Ignoring L.BJ.

President Johnson has no trouble commanding the attention of the U.S. press, but occasionally he suffers a blackout abroad. Last week Punch rapped the knuckles of the London dailies for ignoring an important Johnson declaration. "The business of newspapers, as we all know," wrote Punch Press Critic Francis Williams, "is to report the news. But an interesting question arises, I think, from the British press reporting of a recent statement by President Johnson. How far are they justified in leaving out what they think their readers do not want to hear?"

What British readers did not care to hear, apparently, was a statement from Johnson that he believed the allies of the U.S. should send troops to Viet Nam as Australia and New Zealand had done, and that he intended to ask them to do so. Most London dailies did not carry a word about it. While Johnson's request is "not likely to gain much support among the British public," said Williams, "ought not the press to have reported it had been made -even if editorially it then put the case against?"

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.