James M. Cannon | Journalist, adviser, 93

James M. Cannon, 93, a former journalist who advised top policymakers in Washington, including President Gerald R. Ford, for whom he told New York City that it was on its own in coping with its 1970s fiscal crisis, died Thursday at a hospice in Arlington, Va. The cause was complications of a stroke, his family said.

Mr. Cannon was a war correspondent in Korea and an editor and vice president of Newsweek before joining the staff of Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York in 1969. After Rockefeller was appointed vice president in 1974, Mr. Cannon accompanied him to Washington as an aide. In 1975, Ford named Mr. Cannon a presidential assistant and executive director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.

It was in that capacity that Mr. Cannon called New York Mayor Abraham Beame that May to tell him that the administration would not help the financially reeling city. Mr. Cannon and his deputy, Richard L. Dunham, wrote the letter flatly denying any aid to the city.

Months later, Ford underlined the message in a speech, inspiring the memorable headline in The Daily News: "Ford to City: Drop Dead." In November, he reversed himself, signing legislation allowing $2.3 billion in short-term loans to the city.

Mr. Cannon was a reporter at several newspapers before joining The Baltimore Sun, for which he covered the Korean War. Mr. Cannon left journalism because he wanted to "get out of the grandstand and go down to the playing field," he told The New York Times in 1975. - N.Y. Times News Service