Conversation 015-052

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Well, we did fine on two out of three.

Yeah, which one?

ABC and NBC did beautifully by us, I think, I mean, on balance.

CBS was snotty, rather.

What did he use?

Well, they all used the same footage, I must say.

They got in there the best footage possible, where you said that phase one had succeeded, and cited the figures, and then it was just...

You could tell there was a little bit of laughter, but not much.

And you said, just go home and ask your wives.

And then you went into pulling out the piece of paper and reading what Minnie had said and smiling and very confidently and then tearing into that line, I do know what it is.

That was excellent on all three.

We had about four minutes, I would say, on NBC, about seven on CBS, and a good long report on the

ABC but rather had in there a couple of couple of shots of that fit.

Oh We had there was more laughter, but the camp but the microphones couldn't pick them up and Yes Bitch he really is what else we talked to him, you know, we really worked him over today to just That was the principal

I wonder if that, did it make the entire report negative, you think, or not?

No, I don't think so.

What made CBS negative was they followed it with McGovern and said that McGovern came after you and that he, in contrast to you, he was well-received and then Meany afterwards complimented him on his speech.

Of course he was.

Of course.

Well, but in a way that's helpful because it showed to anybody who understands it how damn partisan Meany was.

On all of the networks, they showed Meany sitting stern-faced during your talk.

On CBS, in particular, they had a marvelous shot of you down with the crowd.

Marvelous shot.

And then they had Meany walking up to the podium, banging the gavel and saying, now we'll go to act two, and the laughter.

But an excellent shot of you going into the crowd.

I think on...

Well, I think on balance, anybody watching it would come away with the impression that you had enormous guts to stand there and say it, that you went into a hostile crowd.

The lead-in from Gensler was excellent.

Did Rather say that or not?

Yes, yeah.

Rather's report is just typical Rather.

He can't say what day it is without sounding a little snide in the press, because he was a snide son of a bitch.

I guess I was...

No, he had some good lines in there, too.

I'm overly sensitive.

I look for all of this.

I think on balance, NBC and ABC were very good.

I mean, on balance, they were good.

And CBS, as is typically...

They got across the confrontation.

Oh, God.

Cronkite... Not Cronkite.

Yeah, Cronkite let in by saying that...

President Nixon went to the end of OCIO today and told them that with or without labor, he was going to make his economic programs succeed.

It was very strong, very good lead-in from Cronkite.

I guess I shouldn't, I just get, you get so damn close to it and you know when they give you those little snide jams.

The main, the main thing to follow up, just to be sure that, you know, I know this is

Well, he did for background.

Well, the hell with him.

That's right.

I've told him not to do it.

And I figure it's got to be told.

They can't plan their weekend there or California, any place else.

I will go, and I don't know when I'm going to return.

Exactly.

Frankly, I've heard the reason you came back.

The weather is turning bad tonight.

You're seeing tomorrow.

I know that.

I'm so excited to know.

Sure.

Well, I think in some ways with Muskie being in...

The trouble with your staying there this weekend...

But I frankly...

The reason that I surmised you did is with Muskie there, tomorrow night for a big...

party at T-Bus came at the Sinistra Hotel.

And with delegates pouring in, I mean, Democrats pouring in and out of the air to the L-CIO and beating our brains out, you just don't want to be sitting there, resting while they're doing that, 40 miles away.

Let me say this, whenever you're talking to Ron, I'll tell him, all of this relates to you on the press line.

It doesn't do any good to you.

It doesn't make any difference.

Now, we've been very kind to these people that

They don't need to find me.

They have their girlfriends and everything else.

Sure.

What the hell with them?

They're going, from now on, I'll go when I come.

I'll come back when I come.

I cannot be at their mercy.

I couldn't agree with you more.

I wouldn't tell them a goddamn thing.

You're going down to speak.

Yeah, right.

You don't know when he's going to come back.

No idea.

Can we plan?

No, I don't know.

That's what we do.

We have no idea.

It depends on the numbers.

Well, we should do that.

Absolutely.

The other thing is...

I've got some strong ideas about this, Mr. President.

I don't want to do them without talking to you first, but I... For example, I've talked to Fitzsimmons, and he's going to issue an invitation, I think, if he can get his executive board to approve, for you to come to any teams to convention, and he's going to say, anytime you do...

every honor will be accorded the president united states and we just go through the whole thing that'll make meaning better than a hornet conley will hit me on monday i'm sure and i think hodgson ought to on sunday i'm now convinced that he can't there's no he cannot ignore cannot ignore this and i just think he's got to be slapped down and it'll focus attention i don't i didn't mind the rudeness coming off tonight because

When they were talking about the rudeness, they had a fantastically good shot of you from the side going into the crowd.

And all of the delegates, they're reaching out and grabbing you.

Of course, they were signing autographs.

Well, and that, you see, that was good.

And there was this grumpy, old, disliked, generally disliked, genuinely disliked leader standing there, not smiling, scowling at you while you were doing it.

And I just think people are intelligent enough to see that that was a partisan...

and that's what Hodgson ought to say, but for the first time it's now evident that George Meany put his party ahead of his country.

Do you appreciate, frankly, that the two of us involved in this in a bad manner?

Bad manners to the presidency of the United States.

Then let him believe him, right?

Well, I think...

I know he feels that way, but what are you... Well, he didn't even speak today.

He's so terrible.

Well, you know, you did one thing, and we're going to do this.

I assure you, we'll stay on this until we accomplish it.

Today was Profiles in Courage.

When you have to tell a tough, when you have to give a tough message to labor, you go right into their hall of doing.

And, God, I just think people across the country, that's what people really admire.

I would dream...

I would rather read the news.

Or does it make you just react to it?

Well, there's an interesting thing happening in CBS.

I haven't had a chance to tell you about it, but there's a hell of a power fight right now between Stanton and Salant.

My betting is Stanton is going to win.

He is mad over this sure thing.

Stanton is.

Mad why?

Oh, mad at his own people for letting it out, for using it for Salant's quotes in the newspapers.

And I'm told by a very, very close friend that this could easily cause the land to be gone.

I would love to pick up the phone and raise hell with CBS over it, grab his comments, but I kind of think right now... No, no, no, don't do it.

Don't stick with the shore.

The thing to do is to tell Ziegler to put fire on it.

Ziegler just can't.

Fine, but I guess it's worse.

They always try to work on wrapping.

Yeah, screw them.

I just wouldn't give them a damn thing.

I'd leave them out.

Interesting, Schor was on tonight following, rather, and Schor said that the universal reaction of the delegates was that President Nixon had real guts to come here today and tell them what he told them.

So he couldn't avoid mentioning it.

Well, that's true.

God, I've had calls from all of them down there saying that they just did it.

even among your most vocal opponents, they are respected for coming.

And anybody who goes through that convention in the next few days is going to get, any of the reporters are going to get this.

But we're going to follow up with a columnist, with the editorial writers, news magazines we've done, and I think we're all right with that, I think.

Well, I still... Don't let them get the idea that I came back from Washington.

CBS...

CBS said that.

CBS said that you came back, you had intended to... CBS said that you intended to stay with the Bahamas, but you had to, out of anger, possibly out of anger, at the rude treatment of the AFL-CO delegates who returned to Washington.

And that was their closing line.

Not down there, but we've been sure trying up here to not get down.

Well, we'll handle that.

And as I say, I'm getting all of our fellows together in the morning and laying down the marching orders.

I'm getting the right kind of...

I want to exploit this, because I think this is a... You've got to exploit it.

And I think... Really?

Don't let the rudeness deal with...

I'm not angry about it.

I would like to come back and stop them.

It should not have left the president.

It was on his face.

I was going to say, because I'll tell you, I got the weather report before I went.

I saw it was going to rain Saturday and Sunday.

I decided before I went that if that was the case, I was coming back.

It started to rain before I left.

That's really the two before.

Well, we'll get that out.

That's a passing thing.

The important thing is that for five minutes, roughly, or a little more, and a couple of weeks,

the lead story, and followed immediately by an NBC news story.

They had plenty of good, positive, live stuff.

The footage of you was outstanding, and then they had the footage of Meany, who just looked like a rude, arrogant, partisan labor leader, selfish labor leader.

Also, he, by the way, had an interesting twist.

They voted him a $15,000 pay increase today, from $75,000 to $90,000, and the networks all pointed out that this was the

blatant violation of the wage price guidelines.

I just think, I think the time has come to go after him.

I agree.

Paint him into the corner.

Let our friend over there watch him.

Oh, hell, I... Well, I think we've freaked me out completely.

I already talked to...

Lovestone.

I'm sorry, not Lovestone.

The Silverman at Labor.

Hodgson's deputy.

I said, we're just not going to deal with you.

When we have appointments, we'll go to our friends.

Jack Lyon, some of the others, good guys, suffragettes.

And the hell with them.

We're just not going to deal with them.

So, here's John Skelly's note that was just handed to me.

The president scored tremendous points.

He's taken a great credit for courage.

Noted in my community's discourtesy.

CBS less favorable, but even Dan Shore here, the president's credit for government.

Excellent contrast with the government.

I think CBS less favorable.

That's the biggest difference.

They really are.

Well, at 7 o'clock now, they're getting a hell of a run from ABC.

In many markets, they're not the biggest.

But we have... Who would say, looking at CBS, we did not consider ABC to be negative?

uh no it didn't to me mr president i think what bothers me i'm too close to it to tell i the slightest turn of a phrase and i just get so goddamn mad that then it sours me on the report i think the average person watching it you came off beautiful because the footage of you was good your speaking was tremendously strong and they used the best parts of your speech and so and that's what people are looking at they're looking at that and they're saying my god

Terrible way those people talk, but I got the President right in there and talked it through.

I think the public image will be, the public feeling about this will be a lot different than ours.

We're too damn close.

No, I think on balance we came out all right.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.