WASHINGTON — Ron Nessen, a veteran broadcast journalist who was press secretary for President Gerald Ford and sought to restore the integrity that the position had lost during the Nixon administration, has died. He was 90.
Nessen died Wednesday in Bethesda, Maryland, his son, Edward Nessen, confirmed Friday.
Nessen replaced Jerald F. terHorst in September 1974 just six weeks into Ford’s presidency after terHorst resigned in protest over Ford’s pardon of former President Richard Nixon. Nessen had covered Ford’s tenure as vice president in the final months of a 12-year stint as a television correspondent with NBC News. He was the first journalist to come to the White House post from a broadcast background.
Nessen had developed a positive working relationship with Ford even though he asked difficult questions about the Watergate scandal as it eroded Nixon’s presidency. The position of press secretary, held then by Ron Ziegler, lacked credibility as the slow-moving scandal revealed a White House press operation that could not be trusted in its public pronouncements.
“I will never knowingly lie to you, never knowingly mislead the White House press corps,” Nessen, then 40, told reporters when he took over as Ford’s spokesman. He added, “If I do, you’d be justified in questioning my usefulness in this job.” He also said he saw his main duty as providing news and information to the American people, not selling the president’s policies or necessarily agreeing with them.
One prominent trait for the new press secretary was a sense of humor. (He told reporters on his first day, “I’m a Ron, not a Ziegler,” a play off his boss’ remark that “I am a Ford, not a Lincoln.”) But, by his own admission, Nessen was at times short-tempered, thin-skinned and sarcastic when dealing with journalists.
Nessen later pointed with pride to getting reporters more access to the president, including allowing follow-up questions at news conferences and having Ford appear on a live network television news program. The appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” was a first for a president.
During his two years and four months as White House press secretary, Nessen may have drawn the most attention to himself by hosting television’s “Saturday Night Live,” then in its initial season. He was the first “SNL” host to come from outside the entertainment world. The April 17, 1976, episode aired during Ford’s reelection bid and included taped appearances by the president, who likely hoped to come across as a good sport in the face of the show’s constant satirical jabs.
The post-broadcast criticism Nessen endured was mostly about the propriety and wisdom of a press secretary participating in a comedy show that skewered his boss, not Nessen’s ability to deliver a punch line. He later said he worried privately that hosting had been an ego-driven mistake since the liberal-leaning show’s skits continued mocking Ford as a bumbler and dullard.
Ronald H. Nessen was born May 25, 1934, in Washington. His father owned a general merchandise store in the city and his mother was its bookkeeper.
Nessen worked in radio as a high school student and while studying at Shepherd College in West Virginia and American University in Washington, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1959. During the 1950s, he was a newscaster for WEPM in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and WARL in Arlington, Virginia, and later reported for the Montgomery County Sentinel in Rockville, Maryland.
Nessen was a reporter and editor for United Press International in Washington from 1956-62, then joined NBC News as a television correspondent. He covered Lyndon Johnson’s White House, civil rights and the 1964 presidential campaign and was sent to Vietnam five times, his first tour ending in a near-fatal chest wound from a grenade fragment. He also covered national affairs and international assignments for the network before focusing on the Ford vice presidency.
After Ford’s defeat by Jimmy Carter in 1976, Nessen turned to writing and freelance work. He was a top executive with the Washington public relations firm Marston & Rothenberg Public Affairs from 1980-84 before managing radio news operations for the Mutual Broadcasting System and the NBC Radio Network. He later worked as a public affairs executive for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and the Brookings Institution.
He also wrote two memoirs, “It Sure Looks Different from the Inside” (1978) and “Making the News, Taking the News” (2011). He also wrote the novels “The First Lady” (1979) and “The Hour” (1984) as well as three mysteries in the 1990s co-written with his wife at the time, Johanna Neuman.
Looking back on his career change, Nessen acknowledged in his 2011 memoir that he wanted the job as Ford’s spokesman in part to see what it was like to be a newsmaker. He concluded that he preferred the journalist’s role and wrote, “I’m more comfortable as an observer than as a participant.”
Nessen is survived by his son, daughter Caren Nessen, a sister, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
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Daniel retired from The Associated Press in 2023. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Kissimmee, Florida, contributed to this report.