Reporters’ Shouting Match Interrupts Press Conference

Television viewers watching for news of President Reagan’s surgery Saturday saw more than they expected--a briefing by White House spokesman Larry Speakes that erupted into shouts and boos by reporters angry at television correspondents whose live broadcasts interrupted the session.

As the briefing began in the auditorium of Bethesda Naval Medical Center, Speakes said he was distributing a letter that the President had signed before he entered surgery. But rather than read the document, which transferred power from Reagan to Vice President George Bush, Speakes declared: “The letter will speak for itself.”

Network correspondents in the front row--ABC’s Sam Donaldson, NBC’s Chris Wallace and CBS’ Bill Plante--began reading aloud into their microphones, apparently making it difficult for Speakes to hear journalists’ questions.

At that point, Speakes stopped the briefing. “I think we’ll just stand by until the front row finishes its act,” he said sternly.

Other reporters, anxious for additional news on the President, booed and shouted their displeasure at the front row.

“You’re going to have to establish some ground rules among yourselves or this will look like the Amal press conference,” admonished Speakes, in a reference to the chaotic briefings held last month in Beirut by the Shia militia that took custody of most of the 39 American hostages from TWA Flight 847, which had been hijacked by radical Muslims.

Eventually, order prevailed at Speakes’ briefing. The television correspondents later said they were obligated to give their viewers immediate word of the letter.

“There were millions of people who really didn’t quite know who was President at that moment,” Wallace said. But, he conceded, “I was surprised” by the boos.

The incident reflected Speakes’ “attempted intimidation of the press,” Donaldson contended.