press secretary

One who officially manages the public affairs and press conferences of a public figure.

The press secretary, who is also director of the White House Press Office, is the Presidential assistant in charge of relations with the media. The title was first used in the Hoover administration.

The press secretary is the only official who “speaks for the President” to the press. The press secretary holds one or two daily briefings for correspondents in the West Terrace briefing room of the White House, during which correspondents are briefed about appointments, the President's daily schedule, upcoming travel plans, and Presidential messages and speeches. (This information is also summarized in daily news releases distributed to White House reporters.) Then the press secretary takes questions.

The Press Office issues credentials, or permission to attend White House news conferences, to about 1,500 journalists and provides office space in the West Terrace for 30 White House correspondents. Its Office of Public Liaison also provides services to newspapers and television stations across the country, including interviews with officials using the White House television studios. It prepares a “press plan” for all Presidential domestic and overseas trips to encourage favorable media coverage. It makes travel arrangements for as many as 300 reporters on major Presidential trips.

The press secretary organizes the President's news conferences and prepares briefing books for the President to study before the conference. The secretary helps the President prepare. After the conference the secretary issues corrections of any Presidential misstatements.

Pierre Salinger was one of the most successful press secretaries. A member of John Kennedy's inner circle of political advisers, he also had good rapport with the Washington press corps. Unlike many of the tall and athletic New Frontiersmen, Salinger was short, overweight, and decidedly un-athletic. He joked about himself and about everyone else, but he was a consummate professional when it came to helping reporters meet their deadlines with reliable and interesting stories. He quickly became one of the most popular figures in Washington and one of the most adept at getting good press for his boss.

Press secretaries, usually former reporters, frequently have conflicts with other senior Presidential aides, often because they are not given advance notice of important Presidential decisions and then are accused by their former colleagues of deception. Press Secretary Jerry Horst resigned from Gerald Ford's administration because he was not told in advance about Richard Nixon's pardon.

Press secretaries are often accused of trying to manipulate the media by “managing” the news. In 1985, at a summit with Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, Larry Speakes was concerned that President Ronald Reagan receive favorable press coverage. He made up some Presidential statements. Many months later, he admitted what he had done and apologized. But the damage had been done: in the future no one could be sure that a Presidential quote passed on by the press secretary had actually been said by the President. In recent years the person in charge of relations with the media has taken the title “director of communications,” and the director's assistant is known as the press secretary.

See also Public opinion; White House Office

Sources

• W. Dale Nelson, “Who Speaks for the President?: The White House Press Secretary from Cleveland to Clinton” (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1998).
• Ron Nessen, It Sure Looks Different on the Inside (Chicago: Playboy Press, 1978).
• Jody Powell, The Other Side of the Story (New York: Morrow, 1984).
• Larry Speakes, Speaking Out: Inside the Reagan White House (New York: Scribners, 1988).
• George Stephanopoulos, “All Too Human: A Political Education” (Boston: Back Bay, 2000)

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