The Press: Knock’s Law

Even though New York Times Pundit Arthur Krock has aimed many a shrewdblow at the New and Fair Deals, both Franklin Roosevelt and HarryTruman gave him exclusive interviews that resulted in Krock’s winning aPulitzer Prize and a special citation. Last week James (“Scotty”)Reston, No. 2 man in the Times’s Washington bureau, explained howBureau Chief Krock manages to do it. Writing in the Times’s house organon Krock’s 25th anniversary with the paper, Reston says that Krock’sexclusives illustrate “what must hereinafter be known as thegive-’em-hell rule of journalism or Krock’s law.” The law: “Nothingloosens up a well-informed circle like a good kick in the pants.”