AT&T; the Wrong Choice for Nixon

As a protest against his depiction in the upcoming ABC-TV movie based on “The Final Days,” which is being sponsored by AT&T;, former President Richard M. Nixon has decided to switch his personal phone service at his home in Saddle River, N.J., from AT&T; to its competitor, MCI.

The former chief executive also has asked the General Services Administation, the federal agency that pays for the phone bill in his office in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., to switch from AT&T; to MCI.

“AT&T; has subsidized a viscious personal attack on President Nixon and his family,” John H. Taylor, a spokesman for Nixon, told The Times Friday. “It’s a perfectly appropriate action. There’s no law that says that the former president has to be a customer of AT&T.;”

Nixon, through his lawyers, previously had objected to the ABC dramatization, which airs Oct. 29 and is based on the book about Nixon’s last days in the White House by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. An ABC spokesman said Friday that the network had considered Nixon’s objections but “did not modify” the script and is “satisfied with its fairness and accuracy.”

In response to an inquiry from The Times regarding Nixon’s action, AT&T; spokesman Burke Stinson said, “AT&T; values all its customers, and we regret it when any one of them chooses to leave. We would regret that we’ve caused any upset in the Nixon household, but nonetheless, we stand by the miniseries, and the show will go on.”