Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 6 › Conversation 006-143

Nixon phone call with Haldeman on 26th Amendment and Media relations

Monday, July 5, 1971 · 7:21 PM–7:25 PM ET · White House Telephone · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation006-143 on Tape 6 (tape position 02:53:11–02:58:26)StartMonday, July 5, 1971 at 7:21 PMEndMonday, July 5, 1971 at 7:25 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 006-143 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H.R. Haldeman discuss their dissatisfaction with the broadcast networks' coverage of the President’s certification of the 26th Amendment. Nixon expresses frustration that the networks, particularly CBS, ignored the positive nature of the event in favor of negative reporting. To address this, Nixon directs Haldeman to have Charles Colson confront network executives by forcing them to compare their aired reports against the raw footage they filmed to highlight the perceived bias.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Well, we didn't do too well on the networks.
That's what Ron said.
CBS was particularly bad.
ABC had a little bit of a feel of it, and NBC was not bad either.
But basically, now understand, the whole thing is a plus.
Oh, yeah.
But the point is, CBS really jobbed us, and they didn't get the feel of it.
I think they're sort of being a sort of...
Give Ron a little crap.
Proceeds to butter up.
Well, I don't know.
It could be.
And also, though, they apparently didn't give him time.
Well, anyway, it's worth doing.
Well, I'll tell you what I think we ought to do on this one.
And maybe Charter or Herb ought to follow up on it rather than Ron.
Oh, not Ron, no.
to sit down, to go to the trouble, just once, sitting down and streaming the entire footage that they shot of that thing, their own guy shot.
Just run the whole thing for them.
And then immediately afterwards, look at what they put on the air.
And ask yourself, was this really fair coverage?
Now, I tell you the one to do it, not Herb, because poor Herb, he isn't got the strength.
But have Colson do it.
We've got it to him.
So now look.
We're not complaining about it.
Except that we say, do you think it reflected what was there?
Was it accurate?
Were you told?
at that whole event.
They can't come off thinking they didn't do it right.
Well, the footage is only 20 minutes, you know?
Yeah.
But they don't have too much to look at.
That's right.
Well, then be then.
Let them see what it was.
That's right.
I don't want to see it.
I don't want too many kneeling.
Keep Herb out of it, because he doesn't know how to do it.
I mean, he doesn't really get through Bob on these, I don't think, because he's too nice.
This is one where we can make it just on the point that this isn't a hard news thing.
It is a matter of interpretation.
We don't have any complaints.
We don't have any complaints.
There's nothing inaccurate.
Your coverage was good.
That's right.
But we just wonder.
You look at it to see whether you really think that this reflected the feeling.
But they were doing their best with it.
They knew it was good.
They were doing their best with it.
Did you see any of them?
No.
But give that as a closing assignment.
Let's see if we can follow up on each one.
Well, can he get the tape himself?
Maybe we tape it.
Rather than what they did.
You may have.
All right, get to Nathan.
Then let him go, and then let him sit with Taylor.
But sir, for them to look at their own tape stuff.
God damn it, they won't do it.
Yeah, but okay, let him go into the tape, but ask him to do it with their film.
He can have ours long too, but ask him to look at theirs.
Because theirs will be the same as ours.
Mm-hmm.
They film this, they have the whole thing.
Mm-hmm.
Brown might ask their cameraman if they thought they did a fair job.
He'd say, look, what do you think of the coverage, fellas?
Honestly, when to do that?
He's going to need a third point a little anyway.
But the whole thing was basically exactly what I expected.
What was what I say, what you said earlier, that this had been done by somebody that wanted to help it around five to eight minutes.
Jesus Christ.
There's nothing else in the news tonight.
Nothing.
Dull as hell.
Dull as hell.
Not a damn thing.
And so, except negative stuff.
Now, here's a chance to run something positive, upbeat, American, on the 4th of July.
And they didn't do it.
And they didn't do it deliberately.
I think they goddamn well ought to be called on this.
I'm sure of it.
Because we don't have many clear ones like this, do we?

NARA Description

On July 5, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 7:21 pm to 7:25 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 006-143 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 6-143

Date: July 5, 1971
Time: 7:21 pm - 7:25 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

     Television coverage of President's certification of 26th amendment
          -Haldeman's conversation with Ronald L. Ziegler
          -Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS]
          -American Broadcasting Company [ABC]
          -National Broadcasting Corporation [NBC]

          -CBS
          -Robert Pierpoint
          -Administration response
          -Fairness of reporting
                -Charles W. Colson, Herbert G. Klein
                -Julian Goodman, Frank Stanton, James C. Hagerty
          -Eighteen year-old vote, Gallup poll
          -Review of tape
                -Colson
                -William S. Paley
          -Ziegler's forthcoming meeting with Pierpoint and Tom Jarriel

Also recorded on July 5, 1971

  • 537-005 6:15 PM · 1 min — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:15 pm and 6:27 pm.
  • 006-140 6:16 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:16 pm and 7:21 pm.
  • 006-141 6:16 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:16 pm and 7:21 pm.
  • 006-142 6:16 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:16 pm and 7:21 pm.
  • 006-144 7:25 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 7:25 pm.
  • 006-145 7:26 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 7:26 pm to 7:28 pm.
  • 006-146 7:28 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:28 pm and 7:35 pm.
  • 006-147 7:35 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Tricia Nixon Cox talked on the telephone from 7:35 pm to 7:38 pm.

All 11 conversations from July 5, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 006-143, July 5, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/006-143 (accessed October 12, 2026).