Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

John B. OakesJohn B. Oakes
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 512

question about Rockefeller as a national figure; I'm sort of working up to that-in the local area, I would go out very strongly on the advice of a man who knew best. Note that I don't go by party at all. Party label means almost nothing-almost nothing. In the general view, we lean more toward the liberal Democratic position, and we are, in no sense at all, bound by any kind of party “loyalty” or even party connection. So that we try to determine our position on the basis of the individual, and in the local area I rely very strongly on what the man who is most familiar with the local candidates will tell me. I will tend to go along candidate-wise, but not necessarily with all his recommendations.

On the local candidates, I don't think it would necessarily go any further than that. The publisher wouldn't particularly be interested or concerned, but as you go into the more important areas such as the mayoralty candidate or a gubernatorial candidate, and the senatorial candidate, and, of course, the presidential candidate, the process would work as a discussion first between me and those members of my editorial staff who would be more directly concerned in the presidential field. We don't do any of this in joint meeting or by voting; this is done more by individual conversation. I, in turn, would discuss a matter such as the presidential, gubernatorial, or even a mayoralty candidate with the publisher of the paper, who, in the last analysis, is the responsible person. He, meanwhile, probably has discussed the same matter with one or two of his most immediate associates, namely, the executive vice president, Mr. Bancroft, who sort of is his alter ego. I would think that he unquestionably would discuss especially a presidential matter with the other two trustees of the New York Times, namely, Mr. and Mrs. Sulzberger, but nevertheless, there will be this kind of information discussion, and we would get together in this way. I would probably end up talking with the publisher, and we would presumably come to an





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help