Printing Under the Gun

In January, when two men said to be members of the Symbionese Liberation Army were arrested for the murder of an Oakland school official, San Francisco's two major papers leaped on the story with classic gusto. The morning Chronicle and the evening Examiner share printing facilities but compete editorially. They fielded squads of reporters who day after day dug up leads linking the suspects to the crime.

That was before the kidnaping of Patricia Hearst. Now, says a Chronicle reporter, "San Francisco newspapers for the first time are being forced to print things over which they have no control."

And what they are publishing is propaganda produced by the S.L.A. For Patricia's father Randolph is not only a wealthy, prominent citizen. He is also president and editor of the Examiner, and his daughter's abductors--members of the S.L.A.--have trapped him in a professional dilemma that is inseparable from his personal anguish.

In its first communique to the Hearst family after taking Patricia, the S.L.A. stated flatly that "all communications from this court must be published in full, in all newspapers, and all other forms of the media. Failure to do so will endanger the safety of the prisoner." That threat left Hearst little choice. He asked --some Examiner staffers say he "directed"--his paper to print all future documents from the S.L.A. A senior Examiner staffer also did a detailed re-examination of the Oakland murder that differed from the earlier coverage. Read the headline: MURDER CASE AGAINST SLA PAIR CIRCUMSTANTIAL.

Hearst has asked other papers and local radio and television stations to comply with the S.L.A. ultimatum concerning coverage. Chronicle Editor and Publisher Charles de Young Thieriot, a close friend of Hearst's, readily agreed.

Berkeley's listener-supported FM station KPFA, which has been used by the S.L.A. as a conduit for messages, also complied. Oakland's KDIA, an AM station catering to the black community, has broadcast almost all the S.L.A. statements. Says News Director Ray Wills: "We thought it incumbent on us to follow the instructions." Ironically, leftist and underground papers have generally printed very little unedited S.L.A. propaganda.

Hearst and Thieriot feel that they do not have that luxury. Thus the Examiner and the Chronicle have printed a long, windy S.L.A. manifesto. Both ran a second letter and the transcript of a tape recording of Patty Hearst's voice: the Examiner added a photocopy of the letter for good measure. Later tapes of Patricia received similar play. While stressing the story's newsworthiness, many San Francisco newsmen chafe at giving a handful of terrorists unlimited space. But, as Examiner Editor Tom Eastham observes, "There appears to be no alternative."

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