| 来源类型 | Book |
| 规范类型 | 其他 |
| The Presidency and the Press Conference | |
| Clark Mollenhoff; Edward P. Morgan; Max Ways; Peter Lisagor; Herbert G. Klein (1918-2009) | |
| 发表日期 | 1971 |
| 出版者 | AEI Press |
| 出版年 | 1971 |
| 语种 | 英语 |
| 摘要 | Read the full PDF. Introduction The presidential press conference has been part of the American scene for more than half a century. Its character, though, has changed since President Kennedy held the first live televised press conference in 1961. The participants in this American Enterprise Institute debate agree that the presidential press conference is important and will continue. But they also agree that the President or the press—or both—should make improvements to render the press conference more useful. As an introduction to the debate, Herbert Klein, director of communications for the executive branch, outlines the issues from the White House view. He emphasizes two major points: First, the press conference is the President’s and “not something that belongs to the press.” Second, it is only one of the several means the President uses—along with speeches, statements, messages to the Congress and the activities of cabinet officials—to communicate with the public. Mr. Klein holds that some of the shortcomings of the press conference could be corrected by the press itself. For example, the follow-up question is rarely used because reporters tend to lock themselves into questions prepared beforehand. In addition, sometimes they get so involved in specialized subjects that the larger issues are not adequately discussed. Mr. Klein acknowledges that “at times, because of circumstances, the periods between press conferences have been too long.” He also favors the suggestion that more government officials and experts appear at press briefings. However, he does not want to see the President locked into a rigid schedule or format. Max Ways, member of the board of editors of Fortune magazine and former senior editor for international news at Time magazine, disagrees with the other debaters on the value of the presidential press conference. He doubts “the republic has been gravely hurt by the sharp decline in the number of presidential press conferences.” In fact, he argues, “as a medium of communication between President and people, the press conference in its present state of evolution seems . . . slightly more harmful than useful.” He does not recall “any indispensable item of information that reached the public” through the press conference that “would not have reached it by some other means.” Mr. Ways criticizes the presidential press conference as a form that “has gone a little stale” and for its “fragmentation” of the news. Moreover, he adds, “if the essence of journalism’s function is the coherent transmission of information, then the press conference can be criticized as inefficient and sometimes misleading. . . .” Peter Lisagor, Washington bureau chief of the Chicago Daily News and past president of the White House Correspondents Association, characterizes the televised news conference as an “exercise in gamesmanship,” as “chaotic and often incoherent.” But he believes the cure would be for the President to have more frequent and regular news conferences. “That would remove a lot of the questions that have been made irrelevant by time and it would enable the reporters to focus on topics of current interest.” He also favors occasional press conferences without cameras because a less formal situation would offer more opportunity for follow-through on questions. Mr. Lisagor acknowledges that “the President’s right to choose his own format is indisputable.” But he hopes the press can help him arrive at a workable approach. “The press has a very crucial responsibility to influence the flow of information by asking the kind of questions that bring out information which the public would not otherwise get.” Edward P. Morgan, Washington correspondent for ABC, holds that “there is absolutely nothing wrong with White House news conferences today—nothing so fatally wrong—that the President himself couldn’t fix it by having them more often.” He suggests a news conference once a week, with televised conferences at least once a month. In his view, “The White House news conference may be more important to the American public and the American system than the question period in the British House of Commons is to the British.” With all its faults, he says, it “is a precious instrument by which a free press can get at its chief executive” and “see the man in action”—something not possible in the news handout. He concludes by stressing that the press will be remiss in its duty if it does not insist, “politely, with dignity and respect,” that the President hold more news conferences. Clark Mollenhoff, Washington bureau chief of the Des Moines Register-Tribune, lawyer, and former special counsel to President Nixon, would like to see both the President and cabinet officers more available to the press. He suggests periodic press conferences involving cabinet officers, pointing out that “if you did not get the answer you felt was satisfactory at the cabinet level, you could proceed to the presidential press conference.” He favors more press conferences, but believes the President should retain flexibility in scheduling. “I don’t think he should have a television conference every week. Sometimes it should be a little spontaneous.” Mr. Mollenhoff believes the shortcomings of the presidential press conference are “the fault of the reporters as well as the President.” He calls for better preparation by reporters and less antagonism in questioning. A reporter can do his job and still be respectful. He is against either the President or a group of the press attempting to screen the questions to be asked. In his view, “any effort to institutionalize the press conference would be thoroughly destructive to the present uncontrolled questioning by individual reporters. If the press conference is institutionalized, it will be possible to control it.” And who would do the controlling, he asks? Read the full PDF. |
| 主题 | Executive Branch |
| 标签 | AEI Press ; US Media ; US presidency |
| URL | https://www.aei.org/research-products/book/the-presidency-and-the-press-conference/ |
| 来源智库 | American Enterprise Institute (United States) |
| 资源类型 | 智库出版物 |
| 条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/207468 |
| 推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | Clark Mollenhoff,Edward P. Morgan,Max Ways,et al. The Presidency and the Press Conference. 1971. |
| 条目包含的文件 | 条目无相关文件。 | |||||
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