Opinion: L.B.J.’s Musings About the Media

Fully aware that what he was saying would not appear until he was out of office, Lyndon Johnson sat down last May and wrote his view of the press for the 1969 Britannica Book of the Year. The result, described by L.B.J. as “the musings of a man who has seen the press only from the open end of the gun barrel,” is an intriguing blend of accusation, sympathy and self-reproach.

“Even given the special interest of political leaders,” says Johnson, “there is now a serious imbalance in the reporting of news.” He cited a “brilliant satire” written by Meg Greenfield of the Washington Post about the reporting of the 1968 election campaign:

Idealistic young people chanting “shut up and drop dead” were interrupted four times by Vice President Humphrey. The interruptions were part of a speech which the youths charged had been “planned.”

In much Washington reporting, Johnson complains, “policy may be distorted. Rumors of dark motives, or of unspecified dissent, may be given equal prominence with the expressed purposes of the Administration. Failure and conflict will certainly be emphasized.”

While he concedes that reporters must point out the errors of public officials, he deems it unfair to blame Presidents for “everything from the generation gap to the price of bread.” And he especially deplores “criticism of their character, in terms so stark that it makes them appear monsters who have imposed themselves on a helpless people.”

Johnson admits “my inability to establish better rapport with the communications media. If I had it to do over again, I would try harder. My only stipulation would be an appeal to the news media to try harder also.” He regrets that he did not hold more televised news conferences but claims that he averaged more informal, on-the-record press briefings than Eisenhower or Kennedy. He makes the valid point that these offer a chance to “explore questions in greater depth than in a televised spectacular.”

As President, Johnson felt that he had a “fascination with the news,” noting that he had three television screens in front of his desk, wire service machines behind it. Nixon has had them all moved out, but even so Johnson seems to foresee that the new President will also be affected by the tone of the news. He begs the press to treat Presidents more evenly—”instead of on a roller coaster that carried them from unreasonable heights at the beginning of their tenure to unreasonable depths once the honeymoon was over.”