Nixon, Haldeman & Ziegler on White House Press Relations

3:43Chief Justice called John this morning, and Black is sending you a letter saying he resigned to the pleasure of the president.
3:48He will notify the court at the same time.
3:49Berger suggested that you sit tight on it and not announce it, because it will cause trouble.
3:53Mitchell and I both feel you've got to announce it, because there's a lot of rumors out there that they're checking it.
4:09He's telling the whole court, so Douglas or somebody like that is going to let it out anyway.
4:12I think at 4 o'clock, right on this briefing, she simply said that the president has received it.
4:17I don't want to make a murder of Mr. Justice.
4:19I want to let Mitchell handle the burden.
4:31Now, beyond that, Berger is meeting this afternoon at 4.30 with Justice Harland, who has been transferred from Bethesda to another hospital because of his problem.
4:37And it's Berger's strong feeling that at that time, Harland is going to tell him his intention to do what it was.
4:40But we don't want his resignation, but we have a need to start one of the first men on board him.
5:04The bar won't approve.
5:05He's never practiced law.
5:05At least that's possible.
5:06Now, Mitchell wants guidance from any guidance from you that you want to get in on.
5:07I don't want any policies you just want to get through.
5:09I think the bar about now is not going to have a reason to want this thing.
5:10He's a member of the judiciary.
5:32John says we need some real thinking in the political area to figure out where we get the most credit, where we can do what's obvious under the current president.
5:40He's got his walls coming down the first of the week to review, talk with, and not to the Supreme Court, but just a general discussion, because he didn't know anything in the southern half.
5:51But he wanted to know whether he still were interested in William Franks.
6:49And you might consider him if you want to play the Jews.
8:06I gave a little commercial for bowling afterwards and so forth.
8:07Well, dropping one in the gutter is bad, because there are not even bowls.
8:11Oh, I didn't like drop-drops on rides and all that.
8:12But there is all of us that tend to walk over and roll a strike.
8:14That's great.
8:15Tom, you know, I'm pleased with that draft.
8:16I'll say it.
8:31It's just maybe to show the country it's as bad off as we thought.
8:37Well, we made our first part.
8:38We put a lot of work in it.
8:40That's not a big challenge.
8:42We struggled with it.
8:46Manseel needed it.
8:47He did a tough job on it yesterday.
8:48And what he said is that he called the next war several times.
8:59We're not going to stand for Nixon's war.
9:00We're not going to stand for it.
12:18You talked about the nun thing.
12:19Yes.
12:20He still thinks that the nun is the best bet.
12:23We would have to wait until after the... You wouldn't want to do
13:01He said, his viewpoint is, he said that he doesn't buy Harlow's argument that the guy needs to be a farmer, so he won't do it.
13:08He said, what you want is a guy who can sell your programs the most effectively.
13:11Not a guy who understands agriculture, but a guy who understands how to pitch to agriculture.
13:15And what you want, therefore, is a salesman and a politician who understands the farmer rather than a farmer.
13:48Fine, just show how difficult it was and what you did.
13:50They asked me to roll the ball down there.
13:52They knocked down some pins because they couldn't get a picture of all of the pins going down at once.
13:58They wanted to go down and have the strike.
14:00Well, I tried it five times and it didn't do any good.
14:03And then Ed, the amateur bowler, knocked it down four times and he couldn't do it.
14:10And then finally he knocked them down.
14:13The champ.
14:14Because they wanted to get a picture of all of them going down.
14:18Great comeback.
14:18That was a pretty good show.
14:19Yes, sir.
14:19The wire services went over there and hit that one of them, and it was a perfect strike.
14:22Yes, sir.
14:22It was great.
14:22It was really great.
14:23It was really great.
14:23But the wire services...
14:24I must say,
14:49I couldn't do anything.
14:51A hundred frames never ended.
14:55A hundred games were the only ones.
14:57But what really happened, I was leaning over.
15:00Oh, yeah.
15:02I couldn't touch that.
15:02But that worked out great.
15:04The wire services were just like, my God, this is greater than VitaBoo.
15:06This is greater than VitaBoo.
15:07They were running across.
15:18But the president walked up, and he was just a great man going out.
15:20Did you hear about the next comeback?
16:34He just said there was a, he made a first-preface speech, which is not in character for my impression.
16:39And he got a clobber out of the boat.
16:41And he really had his fang with him today.
16:42That was after the cold.
16:43Oh, yes, sir.
16:44Did they realize about that?
16:45Oh, yes, I walked up and I said, you were in the boat, it's a clear country.
16:48Oh, yes, sir.
16:49What the hell, yesterday we thought we would lose it at 11 o'clock.
16:50I don't want to go south on you, there was an asshole out there.
17:04I really put those guys down to the map today on the Democratic caucus line, you know.
17:07Finally, Bailey said, yeah, that's right, you guys should call more, you know.
17:12We've got to that point.
17:13I see people call all the time.
17:15Request information, you know, contact and so forth from the staff.
17:23Apparently, if you don't know...
17:26We didn't back off.
17:28But I said, I didn't have an official comment to give.
17:32Well, can you verify the report?
17:33I said, I don't have an official comment to give, but I think Mr. Safar has made it clear in his head that the report was circulating that a Democratic senator had said this.
17:43He suggested to a couple of guys to check that out.
17:46Now, you fellows know, I said, are calling here all the time.
17:49You're asking for more information.
17:50You make contacts with us.
17:52You encourage us to call you.
17:54It's an absolute fact.
18:02The only thing I do is follow.
18:02I wonder if all that's on the floor, I wonder if that would, if I would have changed, I would have got a full of senators eating.
18:05And what do you mean, next to the floor?
18:06The Democrats got us in, and next to the floor is getting stopped.
18:08Why doesn't somebody ever start singing?
18:09Do we ever give them such lines, Chuck?
18:09What was the very end of your meeting at Bob on that subject?
18:11Chuck's regretting it.
18:11Yeah, he is, and I regret it, too.
18:32Well, so...
19:01We're supposed to step out of the record by the time.
19:03It's not what our people did.
19:04We can't sue you.
19:04He is a harder one than anybody is.
19:05The Democrats at the moment are making themselves look like people because their attacks, they're not able to sustain them.
19:32I think we ought to get over the idea that they are being partisan and obstructionist.
19:34They are.
19:35They are on national security, and they are on this war scene, and on the economic side.
21:34I was asked that question today about the... About the... No, no, about the... Mail he asked.
21:40Would... Like I said, I think the president was very clear in his remarks yesterday, and I don't know if he did, but he made it clear that today, no man, because of what he described,
21:57I don't have a problem.
21:57They have a problem.
22:27They asked me about the DM thing too, and I said the president stands right on this remark.
22:29I have nothing to add to it, you know, in the terms of the overthrow, the complexity of the overthrow.
22:31Just say, John, I read the time, I read the time on the papers, and then you've got to go to the DM.
23:26This is what we have to see, because our low-key guys show us, and all the rest just don't know how to handle it.
23:28I mean, the Crocs flyers and all the rest, everything's on the record.
23:30We may just let them babble on, I'm not saying anything.
23:31Yeah, well, that might be the best idea.
23:32Let's say we're here to listen to it.
23:55This is particularly in the wide range.
23:58It's the way the governor's saying it was yesterday.
24:05Mills and Burns aren't coming down again.
24:22Well, the rail is really a strong stand against.
25:09Tom Lee has been raising hell over time.
25:10He probably would have a lot of money if he got in that suite.
25:14Bankers are a good ability.
25:15Just like labor, you can't hit your center.
25:17That's right.
25:17Roger J. Robert Thompson used to handle the American Bankers Association, and they had one hell of a time, because any study you do, people dislike most.
25:21I think bankers are bankers.
25:21Bankers have insight.
27:15But there's great impressions from all groups that we have met with.
27:17The business group, including the business group, the labor group, the business group, the agriculture group, and the government group, while they were in the house, history governing, was efficient.
31:15We always talk about Mexican things and so forth and so on.
31:16On the other hand, you read the history of, let's say, warfare, particularly as I read it, and some of the students in World War I, World War II, and so on.
31:19It is sometimes a mistake to just say, well, I'd like to be our people and do everything.
31:44Sometimes you have to figure, you've got to make a decision on something that works a hell of a lot better than something else you don't believe in that are less effective.
31:47Now, the real question there is, when you come down to this office press conference, people watch on Bailey in the writing press they like.
31:50But, do we lose so much in terms of television?
32:32You lose in terms of the president being there saying it himself.
32:38You lose in terms of the immediate reach.
32:42But, I don't think there's any question right now that what you said yesterday in the office over the period of time in the newspaper, radio, television, collectively, all of that, your message is very clearly out.
32:55It didn't get out as fast, but it was out.
32:57There's no question about the fact that what you're
33:37A hell of a lot of people listen to the radio, listen to the local news shows, listen to the regional reports, and all of this accumulates and so forth.
33:48But I doubt that you... You cannot go at all of those two, plus...
33:51There's no question about it.
33:53No question.
33:54We all want to get the others out of the argument.
33:57I don't think that's what I agree with.
33:59Of course, the ultimate weapon is private technology.
34:04That cannot be used...
34:07We can't use this time at any time.
34:09There's no reason we can't walk into that goddamn news time and make a cover because of whether you're not interfering with the guy's usual, shall we say, relaxation.
34:25Well, I think now...
34:50Thank you.
35:09But the time that I said to the extent that I had to get rid of all that stuff, spend time thinking about major decisions, and preparing for major press conference decisions, do it.
35:21Now the other thing that's all there is, when you come down here, the only advantage of the office press conference, my standpoint, it does not take...
35:33as intensive preparation as the others, because it does not require as a high-intensity contraction of answers in very, very brief periods of time, which requires a lot of preparation and a lot of discipline.
35:40So the August conference I had to do pretty easily, all the way to
36:11You say no.
36:14I say that until you've done all the television you figure you can do, that you shouldn't go to an office.
36:25And then after you've done everything else, if we've saturated, if we've reached a point where we, whatever judgment you follow, people with TV saturated, that you can't do any more TV, and then having reached that point, you still feel there's a reason
36:40We weren't at that point yesterday.
36:43We could have been on TV.
36:45There was a good argument not to be on TV, which is that you're going to be on next week.
36:51But we don't know what will occur.
37:05In terms of your attitude, is whether you want to put your own commercial, late commercial interests ahead of covering one of the major things that's happening in this country, the economy, and so he's going to go back.
37:15But I think in this regard...
37:18If they doubt it, it's all right.
37:20It'll be covered regionally.
37:21Yes, it will.
37:21Yes, it will.
37:29I think, I don't quarrel at all with the importance of television, the reach, and the effect of it.
37:42But I think in all of this, when you consider the in-office press conference, the TV press conference, the conversation, and even the
38:00I think one element in terms of assessing these guys as our enemy, which they are, I think that this enemy can be manipulated very, very easily by manipulating your attitude.
38:14And I think a part of moving their attitude is this contact.
38:23Not always contact by you, but, you know, how we assess inside here, I think that they're never going to be won over.
38:36I think they've been manipulated, kept off balance, and moved.
38:39Not always to write totally what we feel we should write.
38:44There is a point you said about, there is the feeling of an intimate contact with the president.
38:56I don't think too intimate, though.
38:58Right, but I'm not suggesting
39:00I'm not suggesting that you let them in too close.
39:05I'm not suggesting that you become buddy-buddies with them.
39:09If we look at the objective for getting the best press we can get,
39:25which is part of the communication, communicating broadly to the American people, I think this is an element we cannot and should not overlook.
39:33There isn't any question that as far as even the television press are concerned, they are enormously complimented by being invited into the office, and they much prefer the kind of a conference I had yesterday.
39:49Correct.
39:50All right.
39:52My point is,
39:56Do you think that affects their energies a bit?
39:59I think the limited degree affects it, yes sir.
40:01I don't think, I'm not suggesting that all press conferences should be done in the Alliance, but I think it very definitely has an impact on the press.
40:10They were, before this press conference for example, yesterday.
40:14They were moving into one of their periodic, every five month, very religion attitude.
40:19And it was deteriorating.
40:20This morning, yesterday afternoon, bang, they were up 100%.
40:26Now, this affects what they talk about back there.
40:31And it affects what Dan Ravage says on the evening show, because Dan Ravage, Bob Pierpont, Tom Darrell, and these guys, Kurt Kaplow, feed off of the writing press.
40:44And this influences actually what they say.
40:47What they cover.
40:49Well, that's the other side of the coin.
40:53You can do some more.
40:54This kind of thing is very effective.
40:55You don't have to do it for 30 minutes each time.
40:59You might call in for 15 sometimes.
41:03My view is that it's such an inexpensive job in order to get a lead.
41:07That is what we don't have, apparently.
41:09It would be such an accomplishment
41:18Let's face it, we breathe together.
41:19Because they don't know how.
41:22They either don't know how or they don't have the balls.
41:25Correct?
41:26Very well said.
41:41In terms of really affecting public attitudes towards you and the administration,
42:14The president is the key to it, and even though we would like to see the other guys do the press conference, or that headline today, or that word news show last night, I should say, Bob, I think I have two minutes to do the show.
42:22I think I have two minutes.
42:23Well, if it's not now, no, the time, clearly, the time today, I don't want to stay here, so...
42:43I don't give a damn about the key points.
42:46It's the presidential leadership in here.
43:01I didn't see the news, so I don't know what he said, but Dan Rather out there saying that, and they always play it, because they downplay it, an impromptu news conference in his office makes it sound like he just happened to run into a reporter and asked you some questions.
43:15That's right, you can't depend on Dan Rather for general leadership, absolutely not, that's why it's important for TV.
43:21But the other on the TV, with Dan Rather asking his stupid questions, and the president not listening to him,
45:16The other reason is that
45:54But the other reason, I think we're on for it, isn't too bad.
45:56But the attitude of the people in the press, or I wouldn't say this, I don't know if it goes to an election, the attitude of the people in the press is important.
46:03I have no idea that they're going to be nice to us.
46:05But I do have an idea that...
46:34Kennedy would frankly have the brains to handle the situation.
46:36And Muskie would sound kind of very pompous about it, but he wouldn't do it.
46:38And honestly, he wouldn't do it.
46:39So then they know that this kind of thing, I think, is, my guess is, my guess is, at least, of course, the television press conferences are pressing to these bastards.
47:40It does have an impression on what you do and what others of us do.
47:42I just know there's some days...
48:14The other thing you have to keep in mind is that these guys, even though their attitude is what we know it is, deal in news.
48:32And when they are kept this, when they are right, when they...
48:43You know, when they're involved in it, they don't have time to think about a column writing about, you know, the negatives, because they're reporting on the president, what he's doing, what the issues are around him.
48:51I'm not concerned about the columns, except for the TV guys.
48:53But the question is, maybe even the TV guys.
49:00I mean, you know, like yesterday, one of the TV men got a question.
49:47Those guys have a personal vested, salty interest, which goes to some degree to their pockets.
50:13And they're going, they are fighting and struggling and digging to get on the air in any way they can.
50:19And you can tell their attitude at Pierpoint is perfect bellwether.
50:24Because when he's on the air, he's going on fire.
50:26He is the happiest, friendliest, he does the best stuff you can think about doing.
50:30But when he's slumped, when he's in a slump, when he's not on the air, when that little extra 200 bucks is coming next to him.
50:36I don't know if he's regressed.
50:38I don't know if he's regressed.
50:41That's right.
50:42That is a factor.
50:43Let's try it.
50:44You've got to do that now.
50:46The next office thing we will do
51:05But I think with the film, I'll let you see how much we got on the evening news with the film.
51:08My guess is you get three or four minutes.
51:09At least you'll get three or four minutes.
51:10I know the film is about three or four minutes.
51:11Yeah.
51:11Unless I make a very arranging sound.
51:12Yeah.
51:12Yeah.
51:59I remember when we did that, I don't like to put an agent in here, but you are forced to carry it.
52:20We were getting to, we did one or two around these times, several, I think two.
52:25They were all moving to the point where they were going to delay the carrying of the press conference until after they had done their regular news show.
52:33They all met on this.
52:34I don't know if you were involved in this discussion or not.
52:37They became very...
52:38They were moving back...
52:40They were on the verge of doing that.
52:42Now, I think they could be pressed for maybe three shots in that way, but then they'll back off.
52:50If we ever get to that, we've got to really be careful.
52:54The worst thing that could happen to us is to get into a pattern where the networks decided to carry your...
53:35I think we've been very, very happy.
53:36You see, look what we've done.
53:41We had all three networks on July 3rd.
53:43We had all three networks on July 15th.
53:46We had all three networks on August 15th.
53:49And that's all in prime time.
53:53And I think we had all three networks, of course, not in prime time, but in the middle of the day, which means nothing with the state of the huge business.
54:07Followize the news conference.
54:09Yesterday would have been a mistake, if I heard it.
54:12Absolutely.
54:12God damn, I was telling you.
54:13And also, we've been on the news a couple of times over this last three months.
54:19I'm sorry to be jackass if you've been doing my speech to the region.
54:22But the question... Oh, we'll see.
54:24Let's try that again.
54:24We're going to dig it back.
54:37Tell this, I'm never going to do it again.
54:40A live television conference in the evening.
54:50Whether or not I do it, it will be smacked.
54:53It isn't worth the minimal television audience you get to do to prepare that.
54:57If I prepare a televised news conference, live news conference, I'm going to do the goddamn thing.
55:07If you're talking about doing it once a month, once a month or less, I would argue you should do it at prime time.
55:12If you're going to do it more than once a month, then you've got to do it a minute's time or something.
55:39I think it would be a good splash.
55:41I don't know how they're going to
56:10I think it would be good to have... Look, we don't want to see... We don't want to hit the hole that the regional country fell in or something out there.
56:19We don't want to just think for a minute here.
56:23You see, I may decide, if we do the trade, I may decide to do this kind of thing, and some other people might do the PRT, and I'll be gone.
56:51It's good to have something on when you have a good enthusiasm party inside your tree.
56:52I'm just wondering...
56:53This presents a terror, it presents the evil of time, but I don't have any questions.
56:54It's good to have something on when you have a good enthusiasm party inside your tree.
56:56I'm just wondering...
57:48I think the A is it.
57:48What is the best event?
57:49Rather than taking an hour, that's what we want.
57:50You see, it concerns me to have an hour of private time on a new train.
57:51Taking it out of the movies and everything else.
57:52I'm not so sure it's a good idea.
57:53Yes, but I prefer fun.
57:53I know.
57:54This is an hour.
57:54See, the first hour tells the advantage that it's a half hour.
58:22It doesn't bother me.
58:23The ASME was so good in that type of format that I think this has to be good.
59:18Take it.
59:47But so does anything you do on television.
59:48Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
59:50Tape makes a better presentation than film.
59:51My point is, if you guys, the Detroit Economic Club on television, it will also be replayed pieces of it all the time today.
59:56Sure.
59:56No question about it.
59:58Multiple stations and networks and everybody else.
59:59It'll be on the CBS Morning News, it'll be on the Today Show.
1:00:45And their panelists.
1:00:47You see, the panelists will be down out there, you know what I mean.
1:00:52When I say down, they'll ask probably all the church economic questions.
1:00:57Well, their questions will have been submitted before they go on the air, and the panel will have worked out their questions and divided them up, and they'll have it so they have a good range of questions.
1:01:07All I would have been to suggest,
1:01:12Here's the point.
1:01:13The Q&A format is an enormously effective format.
1:01:39Ok. Ok.
1:02:26And it's an exciting thing to have Q&A.
1:02:27It's a modern thing, too.
1:02:28That's what the talk shows are all about.
1:02:29Q&A, Q&A, Q&A.
1:02:30Now, here, that's why I even suggested we ought to have an actual talk on it.
1:02:41I still think it's already possible that it's not going to make it one.
1:02:43Maybe we answer the mail on television, or anything, any day of the day.
1:02:45Maybe we do something in it.
1:02:46We don't have to go to a prime time audience every time.
1:02:47You don't have to do it.
1:02:47We have to do it.
1:02:48Look at the shit-ass things we do for audiences of 1,500.
1:02:49I mean, I go out to, or maybe, we say, God, wasn't it great?
1:02:50We had 30,000 at the airport in Canada.
1:02:51Wasn't that great?
1:02:52Sure, that was great.
1:03:11I might say an interesting news thing, but the point is that we forget that anything you do on television is a rally of 5 million people, even in the middle of the day, that I do, correct?
1:03:205 million people you're hitting.
1:03:22So if I do a Q&A in the middle of the day, it's 5 million people.
1:03:27Not bad.
1:03:32We talked about this before.
1:04:01Press conference.
1:04:02I know you're not referring to Q&A all the time.
1:04:04It's press, but press conference in Chicago.
1:04:11over a period of time, the impact of that, in other words, you take the televised press conference out of the East Street, the same old people, the same old format, and you move, you go into an area for an event or something, and as a part of that, you have maybe 20 minutes, or 25 minutes, with the press conference.
1:04:35Fantastic.
1:04:36It would depend on the time zone.
1:05:01I would think that you would maybe want to do it in prime time, because most of the regional area would cut into the network programming to carry the president's news conference in Chicago live, don't you think?
1:05:14It wouldn't pin up internationally, it would, no doubt.
1:05:18I would think prime time.
1:05:33Well, that was, that's easy to say, but I'm thinking of doing it on a much broader scale.
1:05:37Why not do it?
1:05:38There's much to be said.
1:05:38I love the local guys asking questions.
1:05:40They're all there, the guys that are going to help or hurt us a lot, too.
1:05:45I'm sure the national network shows are very effective.
1:05:48As I said, it took us months to get to do it for two years, and we had to see George Pond.
1:06:23But I would think, I would think if you did this...
1:06:48You would get extensive, massive regional coverage and good network coverage on any of those you did at whatever time you did it.
1:07:10They have to carry a lot.
1:07:13You know what I mean at first time?
1:07:16You allowed coverage, they'd have to carry it.
1:07:22They couldn't not carry it.
1:07:28In the networks.
1:07:28Well, I agree, but... Well, that's what I'm talking about.
1:07:32I understand that.
1:07:33Right.
1:07:45As to other things we can do on a much more frequent basis, just to keep them on the line.
1:07:47We've got to keep them on the line.
1:07:48We've got a very, we have a problem here with it.
1:07:50And it's, as I said, it's a very common thing.
1:07:51Possibly, yeah.
1:07:51We've got to pick the right side of the music, right?
1:07:53We can make our case.
1:07:53And we've got to try to put ourselves together.
1:08:31I guess you know that the waste of my time, absolute waste of my time, except for that that we have to do something of the goodness of the heart, is to scrap the office.
1:08:35I mean, it is for the birds.
1:08:35Sitting in there, holding the hands of people, and giving a hug to her couple of nights, and all the rest.
1:08:37And they say, gee, they loved it.
1:08:38Of course they loved it.
1:08:38Why wouldn't they?
1:08:39I mean, how good does it do us?
1:09:02A few now that will come in to help us and so on.
1:09:03Generally speaking, we have done all that.
1:09:03We've done that for the rest of our years.
1:09:04I've seen the business people.
1:09:05I've seen that.
1:09:05And I've met them.
1:09:06They were out of our ears.
1:09:06And I can count off this hand the number that today we call on and say, look.
1:09:08What is that?
1:09:08It was...
1:09:27Why didn't he force the election?
1:09:27I mean, once, but not before seven.
1:09:28But okay, I'll do things.
1:09:28That was true before we had...
1:09:36They bring them in and are interested with a plan in mind to get out of it.
1:09:38But I think in all this thing, we've gone too far on that.
1:09:39I mean, I know why, because we are terribly bad.
1:09:40And they say, well, I'm the president, so I can be with them in our cottage group and be with all that.
1:09:43We've never seen the way that Rob says that we're supposed to cover for the rest of it.
1:10:01Well, of course, this stuff doesn't get through.
1:10:07Recently, a follow-up can...
1:10:31That in my view was a total waste of my time.
1:10:33I mean total.
1:10:34They were very important people.
1:10:35I had had most of them before.
1:10:37Either there or someplace else.
1:10:39There wasn't a god damn reason to have that meeting.
1:10:40Not then.
1:10:41In terms of our efforts, yeah, we did a good job.
1:10:42Now, what we really have to find, I compare that opportunity
1:11:05I'll just sit and think.
1:11:08Or take that hour for the purpose of preparing for an office press conference.
1:11:15Better use the time, right?
1:11:17You agree?
1:11:18Yeah.
1:11:18Well, there's where we have to go.
1:11:19Now we come to the other thing.
1:11:20You've come to the fight, so luckily you do.
1:11:22But there's always, as all of us do, going to get blackmailed into doing some of that kind of thing.
1:11:27Some of the things you do aren't worthwhile, but they have to be done anyway.
1:11:33Well, you take the bullet and some low-level staff have to bring the spotter in.
1:11:38There's actually no good at all for anybody.
1:11:40You've got to do a few things like that.
1:11:42Because I haven't talked about that.
1:11:44Everybody's got to do that.
1:11:46But what is it that you can tell them about?
1:11:50It's like telling you where to tell cats.
1:11:52If you're going to get a bunch of important people to pinpoint you on your health and stuff, that you, somewhere you've got to slap a little...
1:12:04That's the coverage I would have gotten before it took place.
1:12:06I would have felt I would have gotten some coverage.
1:12:08Right.
1:12:08Even projected massive coverage, that's what I could get for a long time.
1:12:43They can't make the impact, even if they have to.
1:13:29Of course, there are ways that...
1:13:44You have to be very cautious, I agree, particularly now.
1:13:45And I'm getting a little of this, you know, from the pool.
1:13:47But for example, there are ways to force them into news time, which is not calling a press conference here in the East Room.
1:13:53You have a news conference in, where's the two-hour time difference?
1:13:56Cincinnati?
1:13:56Two-hour difference, isn't it?
1:13:58One.
1:13:58One.
1:13:58Matter of fact, this is the same.
1:14:00Ohio's an Eastern time now.
1:14:02Cleveland's Eastern.
1:14:05But go ahead.
1:14:06Chicago's one.
1:14:08Chicago's one.
1:14:13Well, even as you move west.
1:14:14If you had a press conference in Denver at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, or 5 o'clock, it would force America to have a loose time in the east.
1:14:24Then you would go west with almost as much coverage on the later feed-ins to it, and on the local live and regional live.
1:14:36That way they wouldn't be forced to pick up the president of the press conference in the new show.
1:14:42And they wouldn't rebel.
1:14:43They couldn't rebel.
1:14:43Well, the whole Kennedy period, you know, he did not use that.
1:14:48Only occasionally.
1:14:51No press conferences.
1:14:52Occasionally he did.
1:14:53I think maybe three or four.
1:14:55I have no idea.
1:15:01I recall that he did a few, but over the whole list, which we broke out, 12 and 4.
1:15:09That's right.
1:15:22He did the press talks more frequently, every week.
1:15:23He didn't have to rely on us last year.
1:15:26But he was doing it for a different reason.
1:15:32He didn't have to rely on us as heavily as we do, in that he wasn't using us to go over the heads of the press.
1:15:40He was doing this as part of his overall program.
1:15:44I wouldn't, Mr. President, as
1:15:56You have to pace yourself.
1:15:56Pace the appearances in prime time.
1:15:57Depending on the issue, the need, the mood.
1:15:58I wouldn't do it anyway.
1:15:59Don't worry about the equal time.
1:16:00They've never done it on all three networks together.
1:16:01They never will, because legally networks won't give you that.
1:16:22You or anybody else on one network until it just won't get an audience.
1:16:24That's why we follow it.
1:17:06Therefore, if there's a prime time opportunity next week, in the format you're best in, we should push like the difference together.
1:17:09And you're not overexposed.
1:17:09Do you think that?
1:17:10No, I don't think so.
1:17:10I don't think there's a possibility of being overexposed.
1:17:11I've heard that in a session.
1:17:28But the other question is, following that line of thinking, if you proceed that way, does that mean you don't use television at other times?
1:17:38And I've always thought that we do benefit every time you walk before an electronic camera.
1:17:42It varies in terms of the degree, of course.
1:17:44Well,
1:18:05That was one easy 15 for me.

Nixon, Haldeman & Ziegler on White House Press Relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on September 17, 1971

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