Tuesday, July 20, 2004


LBJ's scar and the King's two bodies: "Trying to allay suspicions that Johnson was seriously ill, press secretary Bill Moyers 'snowed [the White House press corps] with details,' including full-color anatomical slides, and the news media duly carried daily reports of Johnson's convalescence, including such minutiae as how well the president slept on particular nights, Lady Bird planting a tree outside the hospital room window, and his viewing of 'Hello, Dolly!' on television. Unfortunately, Moyers had no idea how far the president was willing to take the full disclosure policy. On October 20, Johnson was holding forth to the press as he sunned himself on the Bethesda Naval Hospital grounds. 'Apparently feeling words to be inadequate' in describing how he felt, the Baltimore Sun's Muriel Dobbin reported, 'the President whipped up his blue knit sport shirt,' and, as Time put it, 'let the whole world inspect the ugly twelve-inch seam under his right rib cage' where the surgeons had done their work. Many newspapers and both major newsmagazines carried a photo that week of a squatting, squinting LBJ exposing his flesh for the press." Posted by Hello