Index – Science – The president wanted to filter, but did not inform journalists

While the Hungary newspaper, created to support the Independence Party and the 48 Party, wrote on March 15, 1913 that István Tisza, who survived the first assassination attempt – had four in total against him – had to leave the House of Representatives, journalists. . They themselves did not even know that they would soon meet at a press history event. At the invitation of Woodrow Wilson, they arrived at the presidential office for the first presidential press conference in world history.

Wilson served as governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913, and at the suggestion of his secretary, Joseph Tumulty, attempted to establish a relationship with journalists so that the news that appeared would reflect his position. He did not break with this custom even after beginning his first presidential term on March 4, 1913.

Exactly 108 years ago, on a Saturday after lunch, at 12:45, 125 journalists crowded in front of the door of the Oval Office. But from the ranks of Post correspondent Edward G. Lowry, it is clear that the crowding had ended with a groan, and there was only one reason for this, that the room reserved for reporters was only slightly larger than a bathroom. Rather than the pleasant conversation that journalists were expecting, these were just snippets of brief statements from the president, who was apparently unprepared for the real and intrusive questions from real-life journalists.

Unfortunately, there is no description of the full prospect, so no matter how interesting it promises, we cannot quote the questions and answers. On the other hand, it is clear from contemporary reporting that the event did not live up to the expectations of either the president or the journalists, even though the remaining sources said that the president was very grateful to the journalists for appearing and try to be nice to them. .

In celebrating the eleventh day of his presidency, Wilson had the original goal of publishing his own narrative. In accordance with your previously stated intention

Perhaps not in an unusual way, they wanted to ask journalists questions about each of the presidential measures and, despite these unofficial briefings, that is, in-depth discussions, they wanted to authentically report on the event.

I want to give you the opportunity to see my mind a little better and know my point of view better than before.

– The president continued a week later in another press conference, apologizing to journalists for the disorganization of the previous week. The background team was now ready for the event: reporters were invited to a larger room in the east wing of the White House. Wilson made a tireless attempt to put the press under political influence, at least explaining to reporters that the proper conduct of public affairs depends on the articles that are born, and things can go very wrong if they are not partners in this.

Nothing new under the sun

If we take it, Wilson has stepped into the same river as his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, who also recognized the power of the press to help or win the president to shape public opinion with manual control. But Roosevelt no longer understood the lesson of “how to associate” with reporters: he was simply threatening them.

In 1901, he summoned the heads of the three major news agencies (Associated Press, Laffan Agency, Scripps-McRae Press Association) to the White House.

In addition, it will isolate news agencies that employ “unreliable” journalists from the news. It shows very well the seriousness with which Roosevelt took communication with the press: he sometimes answered questions at the hairdresser while he was shaving.

Returning to Wilson, he did not venture into such immorality and, breaking with Roosevelt, made presidential press conferences regular. At the same time, even he hadn’t managed to build a professional political communication team that would thematize the public in the direction it liked, even with evasive answers to unpleasant questions. Instead of

He, on the other hand, was self-critical and soon realized that planned targeted communications had been pushed aside, for example, with his statements about Mexico taken down by the New York Sun, and they called off press conferences for the summer. 1913. Martha Joynt Kumar, a professor of political science at Townson University, writes in a book that it was at this point that the president came up with the idea of ​​dictating the terms of the prospectuses from now on and only giving information to the press if they were “leaked”.

Sunken briefings

Woodrow Wilson held a total of 64 press conferences in 1913, and more in the year of the outbreak of World War II. In 1915, however, he suspended meetings with journalists: the official explanation was the tense international situation. In May 1915, a German submarine sank the RMS Lusitania, with 139 Americans on board. The unofficial explanation, on the other hand, was that Wilson was simply tired of “ducking” reporters.

Theodore Roosevelt’s table in William Howard Teft’s new Oval Office in 1909

Photo: Wikipedia

Speaking to the BBC, David Ryfe, a professor at the University of Nevada, sees a possible contribution to the fact that while the president offered a narrative to guest reporters, they simply saw news of the US president speaking in his newspaper, regardless of the topic. . This can also be taken as evidence of freedom of the press in the classical sense:

After his re-election in 1916, Wilson tried the presidential briefings again, but summoned journalists far less frequently than before. It is an indisputable merit of the President that, in an organized way, he has made white home press conferences a tradition.

It is thanks to him that later the president of the United States could no longer answer a cold “no” to a journalist’s question if he wanted: journalists began to serve the public with information that the presidents wanted to keep secret until now. Reporters have become channels for the public through which people can be informed almost daily about the decisions by which the leader of their choice will lead the country.

His successors had already mandatorily summoned reporters to the presidential office. Television began broadcasting the cheeses with Dwight Eisenhower (beginning in January 1955), hence the possibility that the president spoke “off the record” to journalists and narrated away from the public in his own interest.

By the time of John Kennedy, the White House television channels had already appeared live and the president had finally moved into American living rooms.

(Sources: bbc.com, whitehousehistory.org, jstor.org, slate.com, arcanum.hu)

(Cover image: President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson 28. Photo: Library of Congress / Corbis / VCG / Getty Images)

I also learned something 1-2-3 today: Now only together For 9990 florins!

Buy now!

• It was not enough, I want to learn!

• I’m posting a topic!