Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 751 › Conversation 751-012
Nixon, Buchanan & Allin on White House News Summary
Monday, July 24, 1972 · 3:44 PM–4:13 PM ET · Oval Office · 26 min
AI Summary
President Nixon met with members of his White House News Summary staff to discuss the importance of monitoring media coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign. He directed the staff to provide confidential, quantitative analyses of how television networks, wire services, and newspapers covered the campaign to better understand media bias and its potential impact on voters. Nixon emphasized the need for a balanced approach to information and instructed his team to keep these sensitive evaluations internal as they prepared to counter negative press narratives regarding Senator George McGovern and the administration.
- White House News Summary
- 1972 presidential campaign
- media bias
- George McGovern
- press relations
- television news coverage
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
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NARA Description
On July 24, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Patrick J. Buchanan, Lyndon K. Allin, Sandra I. Kiely, Jon D. Hoornstra, Lotus Ann Wagner, W. Bruce Weinrod, Stephen B. Bull, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:44 pm to 4:13 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 751-012 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 751-12
Date: July 24, 1972
Time: 3:44 pm - 4:13 pm
Location: Oval Office
The President met with Patrick J. Buchanan, Lyndon K. (“Mort”) Allin, Sandra I. Kiely, Jon D.
Hoornstra, Lotus Anne Wagner, W. Bruce Weinrod. Stephen B. Bull and the White House
photographer were present at the beginning of the meeting.
Introductions
-News summary
-Allin’s weight
Seating arrangements for photograph session
White House news summary
-Importance
-Distribution
-Congress
-American Enterprise Institute [AEI]
-Alternative to Washington Post, New York Times, Washington Star
-Television news
-Local newspapers
-Balanced reporting
Washington Post reporting
-Youth
-George H. Gallup Poll
-George S. McGovern
White House News Summary staff
-Working hours
-Workload
-1972 election
-Instructions for Buchanan and Allin
-Additional staff
-Edith Efron analysis of media fairness
-Networks
-McGovern, the President
-1968 campaign
-Word counting
-September 1972
-American Institute of Political Communications survey
-McGovern
-Ed Barrett
-Sig Mickelson
-Resignation
1972 campaign
-McGovern
-White House response
White House News Summary staff
-Workload
-Analysis of media coverage
-New York Times, Washington Post
-Wire services
-Columnists
-Effect on opinion makers
-Mary McGrory
-William S. White
-Effect on voters
-Distribution
-Charles W. Colson, H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
-Secrecy
-Importance
Bull entered and left at an unknown time before 4:13 pm.
The President’s schedule
Media relations
-1968 and 1960 elections
Newspaper Guild
-Endorsement of McGovern
-New York
-New York Daily News, Washington Post
-Significance
1972 campaign
-McGovern
-Comments
-News summary
-Support for the President
-Frank E. Fitzsimmons, Peter J. Brennan, Thomas W. (“Teddy”) Gleason
White House News Summary staff
-Workload
-Analysis of media coverage
-McGovern
John B. Connally
-Washington Post editorial
-Forced labor
White House News Summary staff
-Workload
-Analysis of media coverage
-Polls
-Networks, columnists, wire services
-Chicago Tribune
-News magazines
-New Republic
-Human Events
-Life
-Ronald L. Ziegler
-Daily appraisals
-Harry Reasoner's statement
-McGovern, George Meany
-Newspaper Guild
-Endorsement
-Reaction
-1968 campaign
-Efron’s book [The News Twisters]
-Television
1972 campaign
-McGovern
-Network correspondents
-David Schoumacher, Jack Perkins
Perkins
-National Broadcasting Company [NBC]
-Coverage of Ronald W. Reagan in 1970
-Student riots
-Compared to advertisement
Washington Post
-McGovern
Channel 9
-Reporting of labor
-Camp David
-Leaders
-View of administration
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 2m 7s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
*****************************************************************
White House News Summary staff
-Workload
-Analysis of media coverage
-Networks
-Radio
-Wire services
-McGovern
-John V. Lindsay, [Forename unknown] Rosenthal
-Associated Press [AP] story
Labor story
-Daniel L. Schorr, Douglas Kiker, Roger H. Mudd
-Quality of reporting
-McGovern
-The President and Meany
-[American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations
[AFL-CIO] convention, Bal Harbour, Florida, November 1971
Newspaper Guild endorsement
-Publicity
-Barry M. Goldwater's comment
-Distribution by Colson
-Networks
-New York Times
-Compared to Efron’s book
-Efron’s testimony
1972 campaign
-Press coverage
-Media flap
-The President's meeting with Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
-Time, Newsweek, New York Times, Washington Post
-Wire services
-Effect on local news, radio
White House News Summary staff
-Workload
-Analysis of media coverage
-Republican National Convention
-Washington Star
Unknown man
-Book
-Experience in Cambodia
-Book
-Quotation
-Karl E. Mundt
-Reviews
-The President’s instruction
Presentation of gifts by the President
-Pins, cufflinks
White House News Summary
-Importance
Washington area residents
-New York Times, Washington Post
Buchanan et al. left at 4:13 pm.Also recorded on July 24, 1972
- 350-019 2:24 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:24 pm and 3:22 pm.
- 350-020 2:24 PM · 13 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 2:24 pm and 3:22 pm.
- 350-021 2:24 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:24 pm and 3:22 pm.
- 751-009 3:22 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:22 pm and 3:32 pm.
- 751-010 3:22 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:22 pm and 3:32 pm.
- 751-011 3:32 PM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Roland L. Elliott, Michael B. Smith, Karen D. Jenkins, Mary Ann Allin, Anne V. Higgins, Stephen B. Bull, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:32 pm to 3:40 pm.
- 751-013 4:13 PM · 34 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:13 pm to 4:14 pm.
- 751-014 4:14 PM · 1 hr 32 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Raymond K. Price, Jr., Rev. John J. McLaughlin, John K. Andrews, Jr., David R. Gergen, Lee W. Huebner, Rodney C. Campbell, Harold L. Lezar, Jr., Aram Bakshian, Jr., John B. McDonald, Stephen B. Bull, White House photographer, Manolo Sanchez, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:14 pm to 5:48 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 751-012, July 24, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/751-012 (accessed October 12, 2026).