Lost Confidence

Barely a month ago, journalists were vigorously applauding President Ford for naming Jerald F. terHorst, respected Washington bureau chief of the Detroit News, as White House press secretary. To reporters who had wearied of slugging it out with the obdurate Ronald Ziegler, the terHorst appointment marked what seemed like the beginning of a new era of presidential accessibility and candor. Ford and terHorst promised a "completely open" White House, and the press generally responded by making the new President's first heady weeks in office one of the warmest such interludes on record.

TerHorst's sudden resignation over the Nixon pardon appears to have ended that blissful phase, drained the high hopes and seriously smudged the Administration's credibility. TerHorst learned of the pardon only late the day before it was made public, when an inner group of White House aides approached him about arrangements for Ford's announcement. It was not the first time in the past week that terHorst had been kept in the dark about an important presidential decision. White House aides misled him into telling reporters that General Alexander M. Haig Jr. would remain at the White House, and two days later Haig's possible appointment as supreme commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was announced. Misled again, terHorst relayed an assurance from the White House that a recent visit to the Oval Office by Republican National Chairman George Bush was merely routine; the next day Bush was named U.S. envoy to China.

Thrice deceived, journalists may well wonder whether the President is sincere about maintaining an open Administration. "Either the intention to be open with the press wasn't really there, or it quickly became subordinate to other issues," says Charles W. Bailey, editor of the Minneapolis Tribune. In an editorial last week, the Chicago Daily News discerned "the cold, clear sign of a throwback to the Nixon White House era of manipulating the press secretary and the press while the inner circle of cronies decided what degree of candor was affordable."

Little Nells. Others take a more relaxed view. "The press has a fairly high betrayal threshold," says Eugene C. Patterson, editor and president of the St. Petersburg Times. "We're not a bunch of little Nells who were innocently seduced by the President. It's just the first time that Ford had a dustup with the press. There's bound to be more." Adds Emmet Dedmon, editorial director of the Field newspapers: "A honeymoon can last only until a President's first major decision."

Even before the pardon, there were signs in the press that skepticism was beginning to revive. Editorial writers on both right and left began to complain about Ford's vacillation on the issue of amnesty for draft evaders. A number of columnists chided Ford for his inaction on the problem of inflation. Typical of them was the Washington Post's Tom Braden, who labeled Ford's summit conference on the economy as "public relations and nothing more."

The pardon decision was like gasoline poured on those smoldering doubts. The Baltimore Sun called the move "an affront to the principle of equal justice under law, the very foundation of our legal system." NBC News Anchor Man John Chancellor said that he thought terHorst "did exactly the right thing" in resigning over the pardon. Even the Grand Rapids Press, Ford's home-town paper, asked: "How can President Ford clear himself with the public after telling Congress, during his vice-presidential nomination hearing, that a President would have the power to pardon his predecessor, 'but the people wouldn't stand for it'?"

The pardon decision and terHorst's resignation may have seemed so alarming only because the press had come to expect too much from a relationship that is at best a contest between natural, if friendly adversaries. If some reporters felt especially betrayed by the White House's dishonesty, it might be because they had come to believe their own over-generous assessments of the new President. Ford could still recoup some credibility by finding another good press secretary. At present, the job is being filled by terHorst's deputy, Jack Hushen, 39, a former Justice Department information officer. Hushen's mess-ups at press briefings last week and his low esteem among White House correspondents have probably disqualified him from getting the post. One name known to be on a list of contenders for the job is retiring Pentagon Spokesman Jerry Friedheim, who alienated many reporters with his stonewall handling of U.S. military actions in Southeast Asia.

Few journalists really fear that the Ford White House will become as thoroughly untrustworthy as its predecessor was, but the President clearly needs a sustained display of candor and a respected new press secretary to restore confidence in his Administration's word. Jerry terHorst's unfortunate experience may make it difficult to recruit the right person for the job and impossible to bring back the exhilarating atmosphere of honesty and belief that surrounded Gerald Ford in his first month in office. That unreal glow is gone, and it will probably never return.

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