The White House press briefing room in those days, and I'm talking about 1976, looked immense to a young reporter from a newspaper in Fayetteville, North Carolina. There were all sorts of serious and snooty people running around as if their every move, their every cup of coffee, their every breath, could sway international policy. And those were just the reporters.

The then-press secretary for President Gerald Ford entered and began his briefing. Ron Nessen, a former television correspondent, seemed a confident fellow. In a matter of moments, however, United Press International reporter Helen Thomas had pretty much taken care of that. She was grilling him on a subject now long lost to me, but I remember their final exchange: Nessen said, "Why is it such a big question, Helen?" And she shot back, "Why is it such a big answer?"

The presidential press secretary/national media relationship is sort of like the Christians versus the lions, except in this case the Christians are woefully outnumbered (their number totalling 1) as well as being underweight.

My late friend Simmons Fentress, an N&O star of the 1950s who later was a senior correspondent for Time magazine, used to tell stories about going to press briefings during the Watergate years. In fact, he told me one during that 1976 Washington visit, when I was covering the White House presentation of the national teacher of the year award to a woman from Fayetteville. "When Nixon was in," Simmons said, "he'd come in to present that crystal apple to the teacher or whatever, and the reporters would be all over him, shouting about Watergate. Believe me, the job of presidential press secretary is the worst job in Washington."

It's also a high honor of sorts, which is probably why Tony Snow, a veteran journalist and now star of his own radio show on the conservative Fox network, has taken on the duties. He'll be press secretary as part of the latest shakeup in an administration desperate to turn around approval ratings that now are just above chicken pox.

Snow's done radio, television, and was at one time editorial page editor of The Washington Times, the conservative voice in the nation's seat of government. He paused in his media career to head the first President Bush's speechwriting office (so he's already got the presidential seal cufflinks, which would be the main reason for taking the job otherwise). And long before all that, he had North Carolina connections as a student at prestigious Davidson College and as an editorial writer at the Greensboro Record, an afternoon paper that later merged with the morning Daily News.

I was writing a column at the Daily News at the time, and was casually acquainted with Snow, who was then a rangy, shaggy-haired young guy. He was a conservative but didn't seem to take himself too seriously. (And yes, friends, liberals can be too serious, as well.) Some years after that, I ran into him at a Washington seminar we both were attending -- he was then at the Times -- and had a chance to catch up on all matters great and small. Correspondence was exchanged a couple of times over the years.

Snow's a savvy and really smart fellow not likely to be kicked around by the press corps. The reaction to his appointment, while noting he's steadfastly very conservative, has been fairly positive. Snow's also a genuinely nice guy, family man, with a good sense of humor, someone who has come by his political beliefs after a lot of honest contemplation. The president, who's apparently gotten some very bad advice in a term and a half, would be shrewd to open his ears to Tony Snow, on matters of openness with the irascible Washington press.

Despite being popular with members of the press corps who know him, Snow's already been greeted in his new work by some reports quoting his previous criticisms of the president. Warning shots, perhaps, from some of the pundits who want to stick it to the new press secretary early on by trying to intimidate him? That seems a little silly and mean-spirited, not to mention that it's not likely to work on a veteran like Snow. Besides, how many folks in the pontification biz could withstand reprints of their work of long ago? Not many -- even your correspondent has one out there about watching the sun set wherein he tried to get poetic and...well, I don't want to talk about it.

Snow's going to be fine in the new job. But he'll still need to watch out for Helen Thomas.

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