Love Hate Relationships: Reporters and Politicians Play by the Rules

When Robert Healy, a 30-year political correspondent and now columnist for The Boston Globe, was covering the 1960 Presidential primaries, Lyndon B. Johnson pulled him aside. "You don't think that skinny little guy will be president, do you?" he said, pointing to John F. Kennedy '40.

The relationship between the press and politicians can range from such buddy-buddy rapport to antagonistic battles over getting the administration's "inside story," said six former Nieman Fellows yesterday at the "Politics and Media" symposium.

The former fellows criticized current press coverage of politicians as too pro-establishment. Jack Nelson, bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times in Washington, D.C., said this is because President Ronald Reagan is "humorous, amiable and popular."

Even the editor of Pravda said that American press does not go far enough in attacking the administration according to Brandt Ayers, publisher of The Anniston Star in Alabama. "We asked him if the Pravda ever criticized the Communist party," said Ayers. "He said no, but The New York Times never advocates communism."

New York Times columnist Tom Wicker said that the press has not been aggressive enough in attacking Reagan's record because they are "intimidated" by his success.

"The press members too generally slip into covering official spokesmen without going behind what the spokesmen are saying," said Wicker. "Reporters who don't know what they're talking about rely on spokesmen who usually inform them self-servingly."

"We play by a set of rules which the White House sets," said Wicker. But no matter how "self-serving" the official flow of information is, "the public would be losing out of information" if the press ignored it.