The Digest's Reader

As Air Force One jetted westward last week, the principal passenger settled down to his must reading--a blue, loose-leaf notebook with gold embossed lettering identifying it as "The President's Daily News Briefing." The clouds gathering outside were as nothing compared to the scowl forming on Richard Nixon's face. Press Secretary Ron Ziegler was summoned. Nixon had just read a digest of a column by Newhouse newspapers Correspondent Don Bacon that noted occasions on which Ziegler has planted questions with White House reporters on the eve of Nixon's news conferences. In 23 years of public life, the President said, he had never resorted to planted questions. "Never do that again," Nixon ordered.

Wired Briefing. The incident illustrated how Nixon, despite his disinclination to watch television news and read newspapers and magazines closely, keeps well posted nonetheless. He merely spot-checks the four newspapers* delivered daily to his office, spending more time on the sports pages than anything else. But a four-man staff headed by Speechwriter Pat Buchanan does a great deal of reading and filtering for the President. By 8 o'clock each morning, Buchanan delivers to the President's desk a digest of significant news and commentary. If the President is traveling, the digest is wired to him.

Containing from 20 to 50 pages, the summary gives the President capsulized versions of top stories distributed by the wire services, a "play report" detailing how nine different newspapers displayed the stories, a section describing the previous evening's news shows on the three networks, and a compilation of editorials and opinion columns culled daily from 54 newspapers. The television section indulges in its own "instant analysis"; recently it noted that NBC's Herb Kaplow, in reporting Nixon's gaffe over the Charles Manson trial, was "fair in his report, and overall it came over in a balanced fashion." Howard K. Smith "had another incisive commentary" on Kenneth O'Donnell's memoirs about John F. Kennedy's intentions to withdraw U.S. forces from Viet Nam.

Labeled "for the President's eyes only," the news summary in fact is distributed to 50 presidential aides. Frequently, a special editorial analysis is included, reflecting journalistic reaction to a current major issue, like Nixon's recent veto of two appropriations bills. Each Wednesday Nixon also receives a digest of the contents of some 25 magazines, ranging from TIME and other newsmagazines to I.F. Stone's Bi-Weekly.

No Bibliophile. Examination of the daily news summary tends to substantiate the staff's contention that it gives the President--referred to as RN in the digest--the bitter with the sweet. Last week, for instance, it contained the caustic appraisals of Vice President Spiro Agnew that came in response to Agnew's attack on the McGovern-Hatfield end-the-war amendment. It also took note of Senator Edward Kennedy's statement that he was "shocked and disappointed" by the Nixon decision to retain quotas on oil imports.

One thing the President's private publication does not include is books. Though Nixon is hardly a bibliophile, he does dip into histories occasionally. He has read Patton (and watched the movie twice). Near his favorite chair in the Lincoln sitting room are The Real Abraham Lincoln by Reinhard Luthin and John Dos Passes' Mr. Wilson's War. A book currently winning critical praise, Jules Witcover's The Resurrection of Richard Nixon, apparently will be neither acclaimed nor condemned by its subject. Nixon "has no desire to read about himself," says an aide. Nor does he like to watch reruns of his own performances on TV.

* Washington Post, Washington Star, New York Times, Los Angeles Times.

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