'TALKING BACK' AND ENJOYING IT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100110002-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 7, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: May 20, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100110002-7
an PAK
WASHINGTON TIMES
20 May 1986
THE WEEK IN SOCIETY
EDITED BY LISA McCORMACK
IA Director William Case
- who earlier that day
k'~ had retracted a threat to
sue certain news
including t is one, for~rintinesup-
posed intelli en -
acked away from the question: _
What was your worst moment ever
in dealing with the Tress?
"I can't answer that," he said at
Thursday's book party for Peter
Hannaford's "Talking Back To the
Media." Mr. Casey did say his main
criticism of the press was "journal-
ists' superficiality."
Well, the answers given by other
political and public relations fig-
ures at the party were pretty su-
perficial, too. To judge by their re-
plies, none have been bested by the
press and therefore need never
look at their friend's book, a guide
to handling the fourth estate.
Richard Allen, former national
security adviser, did mention the
time when "a reporter tried to in-
terview my 6-year-old daughter on
her way to school" and can still re-
member "I NBC's] Andrea Mitchell
chasing me up and down stairs
with a camera"
Mr. Hannaford said he couldn't
`Talking
Back' and
enjoying it
think of his worst moment.
"This is the pre-Deaver crowd,"
observed Columbus Dispatch bu-
reau chief George Embrey, "the
people who were with Hannaford in
California"
(Michael Deaver wasn't invited
to the party, although he and Mr.
Hannaford were once business
partners who helped run Ronald
Reagan's gubernatorial campaigns.
Mr. Hannaford is now president of
his own public relations firm.)
"Just never lie" was the first rule
Bess Abell said she learned as
daughter of a Kentucky governor.
Mrs. Abell recalled how her moth-
er once ducked a reporter's ques-
tion about whether her father was
at home by saying, "He's not in the
house." Technically honest: The
governor's wife had just instructed
her husband to wait out the phone
call on the porch.
Columnist Jules Witcover said
White House Chief of Staff Donald
T. Regan was his candidate for the
book's ideal reader, "because he
constantly says things that get him
in hot water.
"Somebody," he explained,
"asked him a question about nu-
clear safety. It concerned an un-
licensed nuclear power plant at
Shoreham, Long Island, and why
nobody could agree on an adequate
evacuation of Long Island, should a
similar event to Chernobyl occur.
"Regan said, 'You can't get off
Long Island, whether there is a di-
saster or not.' "
Also at the party were Deputy
Secretary of Commerce Clarence
J. Brown, White House Press Sec-
retary Jim Brady, Washingtonian
magazine's Diana McLellan, Facts
on File president Howard Epstein,
columnist and TV show host John
McLaughlin, and former White
House curator Clement E. Conger.
- Ann Geracimos
Richard Allen, William Casey, Peter Hannaford
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100110002-7