Press: Hoist by His Own Quotes

David Stockman learns about reporters—the hard way

President Reagan was making his way out of the White House press room after concluding his fifth news conference last Tuesday when CBS White House Correspondent Lesley Stahl held up a copy of the December issue of the Atlantic Monthly (circ. 335,800). David Stockman, Director of the President's Office of Management and Budget, was on the cover. Had the President, asked Stahl, seen Stockman's critique of his economic program in the magazine? The President, taken aback, replied that he would ask Stockman what he had said. He did. And the furor that followed (yeeNATION)provided a...