The Press: Short Takes

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> Christian Science Monitor Correspondent Richard L. Strout, 75, picked up his first congressional-press-gallery membership card in 1923. He has covered every President from Harding to Nixon, reported on the Teapot Dome and Watergate hearings and, on the side, written the New Republic's weekly column, TRB. Last week Strout was without his gallery card for the first time in 51 years. It was not renewed because he had refused to comply with a new rule handed down by the gallery's five-man governing board. To retain their accreditation, reporters must now promise not to accept fees for moonlighting promotional or advertising chores they may do, "including payment for appearances on radio or television programs spon sored by any members of Congress or the Federal Government."

Strout, who has appeared as a moderator (at $75 a clip) on Voice of America broadcasts, told the board that he has no intention of abandoning radio: "I said that I thought the VGA was a pretty good thing. I told them that in my judgment, often fallible, they were making a mistake." The board did not agree. In response to the atmosphere created by Watergate, the rule was laid down to keep congressional reporters from being (or seeming to be) too cozy with business or Government. Says Hearst Correspondent Pat Sloyan, a retiring board member: "It's the appearance of the thing. We're talking about a propaganda arm of the U.S. Government."

Other correspondents have appeared on VOA programs. Strout's defenders point out that the equipment and expenses of the press galleries are paid for by Congress, a situation that would seem to make the new rule an exercise in hairsplitting. Without his press card, Strout will be barred from the Capitol when the President is speaking and could in theory be prevented by Capitol guards from looking in on congressional committee hearings. But Strout does not think that will happen. After 51 years, he says, "I'm well known up there."

> The National News Council was established a year ago by the Twentieth Century Fund to investigate charges of unfair reporting. So far, it has had little to do. Main reason: the council has not come up with cases that fall within its ground rules. It thought it had finally found a solid issue in October when, during a televised press conference, President Nixon lashed out at the "outrageous, vicious, distorted reporting" on his Administration carried by the three TV networks (TIME, Nov. 12).

The nonprofit, nonpartisan council decided to look into Nixon's complaint. Discussions with Press Secretary Ron Ziegler and Ken Clawson, now director of White House communications, turned up six general areas of alleged TV bias, including coverage of the Christmas 1972 bombing of Hanoi and the "unfavorable" comments that accompanied news reports of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox's ouster last October. The council dutifully assembled abstracts of network evening news shows and commentaries that touched on the six subjects and requested that Ziegler then tell it which of the approximately 200 specific segments the President considered "outrageous, vicious, distorted."