Nixon Tapes

CBS buys a video memoir

When British Talk Show Host David Frost recorded five interview programs with former President Richard Nixon in 1977, CBS News refused to bid for the broadcast rights, preferring to avoid disputes over "checkbook journalism." Last week, however, CBS News acknowledged that it has bought, for a reported $500,000, the rights to 38 hours of taped conversation between Nixon and a former White House aide, Frank Gannon, who helped Nixon write his memoirs. The footage will be edited into three 30-minute segments that will air next month, two on 60 Minutes and one on a forthcoming magazine show, American Parade.

TV Guide, which screened some of the interviews, reports in this week's issue that Nixon (whose share of the show's worldwide sales reportedly could reach $1 million) discussed "subjects as varied as feeding his baby daughter Tricia at 2 a.m. and dealings with international leaders." About Watergate, the former President said, "It . . . was wrong, stupidly handled." He added, "I should have destroyed the tapes." The Nixon footage was turned down by NBC News President Reuven Frank, who judged it to be "not sufficiently new," and by ABC News, which apparently objected to the fact that Nixon was interviewed by a public relations aide. Some newspaper editors also questioned the arrangement. But Editor Spencer Klaw of the Columbia Journalism Review said, "It is hard to see how this differs from the common practice of newspapers and magazines to run excerpts of books."