Our most tragic error may have been our inability to establish a rapport and a confidence with the press and television with the communication media. I don’t think the press has understood me.

Johnson is reflecting on what he saw as a central failure of his presidency: not merely policy mistakes, but the inability to manage the modern information environment. The quote frames relations with “the press and television” as a matter of mutual trust (“rapport and confidence”), implying that without it even substantive achievements can be eclipsed by hostile or skeptical coverage. His complaint that “the press has [not] understood me” suggests a perceived gap between his intentions (often cast by him as pragmatic, patriotic, and duty-bound) and the media’s portrayal—an especially acute issue amid Vietnam-era credibility disputes. The remark underscores how political legitimacy in the television age depends on narrative as well as governance.