WASHINGTON -- White House spokesman Larry Speakes says the television networks 'failed to honor their pledge' about open microphones when they aired President Reagan's ad lib about handling the next hostage crisis like 'Rambo.'
'If the networks can't honor their pledge, we're going to have to look at it,' Speakes said Thursday.
In a sound test before his four-minute address to the nation Sunday on the release of 39 Americans held in Beirut, Lebanon, Reagan joked into an open microphone:
'Boy, I saw Rambo last night. I know what to do the next time this happens.'
The movie, 'Rambo: First Blood II,' features Sylvester Stallone as a Vietnam veteran who violently rescues American prisoners of war from North Vietnam.
Speakes was angry when news organizations reported the quip.
'The networks failed to honor their pledge to keep microphones closed,' he complained, because the networks 'failed to close the switch' on Reagan's microphone during the sound test.
Asked if he thought the president's remark was damaging, he said: 'Well, you never know.'
Speakes declined to comment on a report in The Washington Post that he is considering banning network microphones from future presidential appearances and putting microphones at such events under White House control.
It was the second time the White House has been burned by Reagan's off-hand quips before a broadcast.
Last August in the midst of his re-election campaign, he wisecracked: 'My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.'
Reagan was not happy with the wide dissemination of that crack.
The Post quoted ABC News bureau chief George Watson as saying, 'I can imagine on Sunday night that Larry was a little annoyed.' He said a 'red light system' that is supposed to warn the president when his microphone is open was not being used by the White House.
The red light was installed after Reagan's remark about the Russians.
