Journalists Blackout

Journalists gathered at the Kennedy School of Government this weekend for a seminar on "The Media and the Congress" decried the Reagan administration's press blackout of the Grenada invasion as "outrageous" and "unconscionable."

"It's contemptuous of democratic society, an insult to people's intelligence, and another example of the Reagan administration's lack of respect for the press," said Roger Mudd, NBC Washington correspondent.

The administration's refused the media access to the small island until late last week, when a few wise service reportes were given a tour guided by military personnel.

Presidential press secretary Larry Speakes has said that the administration kept reporters out to protect the secrecy of the invasion.

Late Saturday afternoon Jack Nelson, Washington bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times, interrupted a discussion group in the Forum to announce that the Senate had adopted a resolution stating that "restrictions imposed upon the press in Grenada shall cease. "The crowd of about 200, hushed for Nelson's comments, burst into applause as he finished.

Sen Robert J. Dole (R-Kansas), in a speech to the group later that evening, said that the bill the resolution is attached to would undoubtedly be dropped in committee, but that it sent a message to the President that the country disapproves of his actions.

"I think they're going to let you go along on the next one," Dole joked to the audience of journalists.

Clark Hoyt, managing editor of the Wichita Reason-Journal, said "the government's action are unprecedented. No administration in American history has done this."

"Our purpose in being there is not to disclose secret troop movements," Mudd said, adding, "We are there to make sure that when a government sends its young men to die in battle, the conditions in the country are as the government describes them. All we got, for four or five days, was what President Reagan said."

Asked to comment on Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger '38's explanation that journalists were excluded from the invasion force to protect their lives, Albert R. Hunt, Wall Street Journal Capitol Hill correspondent, said, "That's not his responsibility It's our responsibility to watch out for ourselves."

Hunt compared Reagan's actions to Prime Minister of Great Britain Margaret Thatcher's restrictions on the press during the Falkland Islands war. "This is actually a bit worse," he said, "because the British, in keeping with their system and customs took the reporters along but they muzzled them. That was unacceptable, but at least the reporters went."

Nelson said "I don't think the President even had to learn from Thatcher. I think that's always been his inclination-not to let the people know. It gives the impression, accurate or not, that they have something to hide In the end this may be like Watergate.