MAY 4,1976
No. 23
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
EDITOR Hoyt H. Purvis
A lively exchange on
the proper role of the press in covering the White House and on the
responsibility of the White House to keep the press informed highlighted the
symposium on the Presidency and the Press in the LBJ Auditorium April 23.
Past White House news
secretaries and the current White House spokesman, Ron Nessen, took part in the
symposium, along with a group of top White House correspondents. The event was
sponsored by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and the School of Public
Affairs. The news media representatives stressed the vital need for
accessibility to the President and to relevant information. The press
secretaries emphasized the difficulty of their position, particularly when they
did not always have all the pertinent facts.
Tom Johnson, who was
an assistant press secretary under President Lyndon Johnson, and now is
publisher of the Dallas Times-Herald, opened the panel discussion by noting that, "The Press Secretary
is as effective as the President permits him to be."
In addition to Nessen
and Johnson, press secretaries taking part were George Christian, press
secretary to President Johnson; Herb Klein, director of communications for the
Executive Branch, Nixon Administration; Ronald Ziegler, press secretary to
President Nixon; and Jerald F. terHorst, President Ford's first press
secretary.
Correspondents
participating were Frank Cormier, Associated Press; James Deakin, St. Louis
Post-Dispatch; Marianne Means,
King Features-Hearst Newspapers; Dan Rather, CBS News; Hugh Sidey, Time, and Helen Thomas, United Press International.
Gerald Warren, deputy
press secretary to President Nixon, and Joseph Laitin, assistant press
secretary to President Johnson, served as moderators. Also taking part were
William S. White, longtime Washington reporter and columnist, and Liz
Carpenter, who was press secretary to Mrs. Johnson.
Kenneth W. Tolo,
acting dean of the LBJ School, opened the symposium by noting the
appropriateness of the topic, particularly in view of the current Presidential
campaigns and the dramatic interrelationship of the press and the Presidency in
recent years. He said no other public institutions are more in the public
consciousness at present than the press and the Presidency.
Accessibility Vital
Accessibility and
secrecy were among the topics which dominated discussion.
Warren, in summarizing
the discussion, said, "Accessibility to a President by a concerned and
responsible press corps is vital. Accessibility of the press secretary to the
President is vital and accessibility of the press secretary to the press is
vital."
Sidey asked, "Why
in the world doesn't the President spend 15 minutes a day with the press?"
His suggestions about making the President regularly available drew support
from many of the other participants.
Nessen raised the
possibility of having a small group of reporters sitting in on Cabinet and
staff meetings, observing the day-to-day operations of the executive branch.
A major complaint of
the correspondents was that President Ford has not been holding White House
press conferences in recent months and that at his out-of-town conferences only
the local reporters (not the regular correspondents) were allowed to ask
questions. (Six days later, in Houston, President Ford held a press conference
at which local and Washington correspondents were allowed to ask questions on
an alternating basis.)
Tom Johnson said,
"The press secretary and staff should not be a filter for
government...They should facilitate access of the press, and thereby the
people, to the truth about government."
Christian agreed,
commenting, "Improving the President's image with the public is not what
the press secretary's role should be. There is a role for public relations in
government...But the role of the press secretary has grown beyond its original
intent in my view."
Christian said he
would like to see the press secretary be a kind of reporter's reporter within
the White House.
Deakin, who was
outspoken in his criticism of the way the press corps is treated, said,
"We go in there every day and have our intelligence and common sense
affronted."
He said, "In the
White House all the pressures are against full dissemination of vital
information."
"I don't think
that there is any question that the country is in bad, bad shape," Deakin
said.
"The country is
alienated; the country has lost faith in the political process. The country has
had two bad Presidents back to back...It doesn't trust anything or anybody. It
doesn't believe that politicians have any decency and it doesn't believe that
they can do anything about anything. And contributing to this has been all the
lying.
"And so my
question to these gentlemen...is: How much responsibility, gentlemen, do you
think you bear for the political alienation in this country and what do you
think that you personally ought to do about it?"
Several of the press
secretaries were willing to admit they had contributed to the alienation.
Nessen, however, said he was not responsible for the current feeling in the
country.
He countered with:
"The kind of
media-directed cuteness, half-truth, distortion, and oversimplification you
have laid on this audience is partly responsible for the alienation you refer
to."
Dan Rather replied
that to say the people who call attention to a problem are the problem is a
classic case of saying the problem is not the problem.
Rather also commented,
that "a citizen cannot be well informed just by watching TV news."
Ziegler said,
"Everyone who assumes power...should examine the mistakes of the past,
should be aware of them and conduct themselves differently."
Other suggestions
included:
—The President
and other high government officials should spend more time talking directly
with the press, rather than through a press secretary.
—Some of the
power of the executive branch should be returned to other departments and
Cabinet offices.
—The White House
staff should be greatly reduced.
The greatest problem
around the White House, Rather said, is finding out what the truth is.
"We all tend to
see it through the prism of our own prejudices. And that includes the reporters
on one side ...the press secretary, the President and the President's men on
the other side...."
Rather said the White
House press office and the briefing room itself have increasingly become
"propaganda pulpits."
"Now this has got
to stop, one way or the other," he continued. "If any of us, given
all of our prejudices in these prisms I spoke of, are to get anywhere near the
truth, this has simply got to stop."
Rather added that a
Presidential press secretary should try to be "an honest broker of
information," not the main person responsible for generating support for
the President.
Getting the Truth
Ms. Thomas said she
had noticed an improvement in relations between the press and the Presidency
with President Ford "because of his generally greater accessibility, and
his seemingly greater acceptance of the press—without fear and
trepidation."
She added that the
American people should be "in on the dialogue" and "allowed to
participate in the debate in which policies are made."
She quoted Abraham
Lincoln, "Let the people know the facts and the country will be
safe," adding that she agreed with him.
She asked the press
secretaries if they had ever been told to distort the truth. Most said they had
never knowingly lied, but that because they sometimes were given incorrect
information, they had indeed lied to the press.
Tom Johnson said he
could remember only one situation in which he was asked to deny something and
that he had refused to do so.
"I do believe
there has been too much confidentiality and secrecy," Johnson said.
Christian said that
several times he received misinformation, "deliberately or
otherwise."
"I outright lied
to Dan Rather...unknowingly, on the basis of Pentagon information,"
Christian said.
He added that if the
President were available more on a day-to-day basis, less erroneous information
would be given to the press.
Ziegler said:
"Obviously things that were said in terms of Watergate turned out to be
untrue and we all know that. I will say, however,...that in terms of major
policy and major events that affect the country, I can say from my standpoint
that I was never asked to go out before the press corps and tell a lie."
Klein, said he never
was asked to lie. "Some of my colleagues did lie to me," Mr. Klein
said, adding that sometimes he was saved from lying by "an old editorial
suspicion."
Jerald F. terHorst
said he was never asked to lie to the press, but he, too, added:
"We've all been
victimized by less than full information from the staffers in the White House.
A lot of people feel they shouldn't tell the press secretary something because
he might go out and blab it. And when he ends up misinforming the public, which
is exactly what the people inside don't want."
Nessen said, "I
have not ever been asked to lie, but you are at the mercy of the information
you get from others."
He said for a while
after terHorst resigned the position, Presidential staff members felt they must
be truthful with the press secretary. But he added that after about a year and
a half he thought about resigning because the problem recurred.
Marianne Means, a
columnist for King Features Syndicate and former White House correspondent,
questioned using "national security" as an excuse for keeping
information from the public.
Mr. Ziegler said that
everyone realizes the practice of keeping things secret "in the interest
of national security" has been abused. He suggested that too many people
have the ability to classify something secret and that the number should be
reduced.
Prior to the
symposium, Deakin, Cormier, and Ziegler met with the topical seminar on Public
Accountability taught by
Professor Dagmar Hamilton and with other interested students.
Harry Middleton,
director of the LBJ Library, closing the seminar, one of a series on major
national issues, said it had been in keeping with President Johnson's desire
that the School and Library should be centers of debate, creative tension, and,
hopefully, illumination.
A publication based on
the symposium will be published by the School and is scheduled to be available
in early summer.
Pulitizer
Prize-winning author Robert A. Caro spoke about power brokers and public
affairs at an LBJ School brownbag luncheon on April 27.
Caro, who won the
Pulitizer and other awards for his 1246-page biography, The Power Broker:
Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, told of his experience in researching and writing the book and offered
a number of revealing anecdotes about Moses and the late Al Smith, who was
governor of New York and a Presidential candidate in 1926.
Caro said he is
"interested in larger-than-life figures" such as Moses and Lyndon B.
Johnson. Caro has contracted with Alfred A. Knopf to write a three-volume
biography of the former President. He spent seven years on the Moses biography
and expects to take six years to complete the Johnson project, with one volume
appearing every two years.
Caro said he is
fascinated by the way power works in Washington and nationally and the
"power" aspect will be a major subject of the Johnson biography. Currently,
however, he is working on Johnson's early life and said he is "going block
by block in Johnson City" to interview old Johnson acquaintances. He said
that he recently drove 40 miles over a dirt road in an attempt to find one
person.
Moses—A Political
Genius
He described Moses as
"a political genius" noting that he conceived the idea of a public
authority and used it to his advantage.
Citing the example of
public authority created to build a bridge, Caro noted the benefits for a wide
range of political and economic groups, all of which would develop vested
interests in such projects. He mentioned the banks, who could expect to receive
great returns from bonds; labor unions who would get jobs; attorneys who would
get legal fees; those who sold the insurance (frequently legislators); public
relations retainers; and, of course, those who sold the real estate. Moses
would skillfully distribute the benefits to those who could help politically
and would build further support for such projects.
Through meticulous
attention to legislation, Moses managed to obtain for himself vast political
and economic power through the creation and operation of the public
authorities.
Caro pointed out that
there were almost no public records on the authorities. "There was the
secret spending of vast sums of public money. That is real power," Caro
said.
"Moses mobilized
the economic and political forces behind his banner of the public authority,
Caro said. "It was the big source of money."
Getting Information
Caro recalled his
difficulties in obtaining information on the public authorities for the book
and his persistent efforts to gain access to some of the information as well as
to talk with Moses.
Caro said that thus
far in his work on the Johnson book he has encountered little difficulty in
getting people to talk. "After the experience with the Moses book, I'm
almost overwhelmed by the reception I have had."
Caro said that it is
his view that writers have an obligation to provide documentation and
attribution of their sources and information. "Never depend on just one
person's view. You need to get at least two views if at all possible."
He also pointed out
that there is much information in documents and records that is overlooked.
"Much of the information is there somewhere, in the documents or
information. There is usually some revealing information or a clue if you just
look hard enough."
[news item]
The Fifth Commencement
Ceremonies of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs are scheduled to
begin at 1:30 p.m. Saturday May 22 in the East Campus Lecture Hall.
Dr. Alice Rivlin,
director of the Congressional Budget Office, will deliver the commencement
address.
Also taking part in
the program will be Acting Dean Kenneth W. Tolo, Professor Emmette Redford, and
graduating students Joe Murphy and Melanie McCoy.
There are 57 students
in the graduating class, the largest in the School's history.
The commencement
ceremonies will be followed by a reception on the eighth floor patio of the
Lyndon Baines Johnson Library.
. The Dean Search
Committee has made its recommendations for a new dean for the School to
President Lorene Rogers.
. Professor Dagmar
Hamilton was a guest on the "Art Young Show" on Radio Station KRMH on
April 23. The hour-long interview focused on such questions as proposals for
further presidential accountability, Congressional reform, and the Watergate
era.
. Professor Sidney
Weintraub recently addressed the Houston Committee on Foreign Relations on the
theme: "International Economic Issues That Matter." The issues were
treated under four overall headings: political-economic relations between
developed and less-developed countries; political-economic relations among
developed countries; the government role in business; and dealing with raw
materials.
. Professor Albert A.
Blum, who is directing the LBJ School Policy Research Project on Public
Policy Toward the Arts, was a panelist for a discussion on
"American Art and Government Policy" at a recent conference at Rice
University in Houston. Among others taking part in the program were Warren 1.
Susman, chairman of the History Department at Rutgers; filmmaker King Vidor;
playwright Harold Clurman; sculptor Richard Hunt; and William C. Agge, director
of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.
The field
demonstration of the Meals for the Elderly Policy Research Project has been completed, according to Dr. Jurgen
Schmandt, project director.
A preliminary report
on results was presented to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
in a meeting at the Johnson Space Center on April 23.
In response to
testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space
Sciences, staff members of the Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, chaired
by Senator George McGovern, have expressed interest in conducting a national
demonstration, involving four or five states.
Senator McGovern plans
to introduce legislation aimed at increasing the availability of home-delivered
meals for the elderly. As part of this legislation, a national demonstration of
the NASA meals system will be proposed. A member of the McGovern Committee
staff will visit the School in May to further explore this possibility.
William R. Sparks, who
has been serving as assistant to the chairman of International Telephone and
Telegraph, spoke at an LBJ School brown‑bag luncheon on April 22.
Sparks discussed the
role of multinational corporations and their relations with governments.
Sparks, who served as
an assistant to President Lyndon Johnson and to Secretary of Defense Robert
McNamara, commented on the significant impact that the multinationals have had
in recent years.
He discussed the
dilemma which he said multinationals face‑ "adjusting yourself to
the moral standards of the place where you're doing business rather than trying
to dictate moral standards."
[news item]
The End-of-the-Year
Picnic for LBJ students, alumni, faculty, and staff will be on Wednesday May 5
from 5 p.m. until dark in Eastwood Park. Beer and chicken will be served at a
cost of $1 per person, with children admitted free.
Those who can attend
are asked to sign up in the Office of Student Affairs by Tuesday May 4.
The picnic will mark
the final opportunity for everyone at the school to get together this school
year, since the second-year class will be graduating, first-year students will
be going to internships, and many faculty members will be away during the
summer.
Professor Jared
Hazleton presented a paper on "Gold Rush Economies: Development Planning
the Persian/Arabian Gulf," at the annual meetings of the Southwest Social
Science Association, Economics Section, in Dallas.
Hazleton has also
received a research grant from the World Order Program for research this summer
on the prospects for regional economic integration in the Middle East. The
grant is for three months and will be used to support a part-time research
assistant.
On April 28 Hazleton
spoke on this and related topics at the LBJ School Colloquium. He discussed the
difficulties of planning in the context of sudden affluence, and commented that
the Persian/Arabian Gulf states had gone from primary to tertiary economies
without passing through the intermediate stage.
He outlined the policy
options open to the Gulf states and the major characteristics of their
economies, which include:
. Rapid economic
growth;
. Unbalanced factor
proportions; A small market;
. Economic
uncertainty;
. Inflation and
reverse import‑replacement;
. Severe manpower
shortages;
. Hazleton said that
there is a danger that domestic development efforts will focus on large‑scale
projects which may fail to provide real long-term needs.
He suggested that
"their survival will quite possibly depend upon some kind of regional
political economy."
An article on
"Research on Teacher Unionism" by Professor Albert A. Blum of the LBJ
School will be published in the Journal of Collective Negotiations.
The article presents
an overview of research into public teacher unionization. It describes the
nature of research versus opinion, the types of research that exist, and
examines the results and trends of some of the research done since 1962.
Blum writes that
"there are some indications, particularly among professionals, that union
movements in advanced societies are moving toward higher order needs."
"It seems to
me," Blum writes, "that as unions satisfy more and more of the
economic or 'belly' needs of their members, they will pursue issues of the soul
or quality of life. Teachers, too, are sure to be concerned with such issues in
the future. "
Two LBJ School faculty
members and a graduate of the School were involved in publication of a report
on Knowledge and Policy in Manpower issued by the National Academy of Sciences.
The study of the
manpower research and development program in the Department of Labor was under
the direction of a special NAS Committee chaired by Professor Gordon 1. Swanson
of the University of Minnesota. Professor Henry David of the LBJ School was a
member of the committee.
During the first six
months of the study, Professor Albert Blum of the LBJ School served as
executive secretary of the Committee and Jon Michaelson served as research
associate. During the remaining 18 months, Michaelson, an LBJ School graduate
in 1973, served as executive secretary.
The inquiry launched
by the Committee was among the first of its kind‑an inquiry focusing on
the role of a government R&D office whose work was closely related to the
behavioral and social sciences.
The Committee's report
is a descriptive analysis with recommendations for strengthening the manpower
R&D program of the Department of Labor.
The recommendations
cover:
. more balanced
patterns of support for
. manpower study;
. continued
investments in developing scientific capabilities;
. improvements in
R&D management;
. increased attention
to problems of utilization; and
. a realistic
appraisal of R&D resources and budgeting.