Boxing The Ear

Bugs and a libel suit

The item was tucked away in a breathless potpourri of gossip on page D1 of the Washington Post. Diana McClellan, whose trendy column "The Ear" was only into its second week after shifting from the defunct Washington Star, quoted unidentified "close pals" of Rosalynn Carter as saying that Blair House, where Ronald and Nancy Reagan had stayed in preInauguration visits to Washington, "was bugged" at that time. "At least one tattler in the Carter tribe," wrote McClellan, "has described listening in to the tape itself." The item concluded: "Stay tuned, uh, whoever's listening."

Two distinctly unamused "listeners" were Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. The former President's press secretary, Jody Powell, denounced the item as "unfounded and false" and demanded a retraction. So did the Carters' Washington lawyer, Terrence Adamson, who wrote to the Post that the article falsely leveled "a criminal charge" at the former President, and was "libelous." Even if the Post were to apologize, Adamson said, the Carters intended to sue the Post for libel and claim at least $1 million in damages.

Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee said that his paper did not immediately plan to retract. He did not argue that the Post knew for sure that Blair House had been bugged, but insisted that certain people (unnamed) had claimed that it was. Said Bradlee: "There were 20 people who said it before we ran it. I know what we said was true." McClellan contended that the Carters "know perfectly well it is true."

At the very least, the item raised questions about the Post's journalistic proprieties. Powell had a valid question: If the Post really believed that the Carters had been bugging visitors to Blair House, including heads of state and the next U.S. President, why did the story not rate full investigative reporting and Page One headlines? "It would rival Watergate: the President ... violating the laws and the Constitution," claimed Powell. And if Post editors did not believe the bugging had taken place, Adamson noted, printing the rumor could constitute the "reckless disregard" for truth that a public figure must prove to win a libel case.

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