Press Falls Down

WITH SOME JUSTIFICATION, the American news services have been applauding themselves on their coverage of the numerous scandals of President Nixon's second administration. But the events of this past weekend demonstrate that they have once again failed the public.

Nixon surrendered his private tape recordings to Judges Sirica out of fear, according to newspaper and television reports. The story, by way of "candid White House officials," is that Nixon and his aides completely underestimated the virulence of the public reaction to Richardson's resignation and the dismissals of Ruckelshaus and Cox. Talk of impeachment led him to the conclusion that he had better "obey the law."

It is apparent that Nixon has once again credited the public with extraordinary gullibility. That anyone with his political intelligence could have decimated an on-going inquiry into the crimes of his own administration and then been surprised by the resultant outcry is absurd. Nixon is simply not that stupid.

Nixon was out to get Cox--that is plain. By surrendering the tapes he has, in fact, made it all the more obvious. The tapes were a pretext to fire Cox. If there had been a real issue involved with them Nixon would have sensibly carried his arguments to the Supreme Court. But with the diligent special prosecutor out of the way, the tapes no longer serve any purpose. And by now releasing them to the judge, Nixon may be trying to create the impression that he has made a major concession.

Nixon wanted to get rid of Cox for reasons that are not too hard to imagine. And the only sacrifice he had to make for this little ploy was the loss of Elliot Richardson's decency at the Justice Department. Decency, however, is a commodity of little worth in the Nixon administration.

This type of behavior is not unexpected from the president. But what is distressing is the way he has completely deceived the news agencies. There hasn't been a "candid White House official" in the five years that Nixon has been in office. Only a fool could believe that one has now suddenly arisen to leak honest stories to the American public. But that is the way the national press has been talking. As so often in the past, it has once again let this country down.