He pledged a new era of openness in the wake of the Watergate scandal, but his relationship with the press corps proved rocky.
Ron Nessen, who as President Gerald R. Ford’s press secretary from 1974 to 1977 pledged a new era of openness after the Watergate scandal but had an often rocky relationship with the White House press corps, died on Wednesday in Bethesda, Md. He was 90.
His death was confirmed by his son, Edward.
A former wire service and NBC News correspondent, Mr. Nessen joined the White House at an extraordinary time: President Richard M. Nixon, facing impeachment for Watergate crimes, had quit; Vice President Ford had replaced and pardoned him; and a nation and its press, fed up with lies and deception, looked upon the new president and his spokesman with varying degrees of suspicion.
It hardly helped that Mr. Ford’s first choice as press secretary, J.F. terHorst, had resigned after a month, saying he could not support the president’s decision to pardon Mr. Nixon, sparing him from the criminal charges and prison terms faced by other officials in the Watergate affair, as well as by young men who had evaded military service in Vietnam as a matter of conscience.
Trying to restore trust after a two-year cover-up that began with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex in Washington, Mr. Nessen said his first loyalty would be to the public. He promised to “get as much news out as possible,” and he told his former colleagues, “If I lie or mislead you, I think you are justified in questioning my continued usefulness in this job.”
He added, “I’m a Ron, but not a Ziegler” — a reference to Ronald L. Ziegler, Mr. Nixon’s press secretary, who had been widely criticized for withholding information and misleading the press during the Watergate scandal.