Reagan Assails Media Over Soviet Commentary on Speech

President Reagan, lobbying hard for his defense budget, revealed his irritation at the news media Thursday for giving a Soviet commentator air time to reply to his televised address the night before on the Soviet military threat.

“I don’t know why the hell the media is so willing to lend support to the Soviets,” Reagan reportedly told congressional leaders meeting at the White House. Shortly after the speech, ABC television aired Soviet commentator Vladimir Posner’s critique of it.

ABC promptly apologized for the incident. Senior Vice President Richard Wald issued a statement in which he “reluctantly” agreed that, although it was proper to present the American public with the views of a Soviet spokesman, Posner was allowed “too much scope.”

“Our production error was in letting him push on at too great a length without an opposing voice to point out the errors and the inconsistencies of what he said,” Wald said.

Before Wald issued his statement, White House Communications Director Patrick J. Buchanan fired off an angry letter to ABC News head Roone Arledge calling Posner a Kremlin “propagandist.” If Arledge had been head of the British Broadcasting Corp. during the 1930s, Buchanan asked, would he have given “some functionary for the Third Reich” air time to respond to an anti-disarmament speech by Winston Churchill?

“Roone, it is our belief that the debate over what America requires--to defend herself, her allies and her friends from the awesome military power of the Soviet Union--is a debate for Americans to conduct,” Buchanan wrote. “Soviet propagandists have no legitimate role in that discussion.”

On the floor of the House, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) added his voice to the chorus of complaints.

In language that made White House officials cringe, Dornan called the American-born Posner, who is now a Soviet citizen, a “disloyal, betraying little Jew.” He accused Posner of masquerading as a newsman when he should be considered a professional propagandist.

“I’m tired of having my government insulted by paid Communist toadies,” Dornan said. He called it offensive that “this little flunky, ‘Vlady,’ sits there and calls our President a liar.”