Manipulation, Not Cooperation

FEW PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES or incumbent chief executives have used the media more skillfully than Ronald Reagan, whose carefully cultivated image of easygoing charm has helped him dissociate himself in part from the devastating impact of some of his domestic initiatives. Recently, however the president overstepped the wide bounds of media propriety, showing rather plainly that, it is his image---not the accuracy of the information the American people receive that remains upmost in his mind.

A CBS documentary two weeks ago examining the hardships of the poor and disabled under the Reagan Administration drew a harsh 40-minute denunciation from the White House's communications director. The Administration formally requested that CBS grant the White House time to rebut the inaccurate charges it said the network made in the show, which spotlighted the plight of several families hurt by the Administration's cuts in social spending. CBS, arguing that its depiction was accurate, refused the request. The Administration's complaint remains lodged before the Federal Communications Commission, whose controversial "fairness doctrine" could require the network to give the White House free equal time it the CBS account is judged unfair.

The multiple homes of the situation suggest several things about how the Administration has chosen to work with the media. The same President who is calling CBS to task for shading the news is perhaps more guilty of dispensing maccuracies to the press than any of his recent predecessors, no mean feat.

And specifically, it is CBS use of anecdotes that Reagan challenges he contends that the network's tales of families hardships unfairly hard others personal problems at his doorstop it's worth noting that this same chief executive several months ago rationalized his reduction in the food stamp program by citing the example of a man who spend his stamps on fruit and then spent the change on vodka. (Incidentally, such an event is impossible under federal food stamp practices.

A third irony suggested by the CBS-White House imbroglio concerns the President's perverse view of federal regulation For much of its 15 months in office, the Administration has sought the repeal of the ICC's "fairness doctrine" which it viewed as an unwarranted on the broadcast industry. Now that Ronald Reagan has been wronged, that doesn't matter.

The President, it seems, has no reservations about compromising his political consistency or accuracy in the name of his image. That, to us, is nearly as distressing as the austere policies that stirred, up the CBS controversy in the first place.