Press Secretaries: Top Editor

PRESS SECRETARIES

Far from the White House and daily communion with the Washington press corps. Presidential Press Secretary Bill Moyers made the most of an unexpected opportunity to sound off about critical reporters. Cornered by local newsmen before speaking to the Charlotte, N.C., Young Democrats, Moyers was asked why President Johnson had such a reputation for managing the news. "This is uninformed criticism," Moyers replied. "The press is insatiable. We try to give out as much as we can. Often it's the inconvenience rather than the management that is criticized."

As an example, Moyers cited the rash of announcements he gave out just before Johnson's last trip to Texas. Instead of welcoming all the news, the press grumbled that it should have been ladled out over a period of two or three days. "If we had done that," continued Moyers, "that would have been managing the news. Newsmen complain if they get too little and if they get too much. As Oscar Wilde put it, 'In the old days we had the rack. Today we have the press.' "

Anyway, who are reporters to complain about L.B.J.? "He has no peer as an editor," declared Moyers, who discovered in his boss a talent that even Presidential Aide Jack Valenti did not cite in his famous catalogue of L.B.J.'s virtues. "He's a very demanding and precise editor. He has the ability to reduce ten pages to one."