A Modest Proposal

As Washington newsmen got acquainted with Jerry terHorst in his new job, and speculated about the treatment the press can expect from President Ford, one voice reversed the question: How should the press treat Ford? Veteran Washington Post Columnist David S. Broder had some pointed advice for his colleagues. "We can play a helpful part in bringing the presidency back to human scale," he wrote, "if we back off just enough to let Jerry Ford have room to be himself." Broder then offered three self-restraining reforms.

First, Broder told the press corps, the Ford family should be spared "the massive publicity that has made their predecessors a version of American royalty." Ford's succession to the presidency does not convert his wife and children into public property. Not only are their intimate domestic details none of our business, Broder insists, but they "won't help us one bit to evaluate [Ford's] work as President."

Walled Off. Broder then extends the argument for the essential "degree of privacy normal people require" to Ford himself. An off-duty President constantly trailed by battalions of reporters and photographers is effectively walled off from normal human experience. "Sure," Broder concedes, "some reporters must be present in case of a sudden development or untoward incident. But it doesn't require 60 of the best journalists in America to stand on the slopes at Vail when Mr. Ford goes skiing, in order to keep the American people informed about the work of the President."

Finally, Broder suggests, presidential press conferences should be scaled down to human size. Noting that the wire services, networks and major publications combined have 30 to 40 White House correspondents, he concludes: "If those three dozen White House regulars are not competent to ask President Ford 95% of the pertinent questions each week, they ought to be replaced. If they are competent, as they surely are, then the other 200 of us ought to stay out of their way, and not go jamming into the East Room for the presidential press conference."

Like most rational suggestions, Broder's may seem hopelessly Utopian. Who will take the first step toward disarmament? What reporter will be the first to stop pressing the Ford children for snappy quotes? All Broder asks is that Ford and his family not be constantly badgered into making copy. And surely a means can be found to create manageable press conferences without barring smaller news organizations from the White House forever. Such thinking deserves more than helpless shrugs. As Broder says: "Journalism, which helped topple the last two Presidents, owes this one a reasonable chance to keep his own eminently down-to-earth view of himself and his work."

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