Speakes’ Farewell Talk Urges Openness

Larry Speakes, quitting his job as chief White House spokesman, called Friday for more openness in government and advised future policy-makers to “let a little light under the tent of secrecy.”

In a farewell address after nearly six years on the job, the 47-year-old Speakes declared: “When we sit in the Situation Room in the White House and launch a policy initiative, let’s judge it by how it would look if it showed up in tomorrow’s headlines.”

Replaced James Brady

Speakes, who stepped into the job as chief spokesman when White House Press Secretary James S. Brady was gravely wounded in the assassination attempt on President Reagan on March 30, 1981, will become vice president of communications of the Wall Street investment firm of Merrill Lynch & Co., a position that carries an estimated $250,000-a-year salary. Speakes earned $77,400 a year at the White House.

On Friday, Reagan awarded Speakes a Presidential Citizens Medal.

When Speakes was introduced before his speech at the National Press Club, his host, club President Andrew Mollison, said that the award was given to Speakes “for telling the truth.”

Speakes, Mollison said, is “the only member of the White House staff to receive the award.”

Assessing the performance of the White House press corps, Speakes said: “By and large, they’ve given the Reagan Administration a fair shake.”

But, he complained, if 100 members of Congress visited Reagan and only one walked out of the White House saying that “ ‘the President’s program stinks,’ then you’ve got news. It takes conflict these days to make news.”

Emphasizes Communications

Defending the need for “communications planners” to be involved in policy development, Speakes said: “Presidents have failed . . . because they were unable to communicate and thereby mold and mobilize public opinion. Leadership without communications is a ship of state without power.”

In the Reagan White House, overriding importance has been attached to television news coverage of the President, and Speakes said: “Too much government policy is decided on how it will play on the evening news. . . . Let government decide policy on the basis of what’s good for the people, not what’s good for television.”

“Clearly, the news media--mainly television--is the authoritative voice of the nation,” he said. So, he added: “The time has come for television to examine the way it covers the news, the way it goes about presenting it to the American people and the impact it is having on our nation.”

The appearance by Speakes followed his last White House briefing--his 2,000th. The briefing began on a light note, as members of his news summary staff, playing guitars and a banjo, sang three songs written for the occasion.

To the Tune of ‘My Way’

The last one, to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” went this way:

“And now, the end is near and I can see the final briefing. My friends, I made it clear all the reasons why I’m leaving. I leave you all behind for Merrill Lynch and all the big pay. But oh, you’ll have to say, I spinned it my way.”