The Press: At a Distance

No sooner had President Eisenhower moved into his Gettysburg farm last week, than enterprising photographers, training long lenses from perches as far away as one-eighth of a mile, got pictures that seemed to put the viewer right into Ike’s backyard. Next day Presidential Press Secretary James C. Hagerty asked photographers to stop it. “It is vitally important to the welfare and to the health of the President,” said Hagerty. “that he be allowed to walk around that farm without having or being conscious of telescopic lenses on him at all times.”

Hagerty spoke to the White House press corps from a new address: a Gettysburg basketball court that had been trans formed into headquarters for the 48 newsmen covering Ike’s sojourn. One end of the white and rose room—which still looked like a gym—was the assembly area for Hagerty’s twice-daily briefings.

Townsfolk wandered in and out, especially after the evening movie let out next door, peered over reporters’ shoulders. Moppets surprised the newsmen by asking for autographs. Pretty coeds from Gettysburg College dropped in regularly to cover the Hagerty briefings for the campus paper and to talk shop with press corps veterans.

But the press corps was getting the news out as smoothly as from Denver or the White House press room. Only one thing made newsmen a bit uneasy: they were still dependent for their news on virtually only one source: Press Secretary Hagerty.