The Press: Candidates Y. Newsmen

As they have in every election since 1936, the Democrats tried last week to make a campaign issue of the U.S. press. Candidate Adlai Stevenson started things off at a Portland, Ore. luncheon of editors arranged by the pro-Stevenson Oregon Journal. Citing the 90% of the U.S. press which he says is opposing him, Stevenson said that in “the two-party” U.S. there is danger of getting a “one-party press.” But he was not worried because “my party has done all right in recent elections . . . People are smarter than many politicians think, and sometimes I suspect that even editors underestimate them.”

Beyond the editorial columns, Adlai Stevenson had few complaints about the way the press has covered his campaign. Said he: “I have been well impressed with the fair treatment accorded me by most newspapers, including most of those aligned editorially with the opposition.” At his weekly conference, President Truman also sounded off on the press. He agreed with Stevenson and added: “I don’t think it makes much difference what [newspaper editorials say because of] the small amount of political influence the great free press of the United States has.”

Making Hay. Many an editorial writer promptly tried to set Stevenson and Truman right on what a “one-party press” really is. Said the Scripps-Howard papers: “In the real sense, a ‘one-party’ press would publish only the views of one party . . . That is the custom in many other countries. But any modern American paper that followed that formula would soon be out of business. The people who buy and read expect the newspapers to report the news . . . President Truman has enjoyed boasting that he was elected in 1948 despite the opposition of newspapers, although he has never bothered to acknowledge that he has had the use of their front pages through his seven years in the White House and in the hustings.

“The editors of this newspaper are among those who prefer Ike … A couple of weeks ago in an editorial we urged Ike to get up and get going in this campaign. One reason that prompted us was that we had noted that Mr. Stevenson was making more hay and getting what could be considered a better play on our own front pages.”

Though-most U.S. newspapers oppose Adlai Stevenson, he could not complain about the preferences of reporters covering the campaigns. A poll of Stevenson’s train last week showed that 19 are for Stevenson and nine for Ike; five are still undecided. On Ike’s campaign train a poll showed: 24 for Stevenson, seven for Ike, six undecided. Nevertheless, relations between Stevenson and reporters were not always rosy. He has held only five press conferences since his nomination, prefers to make his policy statements in speeches without questioning from the press. Complained the New York Times’s James Reston: “In short, he was nominated without any campaigning and he is now campaigning without answering many questions.” While Stevenson mixes pleasantly with reporters on campaign trains, the standing rule is that at such times there must be no political talk.

Gloved Hand. On his part, Ike was also having a spot of trouble with newsmen covering him. Although he started out with a reserve of popularity among reporters, he quickly got gun-shy of the press. Startled at how a chance remark to newsmen can turn into a headline, he has shied away from reporters, sees his press troupe mostly from speaking platforms. He has been working hard to overcome the barrier, but Hearst Reporter Bob Considine put his finger on one difficulty last week. In Europe, wrote Considine, Ike became accustomed to gloved-hand treatment by the press and “the very thought of an unfavorable story about his command was automatically ruled out of the average correspondent’s mind.” Now that he is running for the presidency, all that has changed. Wrote Considine, quoting one campaign train newsman: “You can’t help loving the guy, even though it has taken him a long time to promote us to second lieutenants.”