Santa Barbara

The White House may be like a fishbowl, but at least it provides some privacy in the family quarters on the second floor. Not so Ronald Reagan's beloved Rancho del Cielo near Santa Barbara. When the Reagans are in residence, TV networks station cameras with giant telephoto lenses on a hilly knob in the Santa Ynez Mountains, three miles from the presidential retreat. Even from that distant vantage point, the equipment is almost powerful enough to show how many rashers of bacon are on the Reagans' breakfast plates. This summer ABC was especially eager to capture a recuperating Reagan on horseback, so the news editors went to the sports division for an even more powerful lens.

Although the networks have restricted their cameras to outdoor views, Nancy Reagan, especially, is known to be concerned about the peepers on the hill. She would be pleased to see the other networks follow NBC, which abandoned its station late in August. Yet NBC's decision was made for more pragmatic reasons than a desire to indulge the First Lady. With the President's activity restricted following his cancer surgery, explained Lawrence Grossman, president of NBC News, "the pictures we were getting weren't showing anything we could use."