The Washington press: Follow the pack

By 3 O MARCOTTY
TIE LONG,Mstreamlined, air-
conditioned bus crept along
the stru-t jammed with Michi-
ga- Middle Americans, as the
reporters inside gazed through
the tinted windows, leaning back
in languid comfort.
"The President has gotten out
of his car and is ahaking handa
with the people along the side
of the street," blared the loud-
speaker inside the bus. "There
are lots of young people o u t
here today, and they're all ec-
static about shaking hands with
the President. One young wo-
man said she'd never wash her
band again after he shook it."
A few journalists inside t h e
bus managed to pick up their
pens and scribbled a few notes.
The bus crept along, nine cars
behind the president's limou-
sine in the motorcade of the
Traverse City Cherry Festival
Parade. When it slowed at a

corner, two reportersgot up to
iump out. "You gettin' oft?"
asked the Secret Service man
assigned to press bus number 2.
"We can't see a thing up
here," replied one reporter.
"Cooler inhere," the S e c r e t
Service man insisted as he play-
ed with his walkie-talkie, "You
won't get very far down there."
"Well, we'll give it a try."
BUT AS SOON as the two re-
porters approached the crowd
surtunding the president, they
were stopped by a wall of police-
men and Secret Service men.
"I'm sorry," they were told.
"You'll have to stay on that
side of the yellow line."
When the motorcade began to
move again, all the reporters at-
tempting to get close to the
president were ordered to stay
off the street. "Get behind the
ropes," they were told, "or back
onto the buses."

The Michigan Daily
Edited and managed by Students at the
University of Michigan
Tuesday, July 22, 1975
News Phone: 764-0552
Au ndtuition rall toni ht
TT CAl&IE AS no surprise last Friday when the Univer-
sity Board of Regents approved a tuition hike, aver-
aging six per cent across the board, effective September
1. The boost comes as a bombshell, though an anticipated
one to the majority of students who, already heavily
saddled by the downturn of economic events, now find
themselves further strung out along the fine line between
squeaking by on a shoestring and dropping out al-
together.
The prime movers of the fee hike, effecting the most
innocent expressions they can muster, repeatedly argue
that their hands hive been tied by those mean creeps
in Lansing whose austerity budget is at the root of
tuition crisis.
But the Lansing crowd can't take all the credit for
creating the tuition monster. The University's financial
officers, for their part, have staunchly refused to tap
overflowing endowment coffers or cut fat in research
and administrative areas, preferring to let students pay
for administrative excesses.
A TUITION HIKE protest rally has been organized for
7:30 tonight at the Union. All students and sympa-
thizers are encouraged to attend. We may not be able
to reverse the Regents' move to raise tuition, but we can
at least serve notice on them that the action does not
sit well with students, whom they supposedly serve, and
that we will not sit idly by if they decide to turn the
screws any tighter.
Editorial Staff
JEFF SORENSEN
Editor
PAUL HASKINS
' Editorial Director
BETH NISSEN ...... .... ........ ........... Editorial Page Ass't.
JO MARCOTTY... .. . ... Night Editor
ROF MEACHUM .................Night Editor
JEFF S HTINE ................................. .......... Night Editor
TIM SCHICK ...................Night Editor
DAVID ws.ITING.. ......Night Editor
BILL TURQUE ......................Night Editor
ELAINE FLETCHER... . . . .. Ass't. Night Editor
TRUDY GAYER. ........Ass't. Night Editor
ANN MARIE LIPINSKI ................................Ass't. Night Editor
PAUlINE LUBENS,.............Ass't. Night Editor
Business Staff
DEBORAH NOVESS
Busfles'Manager
PETER CAPLAN .. . ..... .. ... ...... . .. Classified Manager
BETH FRIEDMAN..........Sales Manager
DAVE PIONTKOWSKY ,.. .. ...... . ............... Advertising Manager
CASSIE ST. CLAIR. ... ...Circulation Manager
STAFF: Nina Fdwards, Anna Kwok
SALES: Colby Bennett, Cher Bledsoe, Dan Blugerman, Sylvia Calhoun,
Jeff Milgron

"Successful reporters
pressing colleagues wit
and many of them have a
someone.
Given that choice, the journal-
ists returned to the bus, so they
would at least know what was
going on.
"Decided to come back, eh?"
the press bus Secret Service
man chuckled. "I thought you
would."
The job of a reporter is to°
gather information through in-
terviews or observation of an
event, and then disseminate that
information to the public through
publication.
JOURNALISTS are supposed
to objectively share their ex-
periences with their readership.
That is ideally how it should
work, but when a bg media
event, such as a Presidential
visit, occurs, the majoriyof re-
porters are forced to depend on
the eyes, ears, and judgment of
a few selected individuals more
commonly known as the pool
press. Pool people consist of the
big-time reporters like R. W.
Apple, the "best thing that ever
happened to the New York
Times," according to Times
publisher Abe Rosenthal, and
Ron Sanders, the suave, good-
looking Channel 2 tewsman who
appears on the TV screen every
night at 11:00. Jim Boyd, Wash-
ingtbn bureau chief for Knight
Newspapers was there, along
with renorters from Time miaga-
zine, the Washington Post, and
every big television net-
work and wire servic.
IT WAS a journonsts extra-
vaganza, and the whole kit '
kaboodle of them were there
for a piece of the pie.
But only pool press got the
pie - everyone else got the left-
overs. The President's visit to
Traverse City was a perfect ex-
ample of assembly-line journ-
alism, so accurately described in
Timothy Crouse's "Boys on the
Bus." The White House press-
men handed out Ford's speech-
es, and itineraries describing
every minute of his time spent
in Michigan.
Only a few members of the
pool press were allowed to fal-
low him closely along the parade
route and on the golf course
the next day - and they c o n-
firmed the White House p r e s s
releases.
The presidential e v e nt
was planned, down to Ford's
bright pink golfing shirt. The
media were told beforehand
what would occur; it happened,
and was verified by a few priv-
ileged journalists, who read their
notes to the non-pool press peo-
ple waiting in the designated
press area.
LIFE FOR a big-time presi-
dential reporter like R. W. Ap-
ple could become extremely dull
once the initial thrill of pos-
sessing one of the most coveted
reporting positions is over. Gen-
erally, reporters like Apple and
the Washington Post's J o e 1.
Weismann spend a majority of
their time waiting for the presi
dent.
- After sitting around under a
circus-striped press tent one af-
ternoon, it became obvious that
food and drink are extremely
important to those reporters. At
one point, Apple announced to
the entire assemblage of journ-
alists that he had eaten at the
most expensive French restaur-
ant in Chicago the night before;
he then proceeded to relate,
down 'to the 'v i n t a g e of
the wine, exactly what he had
consumed.

.r:".:.:::.::.:;,<:,:::r and he wandered off to find his
........................................ C o k e .
have a hird time im- Successful reporters have a
h their high positions, hard time impressing colleagues
with their high positions, a a d
1 strong need to-impress many of them have a strong
need to impress someone, p e r-
haps because they work in a
:: n:; :.::t ::, .::,1::::sa:=.:.{;,::",r vacuum, and b e a i d e a seeing
- thei rnatnes in print, have little
The press people were provid- or no feedback on what t a e y
ed with submarine sandwiches, write
courtesy of the local media. But
after the last one had been eat- AND JOURNALISM is a lit-
en, several hungry and for the throat business, not only be-
most part, overweight reourters cause of the rat race compe-
began clamoring for more. titian it involves but also be-
cause it can be a back-break-
ing, high pressured job.
"OH COME ON, Joe," t h e y Last week Ford finished his
said to the Secret Service man golf game a few minutes be-
assigned to the press area, fore seven. At 7:30 reporters
"Find us some food."' And reluc- were on the phone, calling in
tantly, he did. stories to beat their paper's
Beer was another thing ini deadline. _
high demand that afternoon; In addition, big time journal-
with the exception of a few in- . deal
dividuals, everyone drank it. ists deal with big time neople
But Post reporter Weismann like Ford and Kissinger every
was on the lookout for s a f t day. In fact, a public official's
drinks. image depends for the most part
"Life for a big-time
presidential -reporter
like R. W. Apple could
become extremely dull
once the initial thrill
of possessing one of
the most coveted re-
porting positions is
over.
Apple
"Say," he said to a group of on how journalists present them.
college press," Is there any- But at the same time, reporters
where I can get some coie or depend on them for informa-
something?" tion, creating an I'll scratch
"Sure," one replied. "There's your back, if you scratch my
a stand over there." back' situation.
So while reporters of the Ap-
"Yeah." Weismann contem- ple-Weismann genre are often up
plated the group - obviously in the limelight behind the coun-
students - thoughtfully. 'You try's big shots, from all out-
see," he finally announced, ward appearances, it's a pret-
"Katherine Graham (publisher ty hollow place to be - hollow
(pbihrenough to make impressinga
of the Washington Post) doesn't bunch of scruffy would-be re-
like me to drink on the job," porters seem worthwhile.
THE SPIRrr OF 76. EIOSONH SELL. $TARR G6t.F ARCO,
799iAMo MOBI. "1WX GOWNW12aLAW PIHiWP

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