Short Takes

-- The leaking and publication of classified information has always been a murky area in criminal law, except when genuine military secrets are involved. Until the Pentagon papers case, the Government never bothered to prosecute. That would change radically if President Nixon's proposed Criminal Code Reform Act of 1973 is passed. For the first time, disclosure of any classified material would automatically be considered a felony. Any future Daniel Ellsberg would therefore be stripped of the defense that the revealed data did not harm national security. Reporters would be liable for prosecution if they published such material. Violators would face possible penalties of a $50,000 fine and up to seven years in prison. Vast amounts of Government documents are classified, and if the Administration's proposal becomes law, investigative reporting would be severely restricted. The provision, however, faces tough opposition in Congress.

-- One gauge of how relations between the White House and the press have changed comes in a reminiscence by Max Frankel, who recently left the New York Times Washington bureau to become the paper's Sunday editor. Writing in the Columbia Forum, Frankel recalls that during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, John Kennedy personally requested that the Times temporarily withhold exclusive information. His reason: if the Russians discovered prematurely how much the U.S. knew about their installations in Cuba, they would "take some action --like activating the missiles --and force him to attack." The request seemed reasonable. The previous year, however, the Times had quashed its story in advance of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Publication in that case might have avoided an epic U.S. fiasco. In the missile situation, therefore, the Times made a counter-request. As Frankel tells it: "Will the President give his word that he will shed no blood and start no war during the period of our silence? The Commander-in-Chief perceives no affront in this arrogant demand from the sidelines. He gives his word, and we delay our report for a day. No such bargain was ever struck again ... The essential ingredient was trust, and that was lost somewhere between Dallas and Tonkin."

-Esquire Editor Harold T.P. Hayes, after spending 17 successful years with the magazine, suddenly quit last week only months before he was to succeed Publisher Arnold Gingrich. The reason: Hayes refused to surrender editorial responsibility in taking over the publisher's role. Gingrich pronounced himself "bitterly disappointed" by the resignation. "He was my boy," said Gingrich of his 46-year-old protege. Gingrich, who must officially give up his title when he turns 70 in December, now plans to act as publisher indefinitely. Hayes' successor: Executive Editor Don Erickson, 41.

> Headline of the week: JUDGE SWATS BUG BIG AN EXTRA 18 MONTHS --committed by the New York Daily News, on a story reporting that Watergate Plotter G. Gordon Liddy was sentenced to an additional term for refusing to answer a grand jury's questions.

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