load_file('header', '../header.htm'); $tpl->load_file('footer', '../footer.htm'); $tpl->register('header', 'pageClassification, pageTitle, pageType, pageKeywords'); $tpl->register('footer', 'lastUpdated'); $tpl->parse('header, main, footer'); $tpl->print_file('header'); ?>

[Photograph: Ron Ziegler.]

Ron Ziegler was White House press secretary during most of Richard Nixon's presidency. Dan Rather worked in the same room with him during much of that time. Rather served as CBS's White House correspondent until Nixon resigned.

Monday, February 10, 2003 marked the death of Ron Ziegler, the embattled former press secretary for most of President Richard Nixon's years in office. Ziegler eventually had to be replaced as his relationship with a Watergate-obsessed press corps eventually denigrated into daily shouting matches.

Rather was one of those reporters who didn't get along with Ziegler, as he described in his 1977 book, The Camera Never Blinks. Rather wrote that "Ron Ziegler and I went through some strained and difficult times. He was held up to a fair amount of ridicule, much of it justified."

Rather announced his death during Tuesday's Evening News, but was the only Big Three anchor to mention a particular incident. He also failed to disclose the rocky relationship he personally had had with Ziegler.

"Former White House press secretary Ronald Ziegler has died. This may be the most enduring image of Ron Ziegler, shoved by an angry President Richard Nixon as Ziegler was ordered to keep reporters away at the height of the criminal conspiracy known as the Watergate scandal. It was Ron Ziegler who once branded Watergate a, quote, 'third-rate burglary.' Ron Ziegler, a gentle native son of Kentucky, dead of a heart attack at age 63."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 11, 2003.

Rather now says that the shove by Nixon is "the most enduring image" of Ziegler, but that's because he was the one who reported on it. In his book, Rather told of a CBS cameraman who went up to him after a Nixon news conference to ask, "Did you see that?" "He pushed Ziegler!" "I've got it filmed."

"We processed the film, put it on the screen and there it was, the President pushing a startled Ron Ziegler. I called our man on the White House staff and told him I was sitting there, looking at the film. He said, 'No, you must be mistaken. He did not push Ziegler.'"

Then Rather put his big story on the Evening News that night:
"What you are about to see is a rare glimpse in public of presidential irritation, as Mr. Nixon tries to prevent Ronald Ziegler from entering the hall with him. The president's aides deny he is nervous or testy or anything."

He admitted in his book that "I pursued the story perhaps beyond what it was worth," but that's hardly what he said in February of 2003, that it was "the most enduring image of Ron Ziegler."

As mentioned earlier, Rather and Ziegler didn't get along well. The following two narratives demonstrate how much each disliked the other. The first (an excerpt from Nixon chief of staff Bob Haldeman's diary) relates Ziegler's view about reportorial inaccuracies. The second, from Camera, is complaint from Rather that Ziegler and Nixon tried to limit the access of reporters they didn't like.

Nixon White House Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman took part in a discussion with President Nixon while on Air Force One. As retold by Haldeman to his diary:
"On the way back on Air Force One we got into a discussion of our press relations approach. I had reported to him that [John] Scali had called in Dan Rather to bring him to task on some factual errors he had made, and also had called in [Hugh] Sidey to blast him for Time's coverage of the Acheson group meeting, which Time had totally distorted. He questions whether Scali is doing the right thing. He makes the point that Ziegler's been trying to do this on factual corrections for two years and has gotten nowhere. We have to realize [says Nixon] the press aren't interested in factual accuracy, and also that if we straighten them out on the points of factual matters, they'll hit us even worse on the judgment-type questions."
--Bob Haldeman in The Haldeman Diaries, 1994.

Rather complained about Ron Ziegler's "great control" when describing the power the press secretary had to choose who would and would not accompany President Nixon on his momentous trip to China:
"Ziegler pointed out, 'Not every reporter who wants to go to China can go, and we must use some standards for selecting who does and who does not.' Not so incidentally, this gave Ziegler great control over a reporter.... And their Marty Schram, a first-rate journalist, who met each of the points on their checklist, was refused a seat. He was simply told, 'No room.'
"Meanwhile Bill Buckley, whose favor they were courting at the time, was allowed to go although he did not meet a number of their own standards. Such as: how often did one cover the White House? How many foreign trips had one made previously? The whole thrust was to give preference to the regulars. Marty Schram was a regular. But he was scratched."