Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 005-037
Date: Sunday, June 13, 1971 at 9:56 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/005-037

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] Hello.
[0:05] Hello.
[0:11] Yes, sir.
[0:11] Hi, Ron.
[0:11] I wanted to check on the CBS coverage.
[0:18] I don't think they're going to be available today.
[0:19] Mort Allen, after I told you, I called him.
[0:20] He's on his way.
[0:20] Oh, he doesn't...
[0:21] He put all of that together.
[0:21] He does that every time.
[0:22] He does it anyway.
[0:22] I talked to Mort, and he...
[0:23] Had a different impression than I did when I talked to you last night.
[0:40] He watched all the way through.
[0:41] I hadn't seen the CBS thing.
[0:42] Ward told me that Rather, throughout the program, was just very, very good.
[0:43] Is what he told me.
[0:43] Well, NBC, I thought, was particularly good.
[0:44] NBC was great.
[0:45] I thought Reynolds and Sherwood last night, I saw that.
[0:46] Yes, I saw.
[0:47] The half hour?
[0:52] Yes, sir.
[0:58] I saw them.
[0:58] They were very good.
[0:59] Excellent.
[1:02] But I didn't see CBS, and Mort Allen said that he had watched CBS.
[1:09] What time did it come on?
[1:09] CBS was from 6 to 7.
[1:10] They had an hour, too.
[1:10] Yes, sir.
[1:10] Good.
[1:11] So we should have that material for you, and also the fire service material.
[1:12] They're putting that together.
[1:13] I noticed that in the poster, you had this.
[1:26] well you know they dropped her terribly on her wedding
[1:51] the post.
[2:13] Yeah.
[2:13] Judith Martin covered it.
[2:14] She got inside and just gave her a yellowish ass.
[2:15] But the star.
[2:15] The star was excellent.
[2:15] Excellent.
[2:16] The time was good.
[2:16] The time, sorry.
[2:16] What was the post lead with?
[2:17] The cost?
[2:17] No, no.
[2:17] They had a story in there on cost.
[2:18] They read, led with the fact that Patricia was married with a girl.
[2:19] They had little things that
[2:20] In the story, Patricia was a little nervous at the start.
[2:43] Well, that's crap.
[2:43] You didn't read that anywhere else.
[2:44] It didn't come over that way on television.
[2:45] Patricia was very relaxed all the way down.
[2:46] We were chatting with her.
[2:46] We walked along.
[2:47] So it just was that type of thing.
[2:48] Well, now the thing that on this, of course, on the post office,
[2:49] Remember I told you around, I'm going to be very, very tough on that now.
[3:08] There's never to be in the White House again on any social event.
[3:09] Well, that's the first thing.
[3:10] I don't mean just Judith Martin, but nobody.
[3:11] On the pool.
[3:11] Nobody from the Washington Post is ever to be in the White House on anything.
[3:12] I'm here.
[3:13] But, you know, anything that I'm here, that's it.
[3:14] Never to be to a church function.
[3:14] Never to be to a social function.
[3:15] Never in the White House.
[3:16] Not in the residence.
[3:16] They can be at the press conference.
[3:17] Never.
[3:28] Is that clear?
[3:29] Yes, sir.
[3:29] I'm the Washington Post, and that means everybody.
[3:37] Because you called him in.
[3:37] You told him.
[3:38] I'm going to blank him out totally.
[3:39] I think we should for a while.
[3:39] No, not a while.
[3:39] I'm never going to let him.
[3:40] Because I decided that long ago.
[3:41] But they are never to be, and I don't mean Carol Kilpatrick.
[3:42] I don't care who it is.
[3:42] It's never to be in this White House covering the social function.
[3:44] Anytime there's a fool, it's always a fool.
[3:45] Yeah, well, yes.
[3:45] Nobody has a right to come in unless he's invited in that right.
[4:06] I just want to exclude it.
[4:06] Just totally exclude it.
[4:07] We want to exclude some other people at the time.
[4:08] Because they had to reach pretty far to job on this.
[4:09] Such a big, such a fine story.
[4:10] My reaction to George, I read it, but you, you know, if you read it, I'm not defending it at all.
[4:33] That's right.
[4:33] But it's really not, I mean, it's not that blatant negative.
[4:35] Oh, no, it's clever.
[4:35] It's cleverly done.
[4:36] The average guy sits down in the plane, he reads it.
[4:37] I know all the arguments about the post and so forth, but I just don't like the paper.
[4:38] I don't like the editorial paper.
[4:39] I don't like anything about it.
[4:40] I'll tolerate the Times, the New York Post, anything else, the St. Louis Post, the Washington Post.
[5:00] I know what you're trying to do.
[5:00] And they are never to be in this White House again.
[5:01] Now, I want that understood.
[5:02] Okay, I do.
[5:02] Never get them in.
[5:03] Now, you don't let Connie over.
[5:03] That's my order.
[5:04] In other words, when I'm in my presence at the Washington Post, no Washington Post reporter will be in this White House, except Matthew Preston.
[5:06] Now, do it, of course, cleverly.
[5:07] Don't you put it out.
[5:08] But you know, but you pick the fools.
[5:09] And, you know, churches just exclude them.
[5:29] I don't want to cover the church services.
[5:30] And they get off the wire.
[5:31] They subscribe to the wire service.
[5:32] I always invite the star, whoever it is, just invite them.
[5:33] I never invite them.
[5:33] I always invite the Daily News.
[5:34] The Daily News is the one.
[5:34] But I was, I think, frankly,
[5:40] I'm sure, I'm sure, I guess...
[6:05] I can't believe that... Helen...
[6:06] Right.
[6:06] But again, my point to the person sitting out in the plane reading that story...
[6:08] Those things wouldn't hit them.
[6:18] Although, because we know where they're putting them.
[6:29] Overall, I think the picture material is totally over-relevant.
[6:30] That's all right.
[6:30] But they should have done.
[6:31] I know.
[6:31] They've done.
[6:31] There's a way.
[6:31] Well, they do have their...
[6:34] Well, none of the others.
[6:57] None of the others.
[6:58] They're all...
[6:58] They don't care for her.
[6:59] And also, they know she broke the rules every time.
[7:00] Didn't come up once in any of the briefings.
[7:00] Didn't come up once in any of the briefings.
[7:03] No, I think it's fine.
[7:07] Fine, Ron.
[7:08] Okay.