The President and the Media: Controlling the Message Professor Jonathan Day The Presidency (POLS 318)

Outline 1. Attendance 2. President and the Media 3. Next Class

Historical President/Media Relations “President George Washington complained that the ‘calumnies’ against his administration were ‘outrages of common decency’ motivated by the desire to destroy confidence in the new government” (Presidential Leadership, p. 157)

Historical President/Media Relations “John Adams was so upset at criticism in the press that he supported the Sedition Act and jailed some opposition journalists under its authority” (Presidential Leadership, p. 157)

Historical President/Media Relations “Thomas Jefferson….became so exasperated with the press as president that he argued, ‘even the least informed of the people have learned that nothing in a newspaper is to be believed.’ He also felt that ‘newspapers, for the most part, present only the caricature of disaffected minds. Indeed, the abuses of freedom of the press have been carried to a length never before known or borne by any civilized nation.’

Historical President/Media Relations “…as the Iran-Contra scandal unfolded, Ronald Reagan complained of the press circling the White House like ‘sharks’.” (PL, p. 158)

Historical President/Media Relations “…Clinton, who expressed a desire to punch columnist William Safire in the nose for calling Hillary Clinton a ‘congenital liar,’ complained that ‘you get no credit around here for fighting and bleeding. And that’s why the know- nothings and the do-nothings and the negative people and the right-wingers always win. Because of the way people like you [the press] put questions to people like me” (PL, p. 158)

Discussion Questions Why do Presidents not like the Media?

Discussion Questions Why do the Press need to know what the president is doing or thinking? Why can’t the president talk to the media every day?

Importance of the Press Secretary “According to Marlin Fitzwater, press secretary to President Reagan and President Bush, “The press secretary stands between the opposing forces, explaining, cajoling, begging, sometimes pushing both sides toward a better understanding of each other” (PL, p. 159)

Importance of the Press Secretary 1) Conduit of information from the White House to the press 2) Conduct daily press briefings of prepared announcements and answering questions 3) Inform the White House staff of the press’s needs and the rules of the game 4) Help reporters gain access to staff members 5) Give the president advice (what information should be released, boy whom, in what form, and to what audience, rehearsals for press conferences, and how to project the proper image and use it to political advantage)

Daily Press Briefings 1) frequency – each weekday (and other times) 2) information about appointments, resignations, and bills signed or not signed and why 3) presidential reactions to news events 4) the president’s views are placed on the public record

Daily Press Briefings

Press Conferences Presidents maintain firm control of press conferences. 1) By entertaining only certain topic question 2) By evading certain questions with clever rhetoric or saying ‘no comment’ 3) By using questions as a vehicle to say something they had planned ahead of time 4) By reversing the attack and focusing on the questioner 5) Call on a friendly reporter for a ‘soft’ question

Watch this Video n_id=annotation_58645&v=ZIJP4FD-Iq4 n_id=annotation_58645&v=ZIJP4FD-Iq4 3:43

Discussion Questions What did the President do in the press conference to control the news?

Next Class By Wednesday, please read Politics of the Presidency Chapter 3: pages 120 – 137 By Friday, please read: “Who Influences Whom? The President, Congress, and the Media” American Political Science Review 1999 by George Edwards III and B. Dan Wood