Roosevelt held over a thousand press conferences, according to the White House Historical Association – a record that stands to this day - in a sense doing part of the job that we associate today with press secretaries. When did presidents start dealing with the press like they do today?įranklin Roosevelt loved talking to reporters, who were made readily available to him by press secretary Stephen Early. "I regard it as rather necessary to the carrying on of our republican institution that the people should have a fairly accurate report of what the president is trying to do, and it is for that purpose, of course, that those intimate conferences are held," Coolidge said in 1926, according to the White House Historical Association. Oddly enough, the famously taciturn Calvin Coolidge was much more accessible, holding 521 press conferences over his six years in office. Wilson also held the first modern press conferences, although he would only answer questions off-the-record and refused to be quoted. The more reserved Woodrow Wilson, on the other hand, initially welcomed questions from the press only to find them "irrelevant" and "tiresome," according to the White House Correspondents' Association. Theodore Roosevelt became the first president to really embrace a working relationship with the press, according to Time Magazine, regularly talking with reporters during his daily afternoon shave. Other papers soon followed suit, sending their own reporters, who eventually had their questions fielded by a presidential aide. White House reporters themselves didn't really exist until The Washington Evening Post's William "Fatty" Price started hanging around the building in Grover Cleveland's second term.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |