Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 198 › Conversation 198-013

Nixon phone call with Haldeman on Press relations and Media strategy

Sunday, July 30, 1972 · 9:00 AM–10:25 AM ET · Camp David Hard Wire · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation198-013 on Tape 198StartSunday, July 30, 1972 at 9:00 AMEndSunday, July 30, 1972 at 10:25 AMRecording deviceCamp David Hard WireSourceNixon Library record for 198-013 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 648453108 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon dictated a memorandum to H.R. Haldeman outlining a new strategy for dealing with the press, emphasizing that only top campaign personnel should speak to antagonistic media representatives under strict surveillance. He directed that more opportunities be created for staff to speak with friendly media outlets, while limiting access for unfriendly ones, citing a Washington Post article that contrasted critical coverage of his campaign with favorable coverage of McGovern's. Nixon also specified that interviews with unfriendly media should be reserved only for those reaching substantial audiences.

Audio

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This clip of the conversation was cut from the tape by the National Archives (catalog record ↗).

NARA Description

On July 30, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 9:00 am and 10:25 am. The Camp David Hard Wire taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 198-013 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 198-13

Date: July 30, 1972
Time: Unknown between 9:00 am and 10:25 am
Location: Camp David Hard Wire

The President dictated a memorandum to H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was made by an AI model listening to the recording (gemini-3.8-flash) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Speaker names are the model's inference from the voices and the participant list. Words and names can still be wrong — verify against the audio and the finding aid before citing.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

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NixonThis memorandum to Haldeman with a second paragraph, a PS on the one hand, and with the other, Washington Post story, paragraph.
NixonIn uh laying down the rules that only our top people are to talk to antagonistic media representatives, and then only under the very strictest surveillance by one of the people from the Press Office.
NixonThis is difficult to enforce because lower levels in campaign feel that they have a chance to express themselves,
Nixonand uh do not feel and do not uh like the idea of feeling that they can't be trusted to talk to members of the press, period. There's an easy way to handle this, period.
NixonDeliberately build up occasions where they can be they can talk to friendly representatives in the media. I realize there are not too many.
NixonUh, but on the other hand, uh, on the other side of that coin, our major problem each dawn is that uh, as much time to unfriendly press people as we do to friendly press people.
NixonPeriod. I want this reversed as much as we can. One way we can, at least reward our friends, is to give them the opportunity to talk to second-echelon people, something that we will not allow to uh unfriendly press people.
NixonIn return for what's done, our staffers will get the satisfaction of being able to sound off about their views in the campaign and uh in addition, uh, the our friends from the press and television
Nixonwill be getting something that their competitors will not get, very important.
NixonThere perhaps cannot be clearer there perhaps cannot be clearer proof of the the way the little we will get of the press, the kind of treatment the government gets from the press, in the Nixon and McGovern articles in the Sunday Post,
Nixontoday, July 30th.
NixonThe Nixon article represents a totally, [unintelligible] you want to have in it, but uh critical [unintelligible] point that are hardly- thoughtless regard to our campaign parade.
NixonUh, the McGovern article by Spencer Rich, as we might expect, is a total puff piece.
NixonThis demonstrates the wisdom of my advice to be much more careful in programming interviews with unfriendly press people, and being with friendly press people.
NixonIncidentally, when I uh said earlier in the memorandum that I thought that uh we should see some of the unfriendly media people,
NixonI meant only those who reach very substantial audiences that we cannot afford to ignore.
NixonUnder no circumstances do I want any more time wasted, for example, on John Osborne on the left or his counterparts on the far right.
NixonIt's not because they're against us, but because the audience they reach simply is not important to us.
NixonParagraph. Okay, Peter.
NixonThat's the end of the memorandum.

Also recorded on July 30, 1972

  • 198-009 9:00 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 9:00 am and 10:25 am.
  • 198-010 9:00 AM · 39 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Fina Sanchez met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 9:00 am and 10:25 am.
  • 198-011 9:00 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 9:00 am and 10:25 am.
  • 198-012 9:00 AM · 57 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and unknown person(s) met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 9:00 am and 10:25 am.
  • 198-014 9:00 AM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 9:00 am and 10:25 am.
  • 198-015 10:25 AM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at 10:25 am.
  • 198-016 10:28 AM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at 10:28 am.
  • 198-017 10:28 AM · 3 min — Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:28 am and 1:00 pm.

All 23 conversations from July 30, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 198-013, July 30, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 648453108). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/198-013 (accessed November 14, 2026).