Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 326 › Conversation 326-016
Nixon & Colson on Media relations and Public relations
Friday, March 24, 1972 · 12:54 PM–1:12 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 14 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and Charles Colson discuss media management strategies to counter perceived negative coverage, focusing on ways to discredit critics and news organizations through orchestrated public campaigns. The two discuss mobilizing supporters to write letters to editors and network executives to protest perceived bias and unfair reporting. Nixon emphasizes the need for an aggressive, proactive communication strategy to control the narrative rather than waiting until the election cycle to respond.
Audio
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Position in tape: 02:00:08 – 02:14:11
part A, 2:00:06
326a.mp3
326b.mp3
NARA Description
On March 24, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:54 pm to 1:12 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 326-016 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 326-16 Date: March 24, 1972 Time: 12:54 pm - 1:12 pm Location: Executive Office Building The President talked with Charles W. Colson. [See Conversation No. 22-13; one item has been withdrawn from this conversation]
Transcript (AI-generated)
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So, anything further to add before I put him on here?
Well, then I'll just, I'll just put him on here.
How about that?
Yeah, now that's a lot.
That's right.
All right.
Well, I think he made his greatest growth during the Kennedy-Johnson administration.
That's when he became a giant conglomerate.
Okay.
With regard to the other names, that would be all I wanted to do.
All right.
Good.
Well, that last sentence, it was very important.
Yeah, fine.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, the fight is, though, denied.
He puts up a test.
The fight is in the durable to play.
Well, now, wait a minute.
These are not other tests.
They're tight elephants.
Well, what about, I thought the durable was used in three games in the crown right now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Why are they backing off?
That's right.
All right.
Well, I think he made his greatest growth during the Kennedy-Johnson administration.
Isn't that when he became a giant conglomerate?
Okay.
With regard to the other names, that would be all I'm going to do.
All right.
Good.
Well, that last sentence, it was very important.
Yeah, fine.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, the fight is, though, denied.
He puts up tests.
The fight is in the durable play.
Well, now, wait a minute.
These are not our tests.
The title test, man.
Well, I thought the durable was using three games in a round right now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They will, they will.
Why are they backing off?
Get it confused.
Get it confused.
Yeah.
Why?
All right.
Well, they shouldn't.
Well, they ought to just to show that last week Peter Beard going out was essential.
That's what broke.
And they kept this week from being a disaster.
So right now they ought to put out their own test saying they have an expert that said it's untrue.
And then just confuse the Virginia Center.
Yeah.
Good.
Good.
All right.
Well, now the others should just start to try to have a showdown.
Scott and Boyd ought to really get in touch with Eastman.
Don't let Eastman face me.
Why in the hell doesn't Mitchell get a hold of Eastman?
He can't, honestly.
I didn't notice that.
They brought that up again?
Well, how does that apply if we're just presidential and not the
Now all this equal timing, do you think somebody's going to ask me about debating then today?
Is that what you think?
Yeah, the Badgers are just trying to bail out their money.
How about Pete Torchman?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The last thing to do is just play a tough game.
They want to go to Pete Torchman, but he will squeal a little while and that's that.
We'll find a way.
We'll write a hella message.
Yeah.
We'll get somebody to start getting us good people messages, okay?
Because we should get that one to stay, wouldn't we?
Bye.
Well, how do we, how do we think we came up with the meaning of that bit so far?
Did they carry it at all, three networks, according to all of them, carried the, carried my audio, so we got that little pitch established that that's the best way to do it, rather than make a speech.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know whether it comes across very good, just being out there in front of the camera or something.
I need to put together three things.
uh, get their people around the country to, uh, write some scathing and effective letters to the editors of Times, who should be putting this on the national cover.
I think that's very important.
Second, I think some scathing letters should go to the national
Remember, I believe these things have more effect than others do, and I think they ought to get them, you know.
There's about the unfairness that they're having in the buses and so forth and so on.
But what I meant is that the racing hell of the networks, things should start now, Chuck, and not in November.
See, this is too late.
Now, is anybody on top of that?
All right, maybe.
All right.
Calls should be made, raising hell, letters should be written, you know, getting our top people to talk to you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
But now the time in those weeks is about, when I say 100, maybe 20.
20 or 30 letters, but letters for the evidence.
It's a question of proof.
I mean, a charge is made and no proof.
I mean, and just say this is typical of a publication in the case of Tom, of a publication that would be taken in by the Irving Post, that they would be taken in for this.
I write something like that.
Have a statement made by that, have somebody attack Tom Gregg on the cover of that.
I didn't do that.
Say, typical of a publication, of a publication that would have been taken in by the Irving Post, that they would be taken in by the Irving Post.
Well, you know, I don't know so many of them.
That would just be a banana.
And I'm all for what you're doing, but just assuming that it would be better, it would be worse off if you weren't doing it.
Whatever happens, we've done the best we can.
And it would be very good if we all let the critics know it's about a banana document.
That's right.
I know.
Exactly the same way.
On the other hand, I do know that when we get into these things, that we've got to always keep our balance.
Remember the fact that if we don't, that the world is going to end.
You know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
We just continue to smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear, smear.
just get the whips to pass the word on, okay?
Get the whips, say, look, you say, smear, smear, smear, and then start singing, start singing, start creating panels, and we'll funnel these people.
Well, I must say that I think that on the main thing, we've got to have some of the government, and we're going to keep him right there where he is.
Of course, the networks have to run him, because unfortunately, I mean, he did this,
take this day is the day that we had a bad C.P.I.
But the C.P.I.
wasn't all that bad, actually, but, you know, we got that, that first negative period, and it was the second, you know, the worst thing that ever happened.
You know, we've had 500% many times, you know.
It's a hell of a... Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
It's over there at CPI.
Who is it?
Yeah, the other one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
All right.
Tell, I want you to tell Schultz this.
I'm sure they're leaking.
They're leaking to everybody but us.
We've still got more over there.
That son of a bitch is gone.
I'll tell you.
We've got a lot of these guys on his own.
They have to remember the bit.
That's right.
He's gonna be out of there.
Just sorry we can't throw arguments out with him.
The way he's been acting.
Everybody tells me Conner did very well.
Yeah, they said he just, they said he just knocked their brains out.
We're on the offensive on the issue.
All right.
Also recorded on March 24, 1972
- 022-013 12:54 PM · 18 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 12:54 pm to 1:12 pm.
- 022-014 1:12 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:12 pm and 1:16 pm.
- 326-017 1:12 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:12 pm and 1:16 pm.
- 022-015 1:16 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 1:16 pm to 1:17 pm.
- 326-018 1:16 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:16 pm to 1:17 pm.
- 326-019 1:24 PM · 35 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:24 pm to 2:00 pm.
- 022-016 1:28 PM · 51 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 1:28 pm to 1:29 pm.
- 022-017 1:29 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:29 pm and 2:05 pm.
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- Nixon, Colson & Eisenhower on George McGovern and CBS News September 16, 1972 · 11 min
- Nixon & Brennan on 1972 election campaign and Media bias November 1, 1972 · 33 min
- Nixon & MacGregor on Public relations and Political strategy February 29, 1972 · 2 min
Cite this conversation
Conversation 326-016, March 24, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/326-016 (accessed November 3, 2026).