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A blacklist with cachet

In some circles, it was the most exclusive roster in Washington last week. Compiled by the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), it included 84 people deemed unsuitable as Government-paid public speakers abroad. Not since Richard Nixon's famous "enemies list" had so many dined out on the cachet of official disapproval.

Among the USIA 84 was Gary Hart, the only presidential contender to make the list. Also singled out were Ralph Nader, Coretta Scott King and Betty Friedan, who cheerfully remarked that "it certainly is a distinguished blacklist to be on." TV news was represented by CBS's Walter Cronkite, whose only apparent threat to Reagan is in surpassing him in on-the-air avuncularity, and ABC's David Brinkley, who pronounced himself "delighted." Print journalists included the Washington Post's Ben Bradlee, New York Times Columnist Tom Wicker, the Atlantic's James Fallows and TIME International Editor Karsten Prager.*

The current round of blacklist chic may be short-lived. Conceding that the practice was not appropriate for a Government agency, USIA officials said last week that they had scrapped the list.

* Others: Economists John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul Samuelson and Lester Thurow; Carter Administration officials Patricia Roberts Harris, James Schlesinger and Stansfield Turner; Poet Allen Ginsberg; former National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy; and CIA nemesis Philip Agee.