Public Influences Press, Stahl Tells Law Forum

Public opinion affects the press's power to criticize presidential policies, former White House correspondent Lesley Stahl said last night at the Law School Forum.

Feedback from public opinion polls discouraged the press from criticizing President Reagan during his first six years in office, Stahl told the audience of more than 100 people.

"The signals were there that the public liked this man in the White House and that the press should lay off," said Stahl, currently the mediator on CBS's Face the Nation.

Public indifference to presidential mistakes leaves the press without a source of criticism vital to a rounded analysis of a presidency, she said.

"Without public criticism, the press has no story beyond the first one. There is no secondary story having any influence," Stahl said.

Reagan succeeded in maintaining a personal, impenetrable "SDI shield" by emphasizing the nation's booming economy and relatively peaceful condition while capitalizing on his television image Stahl said.

Also, the information the press has received from the present administration "really reflects upon the character and style of the man at the top, even down to the press briefings," Stahl said, looking back on her eight years of White House reporting.

"When Carter was President we had really rich briefings, and it was actually wonderful because we really did learn. The briefings that I've gotten in the Reagan White House have no details," she said.

With new problems plaguing the administration, Stahl said she expects to see a change in the public's perception of television reports.

Until now, she said, the public has tended to base its conceptions on what it sees rather than on what it hears whenever visual and aural information have conflicted. "I'm wondering if something natural might not happen as [the public] worries about the economy," she said. "Maybe they will want to hear TV sound more than they want to see TV visuals."