The President & the Press

When President Eisenhower took office last January, he had the editorial support of more than 80% of U.S. dailies, the biggest newspaper backing any Administration has ever had. Washington newsmen, however, were less enthusiastic about the new Republican Administration than the papers they worked for; a big majority of the reporters were for Stevenson during the campaign. Nevertheless, newsmen were willing to wait and see how the new Administration would get along with the press. After nine months in office, how do Washington newsmen feel about Ike and his Administration?

Last week Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson gave a part of the answer. Into the Agriculture Department's conference room crowded almost 100 reporters to hear about the department's new reorganization plans. "The Secretary," announced Benson's press officer, "will start off the presentation, then Assistant Secretary [Earl] Coke will follow with details and present some slides. Please hold your questions until we get through the presentation." Forty-five minutes later, when the lights snapped on, there was little time left for reporters to question Benson about his controversial farm program. As Benson marched from the room, it was clear that for him--if not for the newsmen--the "presentation" had been a success.

Man on the Beat. The big complaint of capital reporters is that news by presentation is the cornerstone of the Administration's press relations. As a result, newsmen often get little chance to question top Government men if the presentation does not answer their questions or explain the policies satisfactorily. Complains New York Times Correspondent Bill Lawrence: "There's too much B.B.D. & O." Trying to reach sources directly to get the answers has posed another problem. Top Ikemen have generally become available to bureau chiefs, columnists and publishers, but newsmen covering routine beats are often left with little more than handouts. "I can get to see Brownell pretty readily," explains one Washington bureau chief, "but my beat man at Justice has a bad time even reaching any of the Assistant Attorneys General."

The presentation trouble goes right up to the top. At his press conferences, the President himself is friendly, at ease and no longer worried about questions that reporters might ask, though he has held only 15 press conferences. (In the first year of office, Truman had 42, Roosevelt 102 and Hoover 23.) But his announcements are made flatly, with little elaboration. Newsmen who try to question him are often good-naturedly, but nonetheless firmly, brushed aside. As a result, their reports are often confusing. Fortnight ago, after Ike was questioned on balancing the budget, the New York Times headlined:

EISENHOWER IS FIRM ON BUDGET BALANCE. But the Washington Post reporting Ike's answer to the same question, said:

PROLONGED BUDGET DEFICIT IS IMPLIED BY EISENHOWER.

Free Time. Such old New Dealers as Columnist Drew Pearson think the Administration's remoteness from working newsmen is a root cause of the trouble, compare the Ike Administration to the Hoover regime, when Hoover and his staff talked freely to newspaper bigwigs but seldom to other reporters. Thus, Washington Post Publisher Philip Graham plays golf with Presidential Assistant Sherman Adams, but the Post's able White House correspondent, Ed Folliard, has been able to see Adams only once. Ike's Press Secretary James Hagerty is a superb pressagent and well liked by everyone. But he frequently does not know about decisions until they are ready for public presentation and consequently cannot give the kind of background briefings that reporters often got from Truman's press aides.

Hagerty is, however, responsible for one major change in the Administration's relations with the press. "We're wasting millions of dollars of TV time." Hagerty told an early Cabinet meeting. From then on. some high officials began to appear regularly on TV panel shows while avoiding reporters assigned to them, apparently in the belief that TV was a fair substitute for press conferences. But Cabinet press relations are slowly improving. Defense Secretary Charlie Wilson, who rarely saw the press at first, recently started holding weekly on-the-record meetings with reporters. Secretary of State Dulles, twice in hot water after speaking too freely with newsmen (TIME, Sept. 14), now sees them regularly, handles his meetings like an old master.

Attorney General Brownell. after antagonizing most of the Washington press by leaking the Warren appointment to five favored newsmen (TIME, Oct. 12), last week helped repair the damage by delivering a first-rate briefing to newsmen at the National Press Club on the problem of witnesses who take refuge behind the Fifth Amendment in loyalty investigations (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). Says Brownell: "I have made mistakes during the first nine months, and I probably will make a lot more . . . The relationship with the press and the various media of information is a most difficult one."

Another source of difficulty is that even old Washington newshands, accustomed to the glib fluency of politicians, often have trouble understanding the vastly different ways and language of the new "businessman's" Government. "The main difference so far," says one correspondent, "is that the Trumanites would keep you up until 2 a.m. talking about what they were doing. The Ikeman sees you for 15 minutes in his office." As a result, such complicated news stories as-the Treasury's tax and money policies, atomic energy, defense spending or even U.S. foreign policy are often presented by newspapers in conflicting or contradictory ways. WASHINGTON NEWS MILL GETS ALL FOULED UP. headlined Editor & Publisher in a detailed account last week of some recent Administration press bobbles.

Milk-Wagon Horses. Washington reporters themselves are far from blameless in their relations with the Administration. Some seem to feel that because their papers supported Ike, their hands are tied, that all stories must be favorable. Said one cynical newsman: "Reporters don't have to be told any more than milkwagon horses. They learned all the stops long ago, and they do it just by instinct.-Many a newsman also seems overawed by Ike's national popularity. "I don't think our readers are ready for critical reporting yet," says a top columnist.

But if Ikemen still lead relatively sheltered and protected lives, their too great reliance on packaged press relations has often failed to make clear exactly what Administration policies mean. Until the Administration speaks with a clearer, franker voice and reporters go after their stories unhampered by second-guessing their publishers or their readers, Washington coverage will not be what it should be.

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