When President Franklin D. Roosevelt broke an unwritten White House rule and gave New York Timesman Arthur Krock an exclusive interview in 1937, the Washington press corps sizzled with rage at such "favoritism." F.D.R. promptly apologized (his head was "on the block," he said), and most of the newsmen forgave him. Last week Timesman Krock, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his first White House beat,*set White House regulars sizzling again with another exclusive presidential interview (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). But Harry Truman had no apologies. At his weekly press conference the next day, correspondents in the first row, close enough to bang on the President's desk, looked mad enough to do it. Harry Truman glowered right back.
Like It or Lump It. The U.P.'s Merriman Smith fired the first question. Had the President been correctly quoted about the possibility of still sending Chief Justice Vinson on a mission to Moscow? Truman asked sharply whether Smith had read the quotation in the story in the press, told him to read it again.
Then the President tilted his head back in a characteristic little mannerism, which both announces that he is ready for a fresh question and helps his astigmatic eyes spot the next questioner through his glasses. He spotted a fellow Missourian, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's able Raymond Brandt. Brandt asked whether the Krock interview had been authorized in that form. It had been, said the President.
He turned again. The New York Herald Tribune's Carl Levin asked whether the interview represented "a softening of your attitude." No, the President said. Then he paused, squared his shoulders, and told the assembled reporters that they could like it or lump it. The President was his own free agent, he said. He would see whom he pleased, when he pleased, and say what he pleased to anybody he pleased, and he was not to be censored by them or anybody else. He didn't like their attitude this morning and they ought to cool off!-
For a white-hot moment, nobody said a word. Then radio's elderly (68) Earl Godwin, who seldom raises his voice to dispute the President, replied: "Sir . . . these gentlemen feel [that the Krock interview] is a reflection on every bureau chief and reporter in Washington." Retorted Truman: It was nothing of the kind. Another reporter wondered whether the President had intended to omit the "damn" in "say what he pleases." Said the President: Yes, but he would put it in if they wanted him to. When the President tried to change the subject again, Doris Fleeson, whose syndicated column appears in the Fair Dealing New York Post, stuck to the old one. Said she acidly: "Some of us think our business is very important." Snapped the President: Sometimes he was not so sure.