Letters
Letters In your June 1977 issue you award the White House press corps your “annual hypocrisy award.” You state, as a reason, that “Air Force planes are regularly used to give discount vacations...
...A top presidential assistant, Sherman Adams, was destroyed by the press for taking far less...
...Paul Healy is a reporter for the New York Daily News and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association...
...The dependents paid $150...
...The particular kind of nonsense the discount vacations encourage,Trudi Osborne pointed out, is non-stories like me Washington Post’s front-page report from Vail that Ford was considering amnesty for Vietnam veterans...
...It did not...
...Two of the bargains that have been offered the reporters’ families: $75 round trip to Key Biscayne...
...150 round trip to San Clemente...
...You also state that Trudi Osborne reported that in your own magazine, February issue [“The White House Press: Let AP Cover the Assassinations...
...Thus the White House arranged a gift to the press corps of over $8,540...
...Here’s how the discounts are financed: The White House decides that the reporter’s employer will be charged $693 to fly the reporter to Palm Springs and back...
...What we were trying to point out, in giving the White House Correspondents’ Association our’ Annual Hypocrisy Award, is that it is just such favors as these, when received by someone else, that are the subject of indignant exposes by the press...
...The White House then says to the reporter’s wife and children, you have to pay only $150 each...
...If you still do not understand the White House press corps’ travel arrangementswhich are paid for by the press corps-I will be glad to enlighten you...
...You state, as a reason, that “Air Force planes are regularly used to give discount vacations to the families of White House reporters...
...But we were right about the discount vacations...
...Anyone who knew Ford knew the story was a phony, but the Post’s reporter was there with three members of his family on the discount fares and he had to write something to justify the trip...
...The White House doesn’t pay for the vacationsthe reporters’ employers do the payingbut the White House makes the vacations possible and determines the amount of the discount...
...The lowest rates available to other Washington travelers are twice that amount...
...The planes used are commercial aircraft “chartered” on a CAB-specified equal fare basis, which is not observed...
...I recommend it to you...
...There were, by the way, 44 reporters on the last trip to Vail...
...Charles Peters replies: We have to give ourselves the Annual Inaccuracy Award...
...They were accompanied by 70 dependents...
...TRUDI OSBORNE Washington, D.C...
...PAUL HEALY Washington, D.C...
...Obviously the White House is doing a favor for the reporter each time any of his dependents takes advantage of the discount...
...That statement is false in its entirety, as you doubtless have been informed by now...
...The White House arranges discount vacations for the families of the White House press corps...
...The correct facts were stated by Trudi Osborne in our February issue...
...We were in error about the Air Force planes and we regret the mistake...
...I am certain that Trudi knows better...
...I regretfully find it necessary to correct your “Tilting at Windmil1s”statement that my article “Let the AP Cover the Assassinations,” in your February issue, reported that “Air Force planes are regularly used to give discount vacations to the families of White House reporters...
...The regular fare is $564 first class, $354 economy...
...The particulars of 4 that illegality are cited in my piece...
...Round trip coach fare is $272...
...I understand that also is incorrect...
Vol. 9 • July 1977 • No. 5
