Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 253 › Conversation 253-004

Nixon & Colson on Media relations and Labor unions

Friday, May 7, 1971 · 2:08 PM–2:54 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 7 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation253-004 on Tape 253 (tape position 00:02:22–00:10:06)StartFriday, May 7, 1971 at 2:08 PMEndFriday, May 7, 1971 at 2:54 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 253-004 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson discuss media relations strategy, specifically how to criticize individual news outlets rather than the media industry as a whole to avoid broader political backlash. They also assess potential support from labor unions, evaluate political figures like Henry Jackson, and review the status of recent anti-war demonstrations. The conversation reflects the administration's ongoing efforts to manage public perception and build political coalitions among working-class voters.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello.
Yeah, what is your, uh, feeling about that Victor Roussel report on the media potential of that?
Sure.
In our case, the only thing that he, uh, has anything to write about is the, uh, is the W trade thing, which we, uh, you know, that's the only decision he's made that we've been getting into.
I don't like that.
Thoughts, which is part of that.
You can tell Romney about it.
Burns is always taking his views on the business.
But you, the meeting is worthwhile, so you don't have to talk about the other things.
Because I'm going to ask for support from SSP.
How about our old friend, the lobster?
He still has his part in there.
He's all right on Irish.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kirkland will probably be a successor.
I don't know what to say.
He really is here.
It's the weather and the political strength.
Remember, Walker's done a little.
Maybe we ought to just take him off.
You know what I mean?
There's some people that approach us as a hell of a lot of a membership.
Even with me, regardless of what it means, there's a lot of the membership that will stick with us.
Fran will stick with us.
With a lot of these union guys who have jobs, and most of the union guys who've got clients, they will let the board policy override the interview.
It's basically like Eamon's mistake, which is only a mistake in recent times.
for his contribution to the term media, rather than in terms of simply not CBS, or something like that.
That's the way you ought to do it.
You ought to say, now CBS did this or that, or the other crime guy did this, or Howard Smith did that.
He'd get away with that.
He wouldn't get away with it, but at least it could help him.
The moment you say media, the media does this, you're in real trouble with everybody.
That's it.
Yeah, there's a lot to do with it.
First, the building trades need, need some modification.
They are, they've grown and so forth, but they all might fight that battle.
That's somebody else's fault.
And there are no, there are no goals in it for us.
There's not any examples, of course.
They all have done their own thing.
That's what we came from, and I mean it.
They couldn't pick up any deeper rules than just an ordinary brushy talk.
You know, not one damn vote.
In fact, George Schultz struggled at, I don't know, I don't know if somebody else was there, maybe in the last couple of weeks, and he was very disrespectfully of Humphrey as well as Teddy.
He said Jackson's the best man in the world.
Well, I'll give him a little laugh.
How's everything else going?
I guess everybody's gone home today.
I think they helped.
I mean, they, uh, they, uh, they just are, are there.
I think that's the best broke they've needed to read so far.
Yeah.
The House came through.
Today, a lot of Democrats as well as Republicans, huh?
How about the Senate?
Is that a very good one, or anybody else?
I'm already stuck with that.
Why, of course.
But the point is, we already have a constitutional change, so why not?
let people know that they didn't.
The main point is that it's the right thing to do, and it's going to be done in the end.
In case these people come back, we're going to get the same thing.
So I have a lot of hope.
Well, like we said behind the Hoover Cruise, we're going to lose the chief right now.
There's a right to demonstrate and there's a right not to demonstrate.
Neither can either her or the other.
You know it's an interesting thing how the media didn't give it much play.
I think they focused on her and she.
The media focused on asking to protect her too.
Anyhow, you've got to live with it now.
That's why.
I get that problem certainly with the $40,000, $40,000, you know, paid by the group that supports the city.
They say, this city has what it's all based on.
The demonstrations across the country are far less than I know them.
It blew.
It blew up this weekend.
It was less than a year ago.
Back then, everyone was all approaching.
Things were going down.
It was nothing less.
Even though people are, of course, they're at war.
They're at war.
They're at war.
They're at war.
somebody's got to burn that place.
But that should be a project, of course, that has to burn to be a complex.
We'll see where it goes.
Okay.

NARA Description

On May 7, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:08 pm and 2:54 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 253-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 253-4

Date: May 7, 1971
Time: 2:08 pm - unknown before 2:54 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Charles W. Colson

[See Conversation No. 2-121]

Also recorded on May 7, 1971

  • 495-019 1:02 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:02 pm to 1:03 pm.
  • 002-120 1:03 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:03 pm and 2:08 pm.
  • 253-001 1:03 PM · 35 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:03 pm and 2:08 pm.
  • 253-002 1:03 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:03 pm and 2:08 pm.
  • 253-003 1:03 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:03 pm and 2:08 pm.
  • 002-121 2:08 PM · 17 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:08 pm and 2:54 pm.
  • 253-005 2:08 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:08 pm and 2:54 pm.
  • 495-021 2:57 PM · 1 hr 17 min — President Richard M. Nixon, George Meany, and Willie J. Usery, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:57 pm to 4:14 pm.

All 48 conversations from May 7, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 253-004, May 7, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/253-004 (accessed October 3, 2026).