No-Win Situation

Shortly after Ronald Reagan cleared up the confusion about his skin cancer last week, several reporters laced into White House Spokesman Larry Speakes for being less than candid the week before, when he declined to say whether a biopsy had been performed. "You pulled an iron curtain down on the truth," said U.P.I. Correspondent Helen Thomas at a tense briefing. "Exactly right," replied Speakes. "But I did not lie. And I told the truth."

The incident illustrates the sometimes impossible task Speakes faces in balancing the questions of a properly inquisitive press against the wishes of the First Family. Though Speakes initially had replied "sure" to a journalist's query about whether a biopsy would be done, Nancy Reagan remained adamant that as little as possible be released about the operation. Speakes, backed by White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan, tried to persuade her to be more forthcoming, but to no avail. After Mrs. Reagan received preliminary findings of the biopsy, she decided to wait and tell her husband the next day, when the couple would be heading for Camp David. Rather than dissemble to reporters, Speakes stuck to a flat "no comment" until the President learned the news and announced the findings himself.

When Thomas and ABC Correspondent Sam Donaldson insisted on publicly ferreting out the reasons for the lack of candor, Speakes could not very well explain what had gone on behind the scenes. "Why did you handle it that way?" asked Thomas. "Well, I don't think that's any of your business," replied Speakes. "It is our business," said Donaldson. "If you had two grains of salt for sense," said Speakes, "you could figure it out." Though Speakes claims that he intentionally lashes back at reporters in order to keep combative questioners at bay, the reporters' criticism stung him. The next day he delivered an impassioned defense of his credibility.

As a protective wife and doctor's daughter, Nancy Reagan believes strongly in the confidentiality of the patient-doctor relationship. But as her husband demonstrated last week, the straightforward answer can ensure that something minor does not turn into a nagging issue that attracts far more headlines than it deserves.