Nation: Superchief of Information

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Every recent Administration—not only Johnson's but also Dwight Eisenhower's and John Kennedy's—has been accused of manipulating the news, or at least of an occasional lack of candor. The press wants to know everything, preferably before it happens and preferably handed to it on a silver platter. Presidents and their Administrations naturally want to feed out information as they see fit, preferably in such a way as to make them look good. Last week Richard Nixon, who has always had trouble with the press, set up a system to cushion or deflect this inevitable conflict, which is inevitably known as the credibility gap.

Up from Disneyland. The system will largely consist of Herbert George Klein as his "Director of Communications for the Executive Branch." Said Klein:

"Truth will be the hallmark of the Nixon Administration." He may have been setting too high a standard for any political regime. With six or seven "key aides," Klein will work in the Executive Office Building, just west of the White House, to coordinate the information pouring forth from the myriad federal agencies. "I won't have the power of veto," insisted Klein. "Extending the flow of news is what I'm interested in." But he admitted that the object of his new job, unprecedented in the Federal Government, will also be "to develop a better image" for the Nixon Administration.

There was some puzzlement, because Klein, a Nixon friend and adviser from the earliest days of the President-elect's political career, is not assuming the more traditional role of White House press secretary. That job will be filled by Ronald Ziegler, 29, a former California advertising account executive (Disneyland was his chief project) with neither political nor journalistic experience. Unlike Ike's James Hagerty or L.B.J.'s Bill Moyers and George Christian, Ziegler has never been close to his boss, and is not expected to participate in the high counsels of government.

More Through Television. For some months at least, Ziegler will probably preside over press briefings under the critical gaze of Nixon Aide Bob Haldeman, who used to be Ziegler's boss at J. Walter Thompson in Los Angeles. Haldeman is the most close-mouthed in dividual in Nixon's notably taciturn fraternity, and White House correspondents anticipate some barren days in the West Wing, even by the standards of L.B.J.'s aides, who were never famous for garrulity with the press.

In a personal way, Nixon will probably be trying to project his presidency less through the printed word than by television, a medium with which he feels more comfortable. Whatever problems he may have had with TV cameras in earlier years, Nixon believes he has overcome them—at least partly through the services of more artful makeup men.

Herb Klein will handle the Administration's more general p.r. problems. Actually, he will be performing the same job that he held during the Nixon campaign, when he often acted as a stand-in for the candidate, enunciating policy, coordinating announcements from G.O.P. leaders throughout the nation. While some reporters were less than reassured by the implications of Klein's new post, few faulted the man himself on his past fairness and honesty in dealing with them.