The Press: The Mysterious West

Larry Todd, Washington correspondent of the official Soviet news agency Tass, and Rob Hall, Washington correspondent of the Communist New York Daily Worker, may sit in the Senate and House press galleries, take all the notes they want. But as "Government propagandists," Joseph Sitrick and Grattan McGroarty, who cover Congress for the State Department's Voice of America, may not. If they can find seats, they may sit in the public galleries, but like other spectators, may not take notes. In reporting debates they must rely on their memories, or wait for the next day's Congressional Record. One result: the voice of Russia often speaks up more promptly and clearly than the Voice of America.

Last week in Washington, there was agitation against Propagandists Todd and Hall, and for Propagandists Sitrick and McGroarty. Movie Star Harold (The Best Years of Our Lives) Russell, national commander of Amvets, called for ousting the Tass and Worker representatives from the press galleries. Many Washington newsmen disagreed: they thought this might infringe upon freedom of the press, might also provoke Soviet reprisals against the few U.S. correspondents still in Moscow (TIME, Nov. 7). As for the Voice of America, a committee of Senate periodicals (magazine) correspondents proposed relaxing the rules: let them sit in the diplomatic gallery and take notes, or sit unofficially in the periodicals gallery. At week's end, while the Senate Rules Committee pondered, Todd and Hall were still scribbling and filing to their Moscow-ruled bosses. Sitrick and McGroarty, servants of democracy, were still memorizing.