New Reagan Press Aide Meets the Press--but Not Happily

WASHINGTON — President Reagan’s new chief spokesman, confronted with questions he could not answer and an uprising over restrictions on news coverage, paused Monday during his first briefing for reporters and observed: “Boy, this job is fun.”

Right off the bat, Marlin Fitzwater got himself in trouble by announcing a new set of rules for coverage of Reagan’s meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti.

He said U.S. still photographers and Italian television cameramen would be allowed to take pictures of the meeting but that reporters and American TV were excluded.

Why the change?

“I don’t know,” Fitzwater acknowledged. “I’ll have to check it out, but that was the decision.”

As reporters protested, Fitzwater said, “Well, the truth is, that is what was recommended to me, and I accepted it.”

He was able to change the subject by announcing the resignation of William J. Casey as director of the CIA and the nomination of Robert M. Gates as Casey’s successor.

Fitzwater begged off holding a second news briefing Monday, as is customary, but promised to return to the two-a-day format today.

Seeming exasperated by the volume of questions, Fitzwater exclaimed, “This is my first briefing and I cannot believe . . . all the information I tried to absorb before 9:15 a.m.,” for his first briefing.

Fitzwater said he looked up from his desk “and it was 10 after 9, and I hadn’t even seen any guidance, I hadn’t talked to people, and three people over there were calling me for a meeting.”