Energy Secretary Draws Fire for Press Rankings

The Clinton Administration on Thursday began investigating why Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary spent $43,000 in tax dollars to hire a consulting firm to rank news reporters covering her agency.

White House officials played down the likelihood that O’Leary would be summarily fired, although there were widespread demands in Congress for her immediate resignation.

But the White House did not rule out the possibility that the controversial secretary would soon be out of a job. “On the face of it, . . . it is simply unacceptable,” said White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry.

White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta asked O’Leary to provide a “full report” on the matter, which was disclosed in a story in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal. Panetta said he would give O’Leary the opportunity to submit the report explaining the matter “before making any further decisions.”

O’Leary, traveling in Louisiana, spoke by telephone to reporters late Thursday and said the consultant’s work had been misstated. “This was a simple effort to analyze the way the department disseminated its messages. Nothing more,” she told the Associated Press.

Asked whether she had considered leaving the department, the secretary replied: “Of course not.”

O’Leary, who has expressed concern about the Energy Department’s credibility, last year hired the Washington-based consulting firm Carma International to examine hundreds of newspaper stories and rank the favorableness of reporters’ coverage toward the department on a scale of 1 to 100.

Carma International provided monthly reports full of graphics, charts and written analyses. Among the news organizations found to be the least favorable to the department was the Associated Press, whose dispatches go to hundreds of newspapers around the country.

The reports also evaluated sources used by journalists to comment on the Energy Department. Sources typically critical of the department included Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), the government of Russia and various environmental organizations.

One person quoted by the Wall Street Journal characterized O’Leary’s actions as “a little bit of Nixon,” a reference to the “enemies list” kept by former President Richard Nixon, which came to light during the Watergate investigation.

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But a senior Energy Department official defended the reports, saying they were never used to exclude reporters and were part of a broader effort by the agency to improve how it measured performance.

O’Leary’s tenure as energy secretary has been controversial from the beginning. Defense Department officials have been harshly critical of her performance in managing the nation’s nuclear weapons complex, and the commercial nuclear energy industry has charged that she panders to anti-nuclear critics.

Earlier this year, O’Leary was stung by disclosures that she spent tax dollars lavishly on first-class hotels and air travel involving frequent trips around the nation and around the world.

The flap over the Carma International expenditures appeared to be the most serious yet. About three dozen members of the House signed a letter calling for O’Leary to step down immediately. “This is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) said in an interview. “This is very disturbing. The President should clearly fire her.”

Sen. Richard H. Bryan (D-Nev.) said in a Senate speech that O’Leary should personally reimburse the government for the cost of the survey, calling it a “truly outrageous” expenditure.

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Carma International President Albert Barr strongly defended the propriety of his company’s reports, saying the firm never probed into the private lives or attitudes of reporters but merely analyzed their news coverage of the department.

“I don’t think there is anything unethical about it,” Barr said. “This is really small potatoes.”

Nonetheless, even Barr conceded that O’Leary might lose her job over the matter. “It appears she is in deep trouble,” he said.

Barr founded Carma International in 1984 to quantify the value of public relations for users.

Mark Weiner, director of another company doing similar work, Medialink Public Relations Research in New York City, said the services provided by such companies were used primarily by companies seeking better coverage in the news media.

But, he added, “good PR isn’t going to change bad behavior. If it turns out [the Energy Department] was being sloppy, it’s not the reporter’s fault. It’s not the fault of the public relations operation. It’s the department’s fault.”

* Times staff writer Eleanor Randolph in New York contributed to this story.