Superchief of Information

Every recent Administration--not only Johnson's but also Dwight Eisenhower's and John Kennedy's--has been accused of manipulating the news, or at least of an occasional lack of candor. The press wants to know everything, preferably before it happens and preferably handed to it on a silver platter. Presidents and their Administrations naturally want to feed out information as they see fit, preferably in such a way as to make them look good. Last week Richard Nixon, who has always had trouble with the press, set up a system to cushion or deflect this inevitable conflict, which is inevitably known as the credibility gap.

Up from Disneyland. The system will largely consist of Herbert George Klein as his "Director of Communications for the Executive Branch." Said Klein:

"Truth will be the hallmark of the Nixon Administration." He may have been setting too high a standard for any political regime. With six or seven "key aides," Klein will work in the Executive Office Building, just west of the White House, to coordinate the information pouring forth from the myriad federal agencies. "I won't have the power of veto," insisted Klein. "Extending the flow of news is what I'm interested in." But he admitted that the object of his new job, unprecedented in the Federal Government, will also be "to develop a better image" for the Nixon Administration.

There was some puzzlement, because Klein, a Nixon friend and adviser from the earliest days of the President-elect's political career, is not assuming the more traditional role of White House press secretary. That job will be filled by Ronald Ziegler, 29, a former California advertising account executive (Disneyland was his chief project) with neither political nor journalistic experience. Unlike Ike's James Hagerty or L.B.J.'s Bill Moyers and George Christian, Ziegler has never been close to his boss, and is not expected to participate in the high counsels of government.

More Through Television. For some months at least, Ziegler will probably preside over press briefings under the critical gaze of Nixon Aide Bob Haldeman, who used to be Ziegler's boss at J. Walter Thompson in Los Angeles. Haldeman is the most close-mouthed in dividual in Nixon's notably taciturn fraternity, and White House correspondents anticipate some barren days in the West Wing, even by the standards of L.B.J.'s aides, who were never famous for garrulity with the press.

In a personal way, Nixon will probably be trying to project his presidency less through the printed word than by television, a medium with which he feels more comfortable. Whatever problems he may have had with TV cameras in earlier years, Nixon believes he has overcome them--at least partly through the services of more artful makeup men.

Herb Klein will handle the Administration's more general p.r. problems. Actually, he will be performing the same job that he held during the Nixon campaign, when he often acted as a stand-in for the candidate, enunciating policy, coordinating announcements from G.O.P. leaders throughout the nation. While some reporters were less than reassured by the implications of Klein's new post, few faulted the man himself on his past fairness and honesty in dealing with them.

Protestations of Probity. Compact (5 ft. 8 in., 180 Ibs.), often rumpled, Klein, 50, is a competent newspaper executive whose notable talent is neither writing nor editing but getting along with people. Incongruously, for a chief operative in a notoriously efficient political organization, Klein has always been a "dirty-desk" man who seems almost constitutionally unable to arrive for an appointment on time. As a political reporter for California's Alhambra Post-Advocate, he became friendly with Nixon in 1946, when he first ran for the House against Jerry Voorhis. Since then, Klein's journalistic career has been interrupted no fewer than five times by the leaves he has taken to work as a Nixon campaign aide. Between the various campaigns, he rose over the years to become editor of the Copley chain's resolutely Republican San Diego Union (circ. 137,000).

Klein has lately reconciled himself to doing without the skindiving, swimming, and warm weather he used to enjoy near his home at La Jolla. Klein and his wife Marjorie have two married daughters. He reads newspapers and periodicals, but seldom has time for books. He views the world through habitually squinted eyes and speaks so softly that reporters must strain to hear him. He wept openly after Nixon's 1960 defeat and did so again, perhaps for different reasons, after Nixon's famous "last press conference" following the California gubernatorial election of 1962. With newsmen, he has preserved a reputation for efficiency and impartiality that will undoubtedly be more than a little useful in the months to come. In fact, Copley reporters covering Nixon campaigns used to grouse that Klein refused to grant them the slightest favors over other newsmen.

Klein will need to summon all his strength as a newsman and as an editor to make his new job work. For his protestations of probity last week will undoubtedly be replayed to him the moment the new Administration gets caught in even the most trivial shading, inflation or seeming suppression of the facts.

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