Managing the President's message: The White House communications operation

Managing the President's Message: The White House Communications Operation

Volumn , Issue , 2010, Pages 1-363

  Kumar, Martha Joynt ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84906028495     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Book

References (568)

1. Press conferences, Calvin Coolidge Papers, Forbes Library, Northampton, Massachusetts.
2. George W. Bush, ", Remarks to the Chamber of Commerce in Portland", March 23, 2001, Portland, Maine, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. Available at www.gpo.gov/nara/nara003.html.
3. Jonathan Weisman and Bradley Graham, ", Dubai Firm to Sell U. S. Port Operations", Washington Post, March 10, 2006, p. A1.
4. Michael McAuliff, "Chuck's Port-Deal Terror, Urges Prez to Nix 'Risky' Sale to Arab Biz", New York Daily News, February 14, 2006.
5. Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "How a Business Deal Became a Big Liability for Republicans in Congress", New York Times, February 26, 2006, p. 14.
6. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 27, 2006.
7. "Interview with Reporters Aboard Air Force One" and "Remarks on Arrival from Golden, Colorado", February 21, 2006.
8. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 27, 2006.
9. Paul Blaustein, "Dubai Firm Cleared to Buy Military Supplies", Washington Post, April 29, 2006, p. A6.
10. Michael Baruch Grossman and Martha Joynt Kumar, Portraying the President: The White House and the News Media (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981).
11. Richard E. Neustadt, Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership (New York: Wiley, 1960).
12. Richard Neustadt, "A Preachment from Retirement", in Presidential Power: Forging the Presidency for the Twenty-First Century, ed. Robert Y. Shapiro, Lawrence
13. Karen Hult and Charles Walcott's Governing the White House: From Hoover through LBJ (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995)
14. and Empowering the White House: Governance under Nixon, Ford, and Carter (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004)
15. John Burke's The Institutional Presidency, 2d ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992)
16. and Bradley Patterson's The White House Staff: Inside the West Wing and Beyond (Washington, D. C.: Brookings Press, 2000).
17. Presidential decision-making studies are important because they provide a view of how chief executives and their staffs operate. In contemporary presidency studies, Roger Porter, who served as senior economic and domestic policy adviser in the George H. W. Bush administration and worked in the Reagan and Ford White Houses as well, went from academic life into presidential advising on economic policy and then returned to Harvard University, where he teaches the presidency course there. His Presidential Decision Making: The Economic Policy Board (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982)
18. based on his White House years in the Ford administration, adds to our knowledge with its view from inside the White House in an important area of presidential activity. So too does John Burke and Fred Greenstein's How Presidents Test Reality: Decisions on Vietnam, 1954 and 1965 (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1991) tell us about presidential decision-making, in this case on Vietnam-related issues.
19. A separate literature focuses on the general relationship between the government and the media and on presidential leadership, which includes the chief executive's relationship with news organizations. In the area of government and the news media, a key work is Tim Cook's Governing with the News: The News Media as a Political Institution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998). While we often think of the relationship between government and the press as hostile, he showed another side of the partnership by emphasizing the ways in which news organizations and government officials benefted from the relationship in spite of the tensions.
20. In his Presidential Leadership of Public Opinion (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1965)
21. Elmer Cornwell was one of the first political scientists to identify and write about the importance of presidential communications. He discussed how presidents used available resources to further their programs and how the chief unit at that time, the Press Office, was organized and operated. His work provided a good measure of how far White House communications organization had come since its nascent days in the Eisenhower administration. Among the important books on presidential leadership, those by George Edwards, including At the Margins: Presidential Leadership of Congress (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989)
22. and On Deaf Ears: The Limits of the Bully Pulpit (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), explain how difficult it is for presidents to change public opinion.
23. Samuel Kernell and Jeffrey Tulis have made important contributions to the study of presidential leadership in their classic works Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership (Washington, D. C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1986)
24. and The Rhetorical Presidency (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), respectively. Kernell discussed presidential strategies designed to create public support for a chief executive's initiatives, and Tulis traced the development of presidential rhetoric over the history of the presidency.
25. The difficulties presidents have in directing and activating public opinion is matched by their problems in establishing and controlling their own agenda. Shanto Iyengar wrote about the news media's role in determining what gets regarded as news. While the White House would like to determine what stories news organizations emphasize, the president and his staff have to work with the rhythms and routines of news organizations in order to exploit the process to their benefit. See Shanto Iyengar and Donald R. Kinder, News That Matters: Television and American Opinion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987);
26. Shanto Iyengar, Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames Political Issues (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991);
27. Stephen Ansolabehere, Roy Behr, and Shanto Iyengar, The Media Game: American Politics in the Television Age (New York: Macmillan, 1993).
28. Donald L. Shaw and Maxwell E. McCombs, eds., The Emergence of American Political Issues: The Agenda-Setting Function of the Press (St. Paul, Minn.: West, 1977) is also relevant.
29. Presidents and their staffs have responded to the agenda-setting routines of news organizations by creating organizational units that use their knowledge of the media to advance the president's case. Two important works that explain how White House organizations respond to news media routines are John Anthony Maltese's Spin Control: The White House Office of Communications and the Management of Presidential News (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992)
30. and the book I wrote with Michael Grossman, Portraying the President: The White House and the News Media (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981). Maltese's book focuses on the early years of the Office of Communications, with emphasis on the formative Nixon and Reagan years; it is the focus on this relatively new body, also covered in this book, that makes it so valuable.
31. Developments in the way White House officials plan their communications can be tracked in the memoirs of those who have worked there. Each provides information on the rhythms of their White House years, making them useful in following the organization of White House units. For this study, the books by presidential press secretaries Marlin Fitzwater, Ron Nessen, Jody Powell, and Ari Fleischer provided valuable insights into the respective media operations headed by each author. See Ari Fleischer, Taking Heat: The President, the Press, and My Years in the White House (New York: William Morrow, 2005);
32. Marlin Fitzwater, Call the Briefing: Bush and Reagan, Sam and Helen: A Decade with the Presidents and the Press (New York: Times Books, 1995);
33. Jody Powell, The Other Side of the Story (New York: William Morrow, 1984);
34. and Ron Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Other Side (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978).
35. Two presidential communications advisers have also detailed what they have learned: Michael Deaver wrote about his years in the White House during Reagan's first term, and David Gergen expressed his views on presidential leadership based on his tenure in the Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton White Houses. See Michael K. Deaver, Behind the Scenes: In Which the Author Talks about Ronald and Nancy Reagan (New York: William Morrow, 1987)
36. and David R. Gergen, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000). In order to pull together information from all of the presidencies in which these press secretaries and communications directors served, I also interviewed each to isolate commonalities across administrations but also factors that differentiated them.
37. Stephen Ponder, Managing the Press: Origins of the Media Presidency, 1897-1933 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999);
38. Melvin Laracey, Presidents and the People: The Partisan Story of Going Public (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2002);
39. Martha Joynt Kumar, "The White House Beat at the Century Mark", The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 2(Summer 1997):10-30
40. and "The White House Beat at the Century Mark: Reporters Establish Position to Cover the 'Elective Kingship'", paper presented at the American Political Science Association convention, San Francisco, California, August 29-September 1, 1996.
41. Archivist John Ransom, discussing with the author information in the diary of President Hayes, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, November 30, 2006.
42. Kumar, "The White House Beat", 14.
43. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, George Bruce Cortelyou Papers.
44. Cornwell, Presidential Leadership of Public Opinion, 48-57.
45. See Presidential Press Conferences in chapter 7, table 11.
46. Craig Allen, Eisenhower and the Mass Media (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1993).
47. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, April 19, 2006. I conducted many of the interviews cited in this book for my Towson University course "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", filmed at the Washington Center of the University of California. All of the interviews conducted in this program are available in audio format at www.ucdc.edu/aboutus/whstreaming.cfm.
48. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 7, 2005.
49. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 8, 2004.
50. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, April 19, 2006.
51. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 8, 2004.
52. These numbers are based on compilations made from the May 2005 edition of the internal White House Phone Book. Bureau of National Affairs, "Daily Report for Executives: White House Phone Directory", no. 116, June 17, 2005.
53. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 1, 2004.
54. Frank Ahrens, "Hard News: Daily Newspapers Face Unprecedented Competition⋯ Including from Their Own Online Offspring", Washington Post, February 20, 2005, p. F1.
55. For a discussion of the environment within which presidents operate, see Martin G. Wattenberg, "The Changing Presidential Media Environment", Presidential Studies Quarterly 34, no. 3(September 2004):557-72.
56. George C. Edwards III, On Deaf Ears: The Limits of the Bully Pulpit (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 241.
57. Lisa Caruso, "What's in a Number", National Journal, March 25, 2006, 18-19.
58. Karl Rove, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 8, 2002.
59. Edwards, On Deaf Ears, 193.
60. Edwards, On Deaf Ears, 194.
61. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 7, 1999.
62. Karen Hughes, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 13, 2002.
63. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 22, 2002.
64. Joe Lockhart, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 29, 1998.
65. Mary Matalin, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 3, 2002.
66. Karen Hughes, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 13, 2002.
67. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, March 8, 2004. "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center.
68. For press perspective on the embeds program, see Terence Smith, "The Real-Time War: Hard Lessons", and other articles on the program in Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 2003.
69. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 1, 2004.
70. President George W. Bush, Interview with Al Arabiya, May 5, 2004;
71. President George W. Bush, Interview with Al-Ahram, May 6, 2004.
72. Both interviews can be found on the website of The American Presidency Project, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws.
73. President George W. Bush, interview with foreign journalists, July 10, 2006.
74. Interview can be found on the website of the American Presidency Project, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. Available at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws.
75. "Talking Points: Not Playing with a New Deck of Cards", Center for American Progress, March 28, 2006. A half hour later, a more extensive e-mail entitled "Progress Report: Meet the New Chief" provided biographical information and specifics about the administration's budget deficits.
76. Stephen Labaton, "Politics: The Fund-Raisers: Indonesian Magnate and Clinton Talked Policy, White House Says", New York Times, November 5, 1996.
77. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 7, 1999.
78. Ari Fleischer, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., July 11, 2002.
79. Terry Moran, conversation with the author, May 2005.
80. "White House News Summary", December 3, 2003, produced for the Office of the White House Press Secretary by the Bulletin News Network. The issue was 175 pages long, which is consistent with the length of other issues of the summary.
81. Lawrence R. Jacobs and Robert Y. Shapiro, Politicians Don't Pander (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).
82. Lawrence R. Jacobs and Melanie Burns, "The Second Face of the Public Presidency: Presidential Polling and the Shift from Policy to Personality Polling", Presidential Studies Quarterly 34, no. 3(September 2004):537.
83. Mary Matalin, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 3, 2002.
84. Ari Fleischer, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., July 11, 2002.
85. See www.strengtheningsocialsecurity.gov/60stops/.
86. Andrew Card, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 30, 2001.
87. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 22, 2002.
88. For an analysis of the Clinton transition, see John Burke, Presidential Transitions: From Politics to Practice (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 2000), chs. 7, 8. It is the authoritative book on presidential transitions from Presidents Carter through Clinton.
89. David Gergen, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., September 27, 1995.
90. For a description of his days in the Clinton White House, see Gergen, Eyewitness to Power, 251-342.
91. Mark Knoller, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 6, 1996.
92. Washington Post, April 27, 1993, p. 1.
93. "Clinton Administration Accomplishments and Actions: First 100 Days", April 1993. Distributed by the Office of Media Liaison through its White House computer network. "The First 100 Days, Administration of President Bill Clinton, January 20 - April 30", dys100.txt, January 20-April 30, 1993.
94. Ann Devroy, "President Discounts Panetta's Doubts", Washington Post, April 28, 1993, p. 1.
95. "Remarks in the 'CBS This Morning' Town Meeting", May 27, 1993, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index/php for all presidential speeches.
96. "Remarks by the President in Question and Answer Session during 1993 Newspaper Association of America Annual Convention", Boston, Massachusetts, April 26, 1993.
97. Gergen, Eyewitness to Power, 265.
98. Sidney Blumenthal, "Dave", New Yorker, June 28, 1993, 36-41.
99. Burt Solomon, "A One-Man Band", National Journal, April 24, 1993, 970.
100. Background interviews.
101. Bill Clinton, My Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 467.
102. John Podesta, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., July 12, 2001.
103. "Remarks by the President to Weather Forecasters", Office of the Press Secretary, White House, October 1, 1997.
104. Interviews with White House officials who served when Clinton gave the global warming speech indicated it was typical of the president himself to insert the lines about presidential responsibility in creating public awareness. Terry Edmonds, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., January 5, 2001.
105. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, Towson University course, "White House Communications Operations", Washington, D. C., March 1, 2004.
106. For the development of the meetings, see Dick Morris, Behind the Oval Office: Winning the Presidency in the Nineties (New York: Random House, 1997), 26, 186-87.
107. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 7, 1999.
108. Rahm Emanuel, interview with the author, Chicago, Illinois, April 13, 2001.
109. For a discussion of how President Clinton's national travels reflected his political priorities as well as his policy ones, see Charles O. Jones, "Campaigning to Governing: The Clinton Style", in The Clinton Presidency: First Appraisals, ed. Colin Campbell and Bert Rockman (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1996), 30-36.
110. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, April 7, 1999
111. and Richard L. Berke, "After Hours at White House, Brain Trust Turns to Politics", Week in Review, New York Times, July 21, 1996.
112. Morris, Behind the Oval Office, 139-40.
113. Morris, Behind the Oval Office, 144.
114. Don Baer, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., August 14, 1996.
115. Ann Lewis, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., December 17, 1997.
116. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 7, 1999.
117. Joe Lockhart, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 29, 1998.
118. Rahm Emanuel, interview with the author, Chicago, Illinois, January 15, 1998.
119. For a discussion of the creation of the first Clinton State of the Union address, see Michael Waldman, POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words that Defined the Clinton Presidency (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000), 92-114.
120. Ann Lewis, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., December 17, 1997.
121. Rahm Emanuel, interview with the author, Chicago, Illinois, January 15, 1998.
122. Ann Lewis, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., December 17, 1997.
123. For a discussion of the media environment during the Clinton impeachment case, see Jeffrey E. Cohen, "If the News Is So Bad, Why Are Presidential Polls So High? Presidents, the News Media, and the Mass Public in an Era of New Media", Presidential Studies Quarterly 34, no. 1(March 2004):493-515.
124. Gaggle by Press Secretary Mike McCurry, July 18, 1996, author's transcript.
125. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 1, 2004.
126. Harold Ickes, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 13, 2001.
127. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., February 10, 1998.
128. See "The 1992 Campaign: Clinton Denounces New Report of Affair", New York Times, January 24, 1992
129. and "The 1992 Campaign: Clintons to Rebut Rumors on '60 Minutes'", New York Times, January 24, 1992.
130. Gwen Ifill, "The 1992 Campaign: Media; Clinton Defends His Privacy and Says the Press Intruded", New York Times, January 27, 1992.
131. Stephen Labaton, "Tape Links Clinton to Man Tied to Crime", New York Times, October 18, 1997.
132. See also Susan Schmidt and Lena H. Sun, "On Tape, Clinton Links Lead in Polls, Issue Ads", Washington Post, October 16, 1997.
133. Labaton, "Tape Links Clinton. "
134. Susan Schmidt and Amy Goldstein, "Enigma No More, Ex-Aide Emerges", Washington Post, March 17, 1998.
135. Lanny J. Davis, Truth to Tell: Tell It Early, Tell It All, Tell It Yourself (New York: Free Press, 1999), 60.
136. Davis, Truth to Tell, 61.
137. Davis, Truth to Tell, 62.
138. Jim Kennedy, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., August 10, 1998.
139. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 1, 2004.
140. Joe Lockhart, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 29, 1998.
141. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 1, 2004.
142. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 10, 1997. In the 1930s, the U. S. Public Health Service commenced the Tuskegee syphilis study, using as its subjects mostly poor African-American sharecroppers. In the study, there were two control groups, one of which did not receive medication. After penicillin was established as an antidote for the disease, the group that had not received medication was not informed of the solution to the problem-as ethics would obviously dictate. The study did not come to public light until the 1970s, when the question of compensating the victims of the study became an issue in the Congress and the courts. Clinton wanted to put a final stamp on the issue by publicly apologizing from the White House.
143. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 1, 2004.
144. Joe Lockhart, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 29, 1998.
145. David Gergen, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., September 27, 1995.
146. Ann Lewis, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., December 17, 1997.
147. Joseph Lockhart, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., February 10, 1999.
148. John Podesta, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., July 12, 2001.
149. Rahm Emanuel, interview with the author, Chicago, Illinois, January 15, 1998.
150. Bob Woodward, The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 172.
151. John Podesta, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., July 7, 2001.
152. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 7, 1999.
153. Joe Lockhart, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 29, 1998.
154. John Podesta, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., December 10, 1997.
155. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., February 10, 1998.
156. John Podesta, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., December 10, 1997.
157. Jim Kennedy, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., August 10, 1998.
158. John Podesta, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., December 10, 1997.
159. Harold Ickes, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 13, 2001.
160. Joel Johnson, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., January 17, 2001.
161. Karl Rove, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., February 5, 2007.
162. For a discussion of their transition goals, see Clay Johnson, "The 2000-2001 Presidential Transition: Planning, Goals, and Reality", PS: Political Science and Politics 35, no. 1(2002):51-53
163. and Terry Sullivan, "Assessing Transition 2001", in The Nerve Center, Lessons in Governing from the White House Chiefs of Staff, ed. Terry Sullivan (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2004), 125-66.
164. Ken Herman, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, February 14, 2005.
165. Ken Herman, interviews with the author, Washington, D. C., October 5-6, 2005.
166. Ken Herman, "Bush Trip Steeped in History; Governor Asked to Clarify Remarks on", Austin American-Statesman, December 1, 1998. The article dealing with Bush's remarks portrayed him in the following way: "As he gazed out a hotel hallway at the Superdome and waited for an elevator, Bush-clearly going for a laugh at his own expense-said the first thing he was going to say to Israeli Jews was that they were all 'going to hell.' Bush, who has both a quick wit and generally good judgment on when to use it, made the comment to the same Austin American-Statesman reporter who had reported his 1993 comments about his religious beliefs."
167. Ken Herman, interviews with the author, Washington, D. C., October 5-6, 2005.
168. Mary Matalin, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 3, 2002.
169. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 22, 2002.
170. "President's Remarks in Orlando, Florida", October 30, 2004. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/10/20041030-12.html.
171. CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, October 22-24, 2004. Available at www.pollingreport.com.
172. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 27, 2006.
173. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 8, 2004.
174. Jason Piscia, "Pawnee 'Foster Grandparent' Earns Award for Her Efforts", [Springfield, Illinois] State Journal-Register, April 20, 2005.
175. Christie Bolsen, "She Cherishes Kiss from President Bush", South Bend [Indiana] Tribune, April 12, 2005.
176. Meg Jones, "Takes Five: Beverly Christy-Wright: Volunteer's Above-and-Beyond Service Recognized by Bush", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 24, 2006.
177. Mike Barber, "Sacrifice in Iraq Leads to Visit with President;Servicemen's Families Will Greet Bush on Visit Here", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 16, 2006.
178. "Funeral Services for Founder of Challenger Boys and Girls Club", [Los Angeles] City News Service, July 14, 2006.
179. White House, USA Freedom Corps, "Presidential Greeters Program", November 17, 2006. Available at www.usafreedomcorps.gov/about- usafc/newsroom/local-vols.asp.
180. James Wilkerson, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., July 3, 2002.
181. Ari Fleischer, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., March 7, 2001.
182. Ari Fleischer, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., March 7, 2001.
183. Scott McClellan, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, May 6, 2004.
184. "The White House and the Press: Competitors in a Dependent Relationship", panel hosted by the American Political Science Association and the White House Historical Association, Washington, D. C., October 9, 2003.
185. President Bush, "Remarks at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and a Question-and-Answer Session", April 10, 2006.
186. Scott Sforza, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 9, 2006.
187. For a discussion of President Bush's management principles and an earlier description of how the communications operation worked in the first term, see Martha Joynt Kumar, "Communications Operations in the White House of President George W. Bush: Making News on His Terms", Presidential Studies Quarterly 33, no. 2(June 2003):366-93.
188. Karl Rove, interview with the author, Washington, D. C, May 8, 2002.
189. Karen Hughes, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 13, 2002.
190. Mary Matalin, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 3, 2002.
191. Karl Rove, interview with the author, Washington, D. C, May 8, 2002.
192. Karl Rove, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 8, 2002.
193. Joshua Bolten, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 17, 2006.
194. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 8, 2004.
195. Joshua Bolten, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 17, 2006.
196. Author's tabulation from Bureau of National Affairs, "Daily Report for Executives", White House Phone Book, no. 155, August 13, 2001, and no. 140, July 22, 2002.
197. Background interview, 2002.
198. Ari Fleischer, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., July 11, 2002.
199. Background interview, 2002.
200. Mary Matalin, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 3, 2002.
201. Karen Hughes, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 13, 2002.
202. Karl Rove, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 8, 2002.
203. Susan Neely, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 2, 2002.
204. Background interview, 2002.
205. Background interview, 2002.
206. Dana Perino, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 17, 2006.
207. "President Announces Tony Snow as Press Secretary", White House, April 26, 2006. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/04/ 20060426.html.
208. Tony Snow, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 4, 2006.
209. Scott McClellan, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, May 6, 2004.
210. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 8, 2004.
211. Dan Bartlett, "The White House and the Press" panel.
212. Ari Fleischer, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., July 11, 2002.
213. Nicolle Devenish, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., July, 2002.
214. Scott Sforza, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 9, 2006.
215. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, "White House Communications Operations" course, Towson University, Towson, Maryland, March 8, 2004.
216. Judy Keen, "Bush's 'Radio Day' Gets Static from Democrats", USA Today, October 30, 2002
217. and Bob Deans, "Low Frequency Radio, Usually Taciturn White House Figures Face Mikes", Atlanta Journal Constitution, January 22, 2004.
218. Karl Rove, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 8, 2002.
219. Scott Sforza, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 27, 2002.
220. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office). The figures come from the "Document Category", "Addresses to the Nation", and counts of the individual items.
221. Figures come from counts of the following categories in issues of the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents from 2001 to January 2005: "Addresses to the Nation", "Addresses and Remarks", "Radio Addresses", "Bill Signings-Remarks", and "Meetings with Foreign and International Leaders."
222. Scott Sforza, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 27, 2002.
223. Scott Sforza, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 9, 2006.
224. David E. Sanger and Judith Miller, "Libya to Give Up Arms Programs, Bush Announces", New York Times, December 20, 2003.
225. See also Robin Wright and Glenn Kessler, "Two Decades of Sanctions, Isolation Wore Down Gaddafi", Washington Post, December 20, 2003.
226. President Bush, "Remarks on the Decision by Colonel Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qadhafi of Libya to Disclose and Dismantle Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs", December 19, 2003, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. Available at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws.
227. Sanger and Miller, "Libya to Give Up Arms Programs."
228. Dana Milbank and Glenn Kessler, "Enron's Influence Reached Deep into Administration", Washington Post, January 18, 2002.
229. Jeanne Cummings, Jacob M. Schlesinger, and Michael Schroeder, "Bush Crackdown on Business Fraud Signals New Era", Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2002
230. and David E. Sanger, "How a Clear Strategy Got Muddy Results", New York Times, July 12, 2002.
231. "The White House and the Press" panel.
232. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 27, 2006.
233. George W. Bush, "Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union", January 28, 2003, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. Available at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws.
234. Walter Pincus and Dana Milbank, "Bush, Rice Blame CIA for Iraq Error; Tenet Accepts Responsibility for Clearing Statement on Nuclear Aims in Jan. Speech", Washington Post, July 12, 2003.
235. Dana Milbank, "Fleischer's Final Briefing Is Not Quite a Grand Slam", Washington Post, July 15, 2003.
236. Background briefing, July 18, 2003.
237. Dan Balz and Walter Pincus, "Why Commander in Chief Is Losing the War of the 16 Words", Washington Post, July 24, 2003.
238. Tucker Eskew, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 13, 2002.
239. White House Global Messenger, "Key Points", March 11, 2005.
240. Nicolle Devenish Wallace, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, May 9, 2005.
241. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, March 14, 2005, http://www.state. gov/secretary/rm200543385.htm.
242. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 8, 2004.
243. Nicolle Devenish, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, May 9, 2005.
244. See www.shadowtv.com/PDF/ShadowTVmonitoring.pdf.
245. Scott Sforza, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 9, 2006.
246. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 8, 2004.
247. Andrew Card, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 30, 2001.
248. Scott McClellan, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, May 6, 2004.
249. Mike Allen, "Management Style Shows Weaknesses: Delegation of Responsibility, Trust in Subordinates May Have Hurt Bush", Washington Post, June 2, 2004.
250. Thomas Griscom, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 3, 2006.
251. David S. Hilzenrath and Mike Allen, "Embattled Pitt Resigns as SEC Chief, Latest Controversy Cost Him White House Support", Washington Post, November 6, 2002.
252. Stephen Barr, "Bush Team Plays Down Recent Setbacks", Washington Post, September 14, 2003.
253. Andrew Card, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 30, 2001.
254. Tom Brune, "Cadre Grows to Rein in Message", Newsday, February 24, 2005.
255. Juliet Eilperin, "Climate Researchers Feeling Heat from White House", Washington Post, April 6, 2006.
256. Juliet Eilperin, "Debate on Climate Shifts to Issue of Irreparable Change; Some Experts on Global Warming Foresee 'Tipping Point' When It Is Too Late to Act", Washington Post, January 29, 2006.
257. "President Addresses American Society of Newspaper Editors Convention", White House, April 14, 2005. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/ news/releases/2005/04/20050414-4.html.
258. Greg Toppo, "Education Department Paid Commentator to Promote Law", USA Today, January 7, 2005.
259. Jim Drinkard and Mark Memmott, "HHS Said It Paid Columnist for Help", USA Today, January 27, 2005.
260. Christopher Lee, "GAO Issues Mixed Ruling on Payments to Columnists", Washington Post, October 1, 2005.
261. Christopher Lee, "Prepackaged News Gets GAO Rebuke", Washington Post, February 21, 2005. Emphasis in GAO report.
262. James A. Baker III, interview with the author, Houston, Texas, May 14, 2001.
263. An argument could be made that in the nineteenth century George Cortelyou, private secretary to Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, and then William Loeb following him performed the functions of a modern-day press secretary and communications director. Both men briefed reporters and planned publicity events. For a discussion of William Loeb's work, see George Juergens, News From the White House: The Presidential-Press Relationship in the Progressive Era (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), 47-51.
264. For a description of the work of George Cortelyou, see William Seale, The President's House: The History of an American Idea (Washington, D. C.: American Institute of Architects Press, 1992).
265. For a discussion of how James Hagerty fought off the efforts of others in the White House to do publicity work with executive departments, see Karen Hult and Charles Walcott, Governing the White House: From Hoover through LBJ (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995), 57-58.
266. For an excellent examination of the development of the Office of Communications, see John Maltese, Spin Control: The White House Office of Communications and the Management of Presidential News (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 28-74.
267. For organization charts of the office under various directors in particular years, see Maltese, Spin Control, 243-53.
268. Brit Hume, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., August 2, 1996.
269. David Hume Kennerly, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 6, 1996.
270. Terry Edmonds, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., January 5, 2001.
271. See Martha Joynt Kumar and Terry Sullivan, "The White House Communications Director: Presidential Fire-Walker", paper presented to the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois, April 18-20, 1996.
272. George Stephanopoulos, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., September 9, 1995.
273. Don Baer, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., July 22, 1999.
274. Michael Deaver, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., September 9, 1999.
275. David Demarest, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., December 7, 1999.
276. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Deale, Maryland, October 21, 1999.
277. Tony Snow, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., January 11, 1993.
278. Terry Hunt, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 12, 1996.
279. Mari Maseng Will, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 18, 1993.
280. David Hume Kennerly, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 6, 1996.
281. John McConnell, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., December 4, 2006.
282. The speech can be found at President George W. Bush, "Remarks on the Unveiling of the Official Portraits of President William J. Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton", June 14, 2004, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States.
283. James A. Baker III, Interview no. 1, interview with the author and Terry Sullivan, White House Interview Program, Houston, Texas, July 7, 1999.
284. Michael Deaver, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., July 11, 1996.
285. James A. Baker III, Interview no. 1, July 7, 1999.
286. David Demarest, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., December 7, 1999.
287. Don Baer, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., July 22, 1999.
288. Samuel Kernell and Samuel Popkin, eds., Chief of Staff: Twenty-Five Years of Managing the Presidency (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 27.
289. Nicolle Devenish Wallace, interview with the author, "White House Communications Operations" course, Towson University, Washington, D. C., May 9, 2005.
290. Kevin Sullivan, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 30, 2006.
291. Kevin Sullivan, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 30, 2006.
292. Joshua Bolten, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 17, 2006.
293. Robert Saliterman, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., December 11, 2006.
294. Kevin Sullivan, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 30, 2006.
295. Dana Perino, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 17, 2006.
296. David Wessel, "Once Unloved, Medicare's Prescription-Drug Program Defies Critics, but Issues Remain", Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2006.
297. Howard Kurtz, "Tony Snow Knows How to Work More Than One Room; It's Gloves Off (and Pass the Hat) for Bush Spokesman", Washington Post, October 12, 2006.
298. May 8, 2006, Associated Press; May 9, USA Today;
299. May 10, CBS News, New York Times;
300. May 11, Washington Post, Associated Press. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/setting-record-straight/.
301. "Myth/Fact: Five Key Myths in Bob Woodward's Book", September 30, 2006. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060930-5.html.
302. Caren Bohan, "White House Lists Book's 'Five Key Myths'", Washington Post, October 1, 2006.
303. Kevin Sullivan, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 30, 2006.
304. Kevin Sullivan, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 30, 2006.
305. Robert Saliterman, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., December 11, 2006.
306. John Maltese, The White House Office of Communications and the Management of Presidential News (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 104-5.
307. Thomas Griscom, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., September 1995.
308. Michael Deaver, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., July 11, 1996.
309. "Buchanan's Greatest Hits", Washington Post, February 4, 1987;
310. originally published March 5, 1986.
311. Lou Cannon, "White House Raises Stakes as Contra Vote Looms;Strategy Is to Place Onus on Democrats", Washington Post, March 9, 1986, p. A1.
312. Karl Rove, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 2002.
313. Karen Hughes, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 13, 2002.
314. Thomas Griscom, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., September 1995.
315. George Stephanopoulos, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., September 9, 1995.
316. Loretta Ucelli, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., January 2, 2001.
317. David Demarest, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., January 14, 1993.
318. Patrick Anderson, The President's Men: White House Assistants of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968), 191.
319. Thomas Griscom, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., September, 1995.
320. Mari Maseng Will, interview with the author, May 18, 1993.
321. Background interview, 1989.
322. Background interview, 1989.
323. Robert Beckel interview, Carter Presidency Project, White Burkett Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, November 13, 1981.
324. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 22, 2002.
325. Marion Blakey, director, Office of Public Affairs, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., January 17, 1989.
326. Background interview, 1989.
327. Don Baer, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, July 22, 1999.
328. Richard Moe, interview, Carter Presidency Project, White Burkett Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, January 1982.
329. He did, however, give his radio address on a regular basis, and on four occasions he devoted it to Bork. Only one of those addresses, the July 4 one, addressed the Bork nomination prior to the beginning of the Senate confirmation hearings. From the viewpoint of the administration, the radio address was a good format for Reagan. "He can say whatever he wants", a staff member said. "And it makes the Saturday evening news and hits Sunday newspapers. It gives him a chance to control his message." The aide pointed out an additional advantage to the radio program: they turned it into a newspaper column sent to weekly newspapers. "It has proven to be a worthwhile effort", the person said. "One thousand one hundred are interested in using it out of the 1, 300 sent the column. " Elizabeth Board, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., January 12, 1989.
330. Memorandum for Senator Baker from John Tuck, "Summary of Senator Baker's Communications Activities and meetings on Behalf of Judge Bork", September 17, 1987, White House Central Files, Thomas C. Griscom Files, box 15149, Bork (3), Ronald Reagan Library.
331. Memorandum for Tom Griscom from Tom Gibson, "Advocacy Materials", July 22, 1987, White House Central Files, Thomas C. Griscom Files, box 15149, Bork (3), Ronald Reagan Library.
332. Memorandum for the Chief of Staff from Tom Gibson, "Office of Public Affairs Activities in Support of Judge Bork", October 15, 1987, White House Central Files, Thomas C. Griscom Files, box 15149, Bork (1), Ronald Reagan Library.
333. Memorandum for the Chief of Staff from Tom Gibson, "Office of Public Affairs Activities in Support of Judge Bork", October 15, 1987, White House Central Files, Thomas C. Griscom Files, box 15149, Bork (1), Ronald Reagan Library.
334. Memorandum for Leslye Arsht from Sue Richard and Elizabeth Board, "Media Plan for Support of Bork Nomination", July 23, 1987, White House Central Files, Thomas C. Griscom Files, box 15149, Bork (3), Ronald Reagan Library.
335. Memorandum for Howard H. Baker Jr., Kenneth M. Duberstein, William L. Ball III, Thomas C. Griscom from Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., counsel to the president, "Bork Confirmation Status Report", September 8, 1987, White House Central Files, Thomas C. Griscom Files, box 15149, Bork (3), Ronald Reagan Library.
336. Elizabeth Board, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., January 12, 1989.
337. Memorandum for Tom Griscom from Elizabeth Board, "Media Activities", September 4, 1987, White House Central Files, Thomas C. Griscom Files, box 15149, Bork (3), Ronald Reagan Library.
338. Elizabeth Board, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., January 12, 1989.
339. Marion Blakey, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., January 17, 1989.
340. Stuart Taylor Jr., "Study Puts Bork to Right of Other Judges Named by Reagan", New York Times, July 28, 1987.
341. Stuart Taylor Jr., "Liberal Lawyers' Group Says Bork Favored Business in Court Rulings", New York Times, August 7, 1987.
342. Edward Walsh, "AFL-CIO Asks Senate to Disapprove Bork;Judge Tied to 'Agenda of the Right Wing'", Washington Post, August 18, 1987.
343. "Bork's Nomination Opposed by the Women's Law Center", New York Times, August 19, 1987.
344. Mary Thornton, "Women's Law Group Urges Rejection of Bork", Washington Post, August 19, 1987.
345. Linda Greenhouse, "A. C. L. U., Reversing Policy, Joins the Opposition to Bork", New York Times, September 1, 1987.
346. Ruth Marcus, "White House Paper on Bork Inaccurate, Biden Aides Say", Washington Post, September 4, 1987.
347. Memorandum for Howard H. Baker Jr., Kenneth M. Duberstein, William L. Ball III, Thomas C. Griscom from Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., counsel to the president, "Bork Confirmation Status Report", September 8, 1987, White House Central Files, Thomas C. Griscom Files, box 15149, Bork (3), Ronald Reagan Library.
348. Ruth Marcus, "Justice Dept. Hits Bork Critics", Washington Post, September 13, 1987.
349. Robin Toner, "Saying No to Bork, Southern Democrats Echo Black Voters", New York Times, October 8, 1987.
350. Stuart Taylor Jr., "Prepping the Nominee", National Journal, December 11, 2004.
351. For a history of press secretaries, see W. Dale Nelson, Who Speaks for the President? The White House Press Secretary from Cleveland to Clinton (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1998).
352. Ron Nessen, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., August 3, 1999.
353. Joseph C. Wilson, "What I Didn't Find in Africa", New York Times, July 6, 2003.
354. Robert Novak, "Mission to Niger", Washington Post, July 14, 2003.
355. "Press Briefing by Scott McClellan", White House, September 29, 2003. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/09/20030929-7.html.
356. Donnie Radcliffe, "The Last Word from Larry Speakes;The Spokesman Looks Back on Six Years at the Podium", Washington Post, January 30, 1987.
357. Established in 1865, the executive clerk's operation is the oldest office in the White House. See Bradley H. Patterson Jr., The White House Staff: Inside the West Wing and Beyond (Washington, D. C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2000), 359-62.
358. Roman Popadiuk, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, College Station, Texas, November 2, 1999.
359. Larry Speakes, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., June 26, 1999.
360. Larry Speakes, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., June 26, 1999..
361. Carol D. Leonnig and Jim VandeHei, "Testimony by Rove and Libby Examined;Leak Prosecutor Seeks Discrepancies", Washington Post, July 23, 2005.
362. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., March 27, 2000.
363. Jody Powell, interview with the author and Michael B. Grossman, Washington, D. C., May 21, 1981.
364. Background briefing, July 22, 1979.
365. Kenneth R. Bazinet, "Hil Worth 20M Outside the Senate", New York Daily News, March 12, 1999.
366. Howard Kurtz, "Reporter: Rove Told Him of Plame's CIA Tie", Washington Post, July 17, 2005.
367. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 8, 2004.
368. Mike Allen, "In Private, Bush Sees Kerry as Formidable Foe;President Holds Unusual Meeting with Reporters as He Readies for Campaign", Washington Post, March 3, 2004.
369. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, Towson University course, "President, Press, and Democratic Society", Washington, D. C., March 8, 2004.
370. Cornwell, Presidential Leadership of Public Opinion, 100.
371. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 27, 2006.
372. Tony Snow, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 4, 2006.
373. Mike McCurry, conversation with the author, Washington, D. C., October 25, 2006.
374. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 27, 2006.
375. Tony Snow, "Doc Senator Misdiagnoses Embryonic Stem Cell Research", August 5, 2005.
376. "Press Briefing by Tony Snow", White House, July 21, 2006. www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060718.html.
377. "Meet the Press", NBC News Transcripts, July 23, 2006.
378. "Press Briefing by Tony Snow", White House, July 24, 2006. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060724-4.html.
379. Tony Snow, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 4, 2006.
380. Joshua Bolten, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., November 17, 2006.
381. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 10, 1997.
382. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, Deale, Maryland, August 8, 1998.
383. Dawn Alexander, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 27, 1996.
384. Scott McClellan, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., March 12, 2001.
385. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 10, 1997.
386. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, telephone, March 29, 1999.
387. Barry Toiv, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., March 27, 1998.
388. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., March 27, 2000.
389. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, Deale, Maryland, August 8, 1998.
390. Bill Plante, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., December 8, 1995.
391. Terry Hunt, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 12, 1996.
392. Helen Thomas, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., January 4, 1985.
393. Terry Hunt, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 12, 1996.
394. Scott McClellan, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 4, 2003.
395. Joe Lockhart, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., August 25, 1997.
396. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Deale, Maryland, October 21, 1999.
397. Larry Speakes, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., June 26, 1999.
398. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, Deale, Maryland, August 8, 1998.
399. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., February 10, 1998.
400. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, Deale, Maryland, August 8, 1998.
401. Ari Fleischer, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., March 7, 2001.
402. Scott McClellan, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, May 6, 2004.
403. Tony Snow, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 4, 2006.
404. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., March 27, 2000.
405. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, June 10, 1997.
406. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, November 3, 1997.
407. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, telephone, October 31, 1997.
408. Roman Popadiuk, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, College Station, Texas, November 2, 1999.
409. Ann Devroy, interview with the author, August 16, 1995.
410. Mike Allen and Charles Lane, "Rice Helped Shape Bush Decision on Admissions", Washington Post, January 17, 2003.
411. Mike Allen, "Rice: Race Can Be Factor in College Admissions", Washington Post, January 18, 2003. Conversation with April Ryan, January 17, 2003.
412. Ron Fournier, "Rice Says Race Could Factor in Admissions", Associated Press, January 17, 2003.
413. Mike Getler, "Rice, Race, and Reporters", Washington Post, January 26, 2003.
414. J. Y. Smith, "Critic Paul Hume Dies;Drew Truman's Wrath", Washington Post, November 27, 2001.
415. Bernard Holland, "Paul Hume, 85, Washington Music Critic", New York Times, November 28, 2001.
416. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., March 27, 2000. Unless otherwise attributed, all quotations and information in this section come from McCurry.
417. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Deale, Maryland, October 21, 1999.
418. Joseph Lockhart, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., February 9, 1999.
419. Ari Fleischer, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., March 7, 2001.
420. Scott McClellan, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 4, 2003.
421. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Deale, Maryland, October 21, 1999.
422. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Deale, Maryland, October 21, 1999.
423. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Deale, Maryland, October 21, 1999.
424. At the death of her husband, Naomi Nover took over the news service portfolio of her husband, Bernard Nover. While she did no reporting, she continued to follow presidential events, including traveling with the press corps. A quirky individual, she was not always even-tempered. See Lloyd Grove, "Adding Punch to the Press Corps", Washington Post, April 27, 1995.
425. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Deale, Maryland, October 21, 1999.
426. Terry Hunt, interview with the author, June 12, 1996.
427. Terry Hunt, interview with the author, August 17, 2006.
428. Joseph Lockhart, interview with the author, February 10, 1999.
429. Mark Knoller, interview with the author, June 6, 1996.
430. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, telephone, March 29, 1999.
431. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, telephone, March 29, 1999.
432. Joseph Lockhart, interview with the author, February 10, 1999.
433. Ari Fleischer, interview with the author, July 11, 2002.
434. Ari Fleischer, interview with the author, March 7, 2001.
435. Mark Felsenthal, interview with the author, March 24, 1998.
436. Kenneth Bazinet, interview with the author, March 24, 1998.
437. Joseph Lockhart, interview with the author, February 10, 1999.
438. Background remarks, summer 1998.
439. Ari Fleischer, interview with the author, March 7, 2001.
440. "Press Briefing by Scott McClellan", White House, September 28, 2005. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050928-2.html.
441. Joseph Lockhart, interview with the author, February 10, 1999.
442. Author's recollection of the session.
443. Gaggle, February 4, 1998. Author's recollection of the session.
444. Gaggle, June 20, 1996. Author's transcription of the session.
445. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., March 27, 2000.
446. Joseph Lockhart, interview with the author, February 10, 1999.
447. Leo Rosten, The Washington Correspondents (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1937), 65.
448. "Press Briefing by Scott McClellan", White House, September 16, 2003. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/09/20030910-5.html.
449. "Press Briefing by Scott McClellan", White House, October 10, 2003. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031010-6.html.
450. "Press Briefing by Scott McClellan", White House, July 11, 2005. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/07/20050711-3.html.
451. Terence Hunt, interview with the author, June 12, 1996.
452. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, August 8, 1998.
453. James Fetig, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Rockville, Maryland, February 2, 1999.
454. For photographs and a review of the history of the Press Room and the current Briefing Room, see the website of the White House Historical Association. Available at www.whitehousehistory.org/03/subs-press.
455. Tony Snow, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 4, 2006.
456. Background interview with a reporter who witnessed the exchange.
457. Background interview, 1998.
458. Background interview, 1999.
459. Laura Gibbons, ed., News Media Yellow Book, vol. 9, no. 3, Spring 1998, vii.
460. The Press Secretary's Briefing, January 21, 1998.
461. Mark Knoller, interview with the author, June 6, 1996.
462. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, August 8, 1998.
463. Joseph Lockhart, interview with the author, February 10, 1999.
464. Brit Hume, interview with the author, August 2, 1996.
465. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, July 19, 1996.
466. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, February 10, 1998.
467. Joseph Lockhart, interview with the author, February 10, 1999.
468. Mary Ellen Glynn, interview with the author, May 23, 1999.
469. The following were the organizations in the rotating pool. For newspapers: Austin American Statesman, Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Columbus Dispatch, Copley News, Cox Newspapers, Dallas Morning News, Denver Post, Financial Times, Gannett News, Hearst Newspapers, Houston Chronicle
470. Knight Ridder, Los Angeles Times, McClatchy, Media News
471. National Journal, Newsday, New York Daily News, New York Post, New York Times, Politico, Scripps-Howard, United Press International
472. USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Examiner, Washington Post
473. and Washington Times. For radio: ABC, American Urban Radio Networks, Associated Press, Bloomberg, CBS, NPR, Standard Radio News, Talk Radio, Voice of America. The five television networks were: ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, and NBC. The magazine photographers in the rotation were from Time and Newsweek.
474. "National Thanksgiving Turkey Spared", White House, November 26, 2002. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/11/20021126-4.html.
475. December 2, 1953, Executive Office Building. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, vol. I, 803.
476. James Russell Wiggins, "The Presidential Press Conference", The Ellsworth American, January 1, 1998, sect. II, 1.
477. "Remarks by President Bush and President Karzai of Afghanistan in a Press Availability", White House, June 15, 2004. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/06/20040615-4.html.
478. "President and Iraqi Interim President Al-Yawer Discuss Iraq Future", White House, December 6, 2004. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/ news/releases/2004/12/20041206-2.html.
479. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 12, 2003.
480. Helen Thomas, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., summer 1996.
481. Ken Auletta, "Fortress Bush", New Yorker, January 19, 2004, 53.
482. James A. Baker III, interview with the author, Houston, Texas, May 14, 2001.
483. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., February 10, 1998.
484. David Gergen, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., September 27, 1995.
485. Scott McClellan, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 4, 2003.
486. "The Press Secretary", written and produced by Theodore Bogosian for the Public Broadcasting Company, September 2001.
487. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 7, 1999.
488. Scott McClellan, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 4, 2003.
489. Mary Matalin, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., October 3, 2002.
490. President Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to meet regularly with reporters and explain his thinking and policies. His meetings with reporters were for those journalists he wanted in them. They were not open to all Washington reporters, nor were those of his successor, President William Howard Taft. What separated President Wilson's sessions from those of his two predecessors was the open access rule governing them, which allowed reporters from all news organizations to attend, rather than a select few, and the initial attempt to schedule them on a twiceweekly basis. This schedule was not maintained, but it was revived after President Harding came into office. See Cornwell, Presidential Leadership of Public Opinion, for his treatment of the development of presidential press conferences from Wilson through Lyndon Johnson.
491. See the fine article on the press conferences of President Coolidge, Elmer Cornwell, "Coolidge and Presidential Leadership", Public Opinion Quarterly 21, no. 2(Summer 1957):265-78.
492. Jonathan Daniels, ed., Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin Roosevelt (New York: Da Capo Press, 1972), 263, January 4, 1936.
493. Examples of officials assisting on budget press conferences: December 6, 1965, December 2, 1966, and January 17, 1967. Secretary of Defense McNamara was in press conferences on November 5, 1966, December 6, 1966, and July 13, 1967.
494. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, by telephone, November 22, 2002.
495. The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Joint Press Conference by President Clinton and President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, February 24, 1999. President William J. Clinton, "The President's News Conference with President Rawlings", February 24, 1999, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. Available at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws.
496. These numbers, based on internal counts kept by the Press Office staff, represent accurate numbers for television and radio interviews.
497. The interviews with newspapers and magazines that are counted in this total, however, are ones for which the transcripts were publicly released.
498. There were many print interviews where the transcripts were not released.
499. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 7, 1999.
500. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 7, 1999.
501. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 7, 1999.
502. See Michael Grossman and Martha Joynt Kumar, Portraying the President, 140-41.
503. "The Press Secretary", written and produced by Theodore Bogosian for the Public Broadcasting Company, September 2001.
504. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 7, 1999.
505. Harold Ickes, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 13, 2001.
506. "The Press Secretary", written and produced by Theodore Bogosian for the Public Broadcasting Company, September 2001.
507. Joseph Lockhart, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., June 29, 1998.
508. Michael McCurry, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 7, 1999.
509. President William J. Clinton, "The President's News Conference", April 30, 1998, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, President Clinton. Available at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws.
510. "The Press Secretary", written and produced by Theodore Bogosian for the Public Broadcasting Company, September 2001.
511. President William J. Clinton, "The President's News Conference", April 30, 1998, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, President Clinton. Available at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws. The transcript renders it as "independent council."
512. Susan Page, "A Duck by Any Other Name;New Words for No Comment", USA Today, May 1, 1998.
513. He was commenting on the press conference President Clinton held on March 19, 1999. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, telephone, March 30, 1999.
514. Poll data available at pollingreport.com/social.htm.
515. James A. Baker III, interview with the author, Houston, Texas, May 14, 2001.
516. Marlin Fitzwater, interview with the author, Deale, Maryland, August 8, 1998.
517. Andrew Rosenthal, "President Announces Plan for More Latin Debt Relief", New York Times, June 27, 1990.
518. Martha Joynt Kumar and Terry Sullivan, eds., White House World: Transitions, Organization, and Staff Operations (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2003), 133.
519. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, April 19, 2006.
520. Karl Rove, interview with the author, May 2002.
521. President William J. Clinton, "The President's News Conference", January 29, 1993, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. Available at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws.
522. Mike McCurry, interview with the author, "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center, March 1, 2004.
523. Ann Devroy, interview with the author, August 1995.
524. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 22, 2002.
525. White House internal transcript of session with reporters biking with him, August 13, 2005. Not a public document.
526. Evan Thomas et al., "How Bush Blew It", Newsweek, September 15, 2005, 26-40.
527. "Remarks on Departure for a Tour of Gulf Coast Areas Damaged by Hurricane Katrina", September 2, 2005, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. Available at www.gpo.gov/nara/nara003.html.
528. "President Arrives in Alabama, Briefed on Hurricane Katrina", White House, September 2, 2005. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/ 2005/09/20050902-2.html.
529. Andrew Rosenthal, "Bush Encounters the Supermarket, Amazed", New York Times, February 4, 1992.
530. Fitzwater, Call the Briefing, 328-32.
531. John E. Yang, "Bush Says Tax Plan Critics Are Divisive;President Goes to Grocers to Seek Support for Economic Incentives", Washington Post, February 4, 1992.
532. E-mail message from Marlin Fitzwater to Martha Kumar, October 27, 2005.
533. Jonathan Yardley, "President Bush, Checkout-Challenged", Washington Post, February 10, 1992
534. and Joel Achenbach, "Message for Rip Van Bush;A Primer on the Technology Thing", Washington Post, February 6, 1992.
535. Background interview.
536. Ron Nessen, interview with the author, White House Interview Program, Washington, D. C., August 3, 1999.
537. James A. Baker III, interview with the author, Houston, Texas, May 14, 2001.
538. Dan Bartlett, interview with the author, March 8, 2004. "The President, the Press, and Democratic Society", University of California, Washington Center.
539. Jonathan Weisman, "Bush, Adviser Assailed for Stance on 'Offshoring' Jobs", Washington Post, February 11, 2004.
540. Capital Report, CNBC News Transcripts, February 24, 2004.
541. Nielsen Wire, "52.7 Million Watched President Bush's Economic Crisis Address", September 28, 2008. Available at http://blog.nielsen.com/ nielsenwire/media-entertainment/bush-economic-address/.
542. Center for Media and Public Affairs, "Media Boost Obama, Bash His Policies", April 27, 2009. Available at www.cmpa.com/media-room-4-27-09.htm
543. Figures come from the author's notes of twenty-nine of the press secretary's briefings attended by the author during 2009. The author purposefully did not include sessions from the first three months, as those had a large audience reflecting the early interest in the president's activities. Some of those sessions had more than one hundred reporters.
544. Gerald F. Seib, "In Crisis, Opportunity for Obama", Capital Journal, November 21, 2008. Available at http://online.wsj.com/article/ SB122721278056345271.html.
545. The addresses, remarks, and radio addresses come from presidential transcripts found in the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents and as found on www.americanpresidency.org.
546. Dan Pfeiffer, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 27, 2009.
547. E-mail message from Bill Burton to Martha Joynt Kumar, June 10, 2009.
548. State Department, America.gov, "Engaging the World", available at www.america.gov/obama-cairo.html.
549. Jeff Zeleny, "Obama Speech to Reach Multiple Channels", The Lede, the New York Times blog, June 3, 2009. Available at http://thelede.blogs. nytimes.com/2009/06/03/multiple-channels-for-obamas-cairo-speech/.
550. See www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/, www.youtube.com/whitehouse/, and www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/05/01/WhiteHouse/.
551. For the Internet town hall, see James Oliphant and David Sarno, "Obama Connects from on High, Online; His Latest High-Tech Interface with the Public is a Town Hall", Los Angeles Times, March 27, 2009.
552. Michael A. Fletcher and Jose Antonio Vargas, "The White House, Open for Questions", Washington Post, March 27, 2009.
553. February 9, 2009, eight-minute statement;
554. March 24, 2009, six-minute statement;
555. April 29, 2009, six-minute statement. Author's notes.
556. Dan Pfeiffer, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 27, 2009.
557. Remarks Following a Meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan and an Exchange with Reporters, April 21, 2009. Available at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ ws/index.php?pid=86029&st=&st1=/.
558. Press Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, April 23, 2009. Available at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=86046&st=&st1=/.
559. January 26, 2009. See www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2009/January/ 20090127161320xjsnommis0.705578.html/.
560. David Leonhardt, "After the Great Recession", New York Times, April 28, 2009. Available at www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03Obama-t.html? -r=1/.
561. Joshua Earnest, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 2, 2009.
562. Nielsen Wire, December 1, 2009. Available at http://blog.nielsen.com/ nielsenwire/media-entertainment. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
563. President George W. Bush, "Remarks Announcing the Appointment of Tony Snow as White House Press Secretary", April 26, 2006. Available at www.americanpresidency.org.
564. Jon Meacham, "A Highly Logical Approach", Newsweek, May 25, 2009.
565. Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton for the current communications operations numbers. The breakdown is as follows: Office of Communications, fortyseven; Press Office, twenty, including six in the Photographers Office, which Robert Gibbs brought under the press secretary's wing. There are another three people in the office of senior advisor David Axelrod. Burton, conversation with the author, June 9, 2009. For the numbers for the operations of Presidents Bush and Clinton, see page 88, this volume.
566. Joshua Earnest, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 2, 2009.
567. Ellen Moran, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., April 1, 2009.
568. Robert Gibbs, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., May 1, 2009.