Image-Polishing in Alabama

Ever since Selma, Alabama's Governor George Wallace has been complaining that the out-of-state press is unfair to Alabama. In April, he sent invitations to 1,700 editors around the country offering to give them the "real story of Alabama." Last week 27 editors and 21 reporters, most of them from small-town dailies, showed up for a four-day tour. They discovered that the real story was not appreciably different from the reported one.

No Horns. Understandably, the tour was devoted to some elaborate image-polishing. Escorted by the Governor's staff and state business leaders, the newsmen visited industries in the Tennessee Valley region, witnessed the static firing of a Saturn V rocket booster at Huntsville, scanned the harbor of Mobile from two yachts. In Selma, they met smiling Sheriff Jim Clark. "See? He doesn't have any horns," said the president of the Selma Chamber of Commerce. At a cafe where the Rev. James Reeb had dined before his death, Mayor Joe Smitherman announced: "This is where the Reeb incident allegedly took place." In Birmingham, the group saw a grand jury at work; three members of the panel were Negroes. "We're glad to have these Negro citizens on the grand jury," said a state prosecutor. "They serve a useful purpose."

The trip was so tightly scheduled that the newsmen had virtually no chance to confront Negro leaders or civil rights workers. Grumbled Visiting Editor Walter Mickelson of the New Ulm (Minn.) Daily Journal: "They seem to be afraid to let us see the bad parts of the state." As things turned out, the main purpose of Wallace's invitation was not so much to offer outside newsmen a view of Alabama's positive side--of which there was ample enough evidence--but to berate them in person. Whenever he got into speaking range of his guests, Wallace criticized inaccurate reporting of Alabama's racial explosions. If a reporter asked him about race troubles in Selma or Birmingham, the Governor merely shifted the point by citing similar problems in the reporter's home state. When a North Carolina newsman queried him about the Ku Klux Klan, Wallace replied: "I don't know how many there are in the Klan in Alabama. From stories I've read, you've got more up there."

Too Many Cheerleaders. At a news conference attended by several hundred state legislators, as well as by the visiting press, Palo Alto (Calif.) Times Editor Alexander Bodi stood up and said, "Governor, I don't think a gathering of this type lends itself to a press conference, and I wish to excuse myself from any further participation in it." That prompted an outburst from another visitor, Reporter Joe Tronzo of the Beaver Falls (Pa.) News-Tribune, who seemed to reflect the general dismay: "We're competent people, and we don't like to be told we're distorting the news! We resent being branded just like you do! I'm proud of my profession, and I think there are fewer newspapermen in jail than politicians!" There was some snickering and the conference broke up. Groused an editor: "A roomful of cheerleaders is no place to conduct a press conference."

Most of the newsmen came away convinced that the nation's press had not been unfair to Alabama, much less to George Wallace. In fact, they were surprised that a number of white Alabamians agreed with the press picture of Wallace and said so. "I think the press has largely conveyed the picture that Governor Wallace has presented," said Phil Duff Jr., editor of the Red Wing (Minn.) Republican-Eagle. "If Wallace wants a better image for Alabama, he should stop talking segregation and start talking racial justice."

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