White House Communications Have Changed Radically Over Time
Nothing is quite so revealing of a president's philosophy of government than the way he treats the nation's media. Martha Joynt Kumar's new book, Managing the President's Message -- The White House Communications Operation, is a must-read for political junkies as it scans the White House communications function from 1880 to the present and reveals a surprise or two along the way: Which president held the most presidential news conferences? Calvin Coolidge!
Time was when the presidency was practically a part-time job, and our appreciation for the gradual expansion of the role is heightened by the increasing media interest in the presidency. Kumar writes that when Rutherford B. Hayes decided to bring the presidency to the people of the new western territories and states, he made sure to take a press contingent along for the ride, so they could dramatize the trip to the greater populace.
The assassinations of presidents James Garfield and William McKinley made the media realize it would lose out on page one stories unless it had representatives attached continually to the president. And early press secretaries tended to be former news reporters, who spoke the language of the covering media. Teddy Roosevelt was known for off-the-record press briefings, a tradition most presidents have continued.
The practice of presidential presentation of the State of the Union address to Congress began with John Quincy Adams but was discontinued until Woodrow Wilson picked it up; it's been continued by each succeeding president. Wilson also created the Committee on Public Information, creating the foundation for the modern White House press office. President Coolidge delivered the first State of the Union address over radio, a development owing more to technology than personality.
The Depression and World War II saw the media presence in the White House grow. FDR delegated press secretary Stephen Early the task of daily briefings. Not only Roosevelt but his wife, Eleanor, gave regular press briefings. Television revolutionized White House communications operations, with Dwight Eisenhower inaugurating live press conferences and John F. Kennedy refining them to a high art.
The Reagan years saw the first major tragedy befall the press office as press secretary Jim Brady took a bullet intended for his president. Perhaps no president was so at home before the cameras as Reagan, a former actor. The past generation has witnessed the evolution of a press operation exploiting the daily news cycle to one adjusting to the realities of 24/7 coverage. Martha Joynt Kumar is a political scientist at Towson University.
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