Is Ron a Ziegler?

Press Secretary Ron Nessen's face shone brightly the day he took over the White House briefings and announced, "I'm a Ron, but not a Ziegler." But after 2% strenuous months and an exhausting presidential jaunt to Asia, an exasperated Nessen was displaying Ziegler-like ways, including rare press conferences, sour exchanges with reporters and bombastic language inflating the achievements of his boss. The White House press was beginning to wonder out loud, "How long can Nessen last?" Then, last week, Nessen admitted his errors and promised to improve.

Known as a hard-driving network newsman for NBC, once wounded in Viet Nam, Nessen became close to Ford during the Vice President's frequent travels. Stepping in after Jerald terHorst's stunning resignation over the Nixon pardon, Nessen solemnly promised not to be just a salesman for the President and extracted a pledge from Gerald Ford that he would be informed about all pending White House business.

Dissatisfaction with Nessen set in at the end of September, when TIME Washington Bureau Chief Hugh Sidey reported that former President Nixon had offered to return his pardon to Ford. Nessen, on Ford's orders, downplayed the gesture. The press corps questioned the handling of the event. Nessen also showed inexperience on Ford's trip to see Mexican President Echeverria. He allocated most seats on the press helicopter for TV personnel and a handful for newspaper correspondents.

Nessen's real difficulties bloomed during the Asian trip. One reporter described his performance as a "disaster." Nessen, for instance, was absent when word came of the Ford-Brezhnev arms agreement because he was on a tour of Vladivostok. But Nessen's kowtowing statement that "the President will return home in triumph," and his condescending remark that the journalists "were dazzled ... amazed" by the arms agreement, really roused them. Peter Lisagor, Washington bureau chief of the

Chicago Daily News, harrumphed about "the attempt by inexperienced flacks to make [the agreement] into the diplomatic triumph of the century."

Thrown without White House training into a thankless job, Nessen is still attempting to organize an unsure staff; he usually visits Ford three or four times daily; he sits in on White House meetings (except the National Security Council's); and every once in a while he sees his infant son Edward.

But Nessen's woes are also attributable to the feisty, post-Watergate pugnacity of the press. As the New Republic's John Osborne observes: "The atmosphere in the White House press room is the meanest I've ever seen. After you've been on a diet of blood for 18 months to two years, it's hard to kick it."

However, Nessen, unlike Ziegler, is extremely sensitive to the press complaints. Last week he admitted to TIME Washington Correspondent Bonnie Angelo: "Mea culpa! We were getting off the track. It's partly my personality --I've got to be frank about it. I do have a short fuse. But I can control it. It's not a problem when I concentrate on it --and I'm going to concentrate." He still believes that "nobody has given this President the benefit of the doubt." He adds: "If we wind up with the feeling on the part of the press that I'm just another Ziegler, it's not good for the President, it's not good for the press. I desperately want this thing to work."

In his first post-trip briefing last week, on the SALT agreement, Nessen returned to the good graces of reporters. CBS'S Bob Pierpoint, a hard-nosed skeptic, said, "I thought it was the best briefing he has ever given. I think he's learned something"--summing up the feelings of many of the reporters present.

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