::<" sions) is our own comfort." Without ful analogy, since the participants in t2' . ~ perfect visibility to the public, there the parlay-the new NaLional News arise the same old suspicions, he Council and th: older Minnesota Press ; "'; :/ " ,,, went on. Council, of which l30rmann is a mem­ , ber-seem content to go alon.[! in a . I} l' At. one point or another, both of the pattern of open hearings on the evi­ . , " I V"' ...... · judges dismissed the issue as minor. dence but closed deliberations. ) Neither is journalistic in his orienta­ tion, as far as I know. But they \,,'ere Wha t irony, that organizations SilP­ \ .......- - joined in their sentiment, b~"'RJlph posedly devoted to freedom of the Otwell, managing editor of the Chi­ press should even con~ider procet:c!­ cago Sun-Times and president of the ings in star chambers. It is too per­ Society of Professional Journalists fect. , ,- . (fc,rmerly Sigma Delta Chi), who .::... _" .1 ;. ••.: ought to know better. In my bias, closed meeting sugges t Bormann arrogance. Thq' reflect a suspicion Another problem with closed meetings is that the reca­ of the journalistic process and' a lack of r E: opeCi for thE pitulation of what went on often comes out muddled. An public 's ability to understand. If we have l ca r-:-icci any Associateo Press report on the meetings here said that thing from recent political events it should be lhJt de the discussion with the Minnesota council was closed. As mocracy requires confidence and credibility in pu blic ~tf a matter of fact, that was the only meeting that was fairs. open.- , . ) Clayton Fritchey . It's been billed 'candor' but • • • WASHINGTON-Thanks to the White the former attorney general and ex­ Nixon. can hardly be criticized for House's "Operation Gand~ r , " P r e ~ ident . campaign manager, kept him in the hating. "instant analysis," either on the Nixon has now made "full disclosure" dark. \ . air or in the press. If it weren't for about many of the biggest problems About burglarizing the office of Dan­ that, the President could have dis­ and difficulties besetting him. As a re­ iel Ellsberg's psychiatrist: John Ehrl­ proved Lincoln's dictum that you can't sult, the American people finally .have ichman and Egil Krogh went way be­ fool all the people all the time. an explanation of how it all happened. yond their instructions. Even against press surveillance, he It's hard to understand why Nixon Explaining the mystery of wiretap­ has shown over the years that it is held out so long against taking the pub­ ping his own brother, Donald Nixon, possible to fool enough people enough of the time-at least enough to get lic into his confidence, tor, as his dis­ out in California: Well, Donald knew elected and reelected President. cloffilres make perfectly clear, he has about it all the time. It seems he just been the innocent, long-suffering victim craves to be bugged. MOST OF the President's "full dis­ of political enemies and close associ­ In respect to John Dean's testimony closures" have already been punctured ates who let him down. For example: that Nixon knew everything about the by a diligent press, but there is one in On the energy cr,isis: His far-seeing Watergate scandal: "I'm not saying particular- the insinuation that Lyndon efforts to head off this emergency were John Dean is a liar. I am just saying Johnson personally tutored ;Nixon on sabotaged by a stubborn, benighted, he's mistaken." [Note : Nixon has the how to beat the income tax-that needs unfriendly,Congress. tapes to prove it, too, but somehow further debunking. they have been lost.] Nixon gave his Vice Presidential pa­ REGARDING THE Watergate tapes The reason why he asserted the doc­ pers [at a claimed valuation of and that gaping gap on the June 20, trine of "executive privilege," and at $500,000] to the National Archives, and 1972, recording discovered py Nixon's first refused to let the courts have any in return took a handsome tax dequc­ personal secretary, Miss Woods: It was White House tapes or other Presiden­ tion. He said he got the idea from Rose Mary's boo-boo. tial documents: It's Thomas Jefferson's L.B.J. after the 1968 election. But John­ Recapitulating the crisis over the fir­ fault. Jefferson set the precedent, and son himself, who had Presidential pa­ ing of special prosecutor Archibald Nixon had to uphold it . pers worth millions of dollars, chose CJ)x:....Nixan.. w as double,cr-{)Ssed 13 m·· xl theg _hat- *lOO,OO() cash"Contribu­ not to ~t-ake advantage-oi-a tax loophole mer Atty. Gen. Elliot Richardson. ; , tion [all in $100 bills] from Howard that Congress was then in the process Concerning complaints over the ad­ Hughes to the President's crony, Bebe of outlawing, altho he had taken some ministration giving the milk industry a Rebozo : Bebe stashed it away in a deductions in previous years. His later multimillion-dollar price boost after a safety deposit box for several years decision cost his estate a large sum. large campaign contribution: Congress and simply didn't tell his old White . The record shows that Nixon had tak­ and George McGovern "put a pistol to House friend anything about it. en a deduction for some of his papers our head. " Has any President in history ever previous to his talk with L.B ..J. Apropos of the methods by which been wronged so much by so many The White House is now sending out Nixon avoided many thousands of dol­ people, especially by those closest to thousands of "fact sheets" to give "Op­ lars of income taxes: He just took a tip him? In the light of the President's eration Candor" the widest distribution. from former President Lyndon John­ blamelessness, how could the people's The President says, "If you feel that son. confidence in him reach·an all-time low you need more information, write to As to why Nixon was so long in in the pUblic-opinion polls? His answer: me and I will give it to you." catching on to the Watergate break-in Television and its "vicious distortion" Don't Write-telegraph. and subsequent coverup: John Mitchell, of the "facts." Los Angeles Times Syndi cale 16 Section 1 Chicago -Trib\:lne, 1 uesday, December 11, 1973 Pers active A forum--ideas, .analysis, diverse opinion -I White House Won/tJoin\ InS,tudy of News Media . r""F etU 1J(dt l'<o'f 8 Pn If) -; ~ r t.