Past Presidents and the Press
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PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS (1797-1801): SEDITION
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Traveling all the way back to the founding fathers, President Adams is a grossly overlooked example of a President abusing the press. Yes, times were different, standards still unset and malleable in the early decades of the country, but the Constitution had been written, and with it the first amendment proclaiming the freedom of the press established. That’s what makes Adams wildly un-American Alien and Sedition Act of 1798 so shocking to wrap your head around. In what has been the most aggressive action against the press by a President ever, this law made it illegal to print anything criticizing the government (McAllister, 2017). Adams was so paranoid about French influence on the United States that he practically destroyed the first amendment in retaliation. This bold stroke against the press was out of fear that they were the enemy, or at least at risk of being influenced by the enemy; which is a similar logic President Trump uses in his attacks against the press.
What allowed for the passage of such a strict, anti-democratic law, besides the practice of judicial review from the Supreme Court not yet being established, was the fearful atmosphere of the United States. Tensions were rising with France, and talks of war were building (“The Alien and Sedition Acts”). This example establishes a common theme running throughout all of the presidencies examined in this article: attacks and restrictions against the press justified in the name of greater security for Americans. Adams and his supporters were fearful of possible manipulation from French immigrants and sympathizers if a war was to break out, so he acted strongly, eliminating the press’s ability to criticize (McAllister, 2017)). While the law would quickly be reversed by his successor, Adams’ left the first major impact on the relationship between the President and the press, establishing distrust and animosity; they weren’t designed to be friends.
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PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT (1901-1909): MUCKRAKERS
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If Adams established an uneasy relationship between the President and the press, President Theodore Roosevelt revolutionized it. As a man, he craved center stage and built his ego accordingly. As a result, he was the first president to really employ political spin, and he saw the press as a platform he could do that through (Greenberg, 2016). The practice of using the press to spin a story isn’t abusive or dangerous necessarily but it’s worth examining as it a key part of an evolving relationship. While through the prior century the President often took a backseat to Congress in driving legislation and reform, Roosevelt molded the Presidency to better resemble the visionary office we understand it to be today (Greenberg, 2016). This included touring the country, partaking in more press conferences, and holding publicity stunts like riding horseback and taking a submarine to the bottom of the Long Island Sound (Greenberg, 2016). Not only did he build a strong image and reputation through the press but he leveraged what the press was reporting to further his political goals. After socialist Upton Beall Sinclair published The Jungle, a fictitious but revealing look into the meat-packing industry in Chicago, Roosevelt realized if he could confirm any of Sinclair’s report, he could use the support of the outraged public to force Congress to enact reforms (Greenberg, 2016). Teddy is well-known for his personality but further acknowledgement should be given to how that personality was harnessed strategically to control what the press was seeing and reporting.
Roosevelt didn’t go by unchallenged by the press in his spinning. No, instead, he held a testy personal relationship with reporters, referring to them as “muckrakers” for their habit of sensational reporting (Mattimore, 2018) Sensationalism was very widespread during this period in American history (Mattimore, 2018). Roosevelt would go on to sue newspapers for how they reported the United States purchase of the Panama Canal (Mattimore, 2018). It’s worth considering that it was Roosevelt’s influence of the office of the President itself which garnered backlash from the press, trying to check the executive branch back into place. He was consistently frustrated with another source of power challenging his own power, another common sentiment shared amongst Presidents, and definitely applicable to President Trump.
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PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON (1913-1921): PROPAGANDA
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As President during the first World War, Woodrow Wilson was concerned with the press’s possible effect on public support for the cause. Consequently, President Wilson pushed for a combined implementation of censorship and propaganda to maintain a clear, positive message through the effort (Mattimore, 2018). While the Senate and House of Representatives were able to deter any success at moving censorship legislation through, Wilson was able to create the Committee on Public Information, a major source of propaganda (Mattimore, 2018). The Committee published information and stories in newspapers with the intent of motivating widespread public involvement towards the war effort, and maintaining the idea that the war was important and winnable.
Woodrow Wilson, like Teddy Roosevelt, saw similar opportunity to exploit the power of the press to achieve a political goal. This time to build support for American involvement in what many viewed as a European conflict. When asked to justify his bold calls for censorship Wilson remarked it “is absolutely necessary to the public safety” (Mattimore, 2018). This sounds awfully familiar to the justification Adams had for his Sedition Act. It may be impossible to determine what these Presidents’ actual motivation for pushing through these restrictions on the press was—a belief that without them Americans were actually at danger, or instead an annoyance with a frisky press deterring their agendas from time to time. Either way, many would argue a greater threat to the American citizen would be a President left unchecked, censoring what his opponents can say and write. That tightrope that every President walks, with the weight of the universe on their shoulders, is difficult to balance. When you’re in charge, and have an ego as large as a man with the audacity to believe he should be President of the United States, it must be easy to want to push away the rules. They can’t, and because of that, the system works. Checks and balances. Through the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court, and the Press. President Wilson believed in himself, and didn’t want any force destroying his vision; I’m sure President Trump can relate.
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PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (1933-1945): A NEW DEAL
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When it comes to American Presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is as large of a figure as anyone. FDR is well-known for pushing the boundaries of what’s considered acceptable political behavior, with the New Deal and an unprecedented four terms in the oval office, but his relationship with the press is more unacknowledged. Franklin, like the prior Roosevelt, was a master at controlling the message coming out of the White House. He practically introduced the concept of talking directly to the American people through his fireside radio chats, which, similar to Trump’s use of twitter, circumvent direct contact with the press (Pollard, 1945). In these chats he could control the narrative and build a relationship with listeners. With that said, he simultaneously also made an effort to expand the access available to the press, hosting a previously unmatched 998 press conferences (Pollard, 1945). Building and guiding this relationship with the press was crucial for pushing through and defending controversial legislation like his famous New Deal. Those controversial decisions didn’t go by unscathed by the press, however, and with a President as confident in himself as FDR, conflict was naturally going to arise, often times personal. In 1937, when he was pressed on his upcoming decision to run for a third term, he snapped at the reporter, demanding he go sit in the corner, back to the room, with an invisible dunce cap (Powell, 2018). Another jab came at a press conference in 1942, when Roosevelt handed the symbol of the Nazi’s Third Reich, an iron cross medal, to a reporter of the New York Daily News, a bold attack against owner John O’Donnell for his coverage of the Nazi cause (Powell, 2018). Roosevelt, matched Trump’s latest actions, revoking the newspaper’s White House press credentials for its “anti-British” coverage of the war (Powell, 2018). All considered, through the supposed controlled, honeymoon-like relationship came blemishes of harsh attacks as Roosevelt wore down and faced more challenges.
Both President Trump and President Roosevelt are New Yorkers, both coming from families of wealth and prestige, both with bold, confident personalities often times leading to personal clashes with the press. The similarities are apparent, but so remain the differences—in politics, in elequency, in experience; perhaps most of all in time period. As we shift towards more modern presidents, may the transformation of the presidential relationship with the press continue to be put into the context of the time.
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PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY (1961-1963): IN THE NAME OF SECURITY
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As the threats the United States was facing shifted during the Cold War, so did the priorities and norms of the Presidency. Kennedy restricted access to foreign policy information during the Cuban crisis in 1961 and 1962, justifying it with, yes, you guessed it, the need to keep Americans safe and secure in times of uncertainty. This very well may have been an appropriate decision, but it still continues the pattern of presidents justifying their attacks on the constitutional rights of the press with the security of citizens (McAllister, 2017). His decisions to censor what the press could see raised concerns and in his explanation he hinted at his assurance of not wanting a “war” developing between himself and the press (McAllister, 2017). Still, Kennedy took another step, instructing his department heads to not reveal to the press any conversations they have with the President regarding foreign news (McAllister, 2017). The press continually fired back, accusing the administration of employing war-time security measures despite not being at war. This notion of wartime and peacetime would only become blurrier as the Cold War progressed. Overall, there was a belief amongst reporters that the administration didn’t want the public to know the information it was acting on so it couldn’t be judged for its mistakes (McAllister, 2017). Mirroring the ideological attitude of the escalating Cold War, there was a common fear that the United States was moving further and further towards authoritarian behavior.
As Kennedy took over as President so did the television as the major transmitter of news for families. Perhaps this is why Kennedy felt so threatened of an overreaching press, now capable of funneling even more information to the American citizen. The 1960s were a time of great uncertainty and JFK was grasping for control of the narrative, employing censorship to achieve security. It’s seems to be a constant trade-off American society grapples with.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON (1969-1974): A LIST OF ENEMIES
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The most infamous example of the relationship between the President and the press comes through Richard Nixon. Infamously recognized for Watergate and his resignation, Nixon’s relationship with the press wasn’t always at blows. In fact, ahead of the 1968 election, Nixon received 80% of newspaper endorsements (Harris, 1973). The first year or so of his presidency was an extended honeymoon with little criticism from the press (Harris, 1973). As opposition to the war escalated, however, that honeymoon came to an abrupt ending, and Nixon’s paranoia rose. His administration worked at slowing this anti-war movement through direct and indirect threats to reporters and news organizations, prosecuting those who would refuse to act as government informers by revealing their confidential sources (Harris, 1973). Nixon held this belief that the press was out to destroy him, and acted like his presidency depended on it, which, after the revelations of the Watergate scandal, turned accurate. Angered, President Nixon created “a list of enemies,” targeting these news organizations through audits (Mattimore, 2017). After the Washington Post published sections of the Pentagon Papers, exposing shortcomings and lies of the war effort in Vietnam, Nixon attempted to keep them out of his White house while allies tried to remove their television license (McAllister, 2017).
Nixon’s presidency came at and contributed to a time of great uncertainty and turbulence in American history. His administration hid a lot from the American people, so naturally there would be conflict with the press, an institution designed to find the truth and inform the people of it. Everything that defines Nixon’s presidency—Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers, Watergate—all are connected to his clash with the press. While the press can be unfair, biased, even harsh at times, Nixon’s presidency proves that it’s an institution Americans rely on for uncovering what Washington isn’t telling them and holding our leaders accountable. Maybe that’s why Trump fires back at the media for questions about collusion or corruption; they’re out to get the truth, and if wrongdoing exists, that’d mean they’re out to get him too.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN (1981-1989): FRIENDLY FOE
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The attitude regarding the Reagan administration’s relationship with the press is more of a mixed bag, with similar anti-democratic sins being committed yet an overall friendlier, positive relationship forming. In 1983, Reagan employed a media blackout on the invasion of Grenada with strict regulations on news coverage, deciding the country wasn’t safe for reporters (Marcatec). When reporters tried to get to Grenada with fishing boats they were detained, or even shot at by Navy ships (Marcatec). The administration had been dodgy about revealing its plans to the media to begin with, originally claiming the idea of an invasion was “preposterous” (Marcatec). Another pattern common during the Reagan administration was threatening news organizations with prosecution over publishing sensitive intelligence information (Marcatec). Reagan’s campaign manager and CIA director William Casey was instrumental in intimidation, getting major news outlets like the Washington Post, the New York Times, and NBC to back off. Through the Freedom of Information Act, Reagan also expanded federal power in classifying documents and holding national security information from the public (Marcatec).
The Reagan administration’s effort at limiting the power of the press seems similar to the previous administrations examined yet Reagan personally managed to foster a better relationship with the reporters who covered him. There was this shared belief among the press that President Reagan was a good man who could be trusted, rooted in his unwavering positive outlook, and infectious amiability (McAllister, 2017). While both President Reagan and President Trump have been compared for having similar bold personalities, the main difference is Reagan was without an insecurity, while the latter appears to have many. Reagan was able to build a trusting, popular persona by being himself and it made a legitimate difference in the way the press covered him and some of the anti-press actions his administration took. Reagan’s daughter shares a story of her father, somewhat vexed by photographers trying to capture the family eat dinner at their ranch, walking outside and faking a heart attack before standing up and waving to prank the journalists (Davis, 2018). He got the best of them on that occasion and many others but I’m sure they were smiling when he did.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH (2001-2009): A NEW WORLD
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The Presidency of George W Bush was obviously most influenced and consequently defined by the events of September 11th, 2001. The impact of the attacks that day rippled through practically every aspect of American society including the relationship between the President and the press. It was another turning point in that relationship—how could it not be? The world changed that day.
The issue of national security was as high of a priority as it’s ever been following 9/11, giving the Bush White House more justification and freedom to restrict the press from information. This could be seen in the decision to reverse some of the country’s information laws and slowing the release of Presidential Papers (Satura, 2008). The Bush White House also temporarily cut back on press conferences in the immediate years after the attack, holding only 11 through 2004, agitating the press (Auletta, 2004). This was just another practice of a very disciplined White House, similarly agitated with perceived media biases, dedicated to the goal of removing power from the press covering it. Administration officials established this relationship by targeting reporters who criticized decisions, hoping to intimidate them into more favorable writing (Satura, 2008). The Bush White House was also incredibly loyal, committed to the unsaid policy of never talking off the record; his aides and staff weren’t Washington opportunists (Auletta, 2004). This again contributed to the lack of information coming out following 9/11 (Auletta, 2004).
While the efforts of the Bush administration to prioritize national security agitated the press in some ways, overall, as a wartime President, Bush’s decisions were not criticized heavily until later in his presidency (Auletta, 2004). There is a widely held belief amongst reporters today that the press was not as investigative as it should have been, referring to the overall passive acceptance of weapons of mass destruction being in Afghanistan (Auletta, 2004). They failed as the watchdog of the American people in that respect. To be fair, it was a difficult time in American society to be critical of the President or war effort with approval ratings following 9/11 incredibly high and the anger of the American people only building. Criticisms were even being treated as un-American by some news networks like Fox News (Auletta, 2004). This unprecedented environment encouraged the media to ease off when they should’ve been doing the opposite. Perhaps this recognized failure drives reporters of President Trump to be more aggressive, fearing to let a mistake slip through unchecked.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA (2009-2017): A PROLOGUE
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A large part of President Obama’s campaign was centered around offering more transparency in Washington as the nation slipped into economic turmoil and remained stuck in a war. While these promises were successful at getting him elected, President Obama strayed from them as he ran into the realities of the office. While Trump’s press enemies are CNN and the New York Times, President Obama’s greatest enemy was Fox News, and outside of the eloquence in diction used to describe these news organizations (eloquence appears to be a common difference between past presidents and Trump), the steps so far taken to restrict them are similar. The Obama administration refused an interview to Fox News about health care reform in 2009 and excluded Fox from conference calls regarding terror in Benghazi (Adams, 2018). Fox was labeled as an illegitimate news organization and treated as such, similar to Trump’s claim of fake news (Adams, 2018). While supporters would say Obama was more justified in his labeling of illegitimate news, that’s irrelevant to this examination and doesn’t change the impact of an administration questioning the integrity of a major news network. Obama also made greater use of the Espionage Act to prosecute journalists guilty of leaking information than his predecessor (Mason, 2018). This is a major fear of reporters covering the Trump administration as they go about protecting their sources, and this pattern was escalated under Obama. He also fulfilled the least amount of requests for public records of all time, limiting the public’s access to specific information (Mason, 2018).
President Obama, many could argue, is as far as President Trump as you can get, yet the practices of his administration reveal it is extremely difficult for the office of the presidency to escape clashing with the press. They hold completely different views on almost every issue, yet they take similar steps to consolidate their power and control their message; steps presidents before Obama took as well.
So, perhaps as we jump into the analysis of the current President, it’s worth pivoting our initial question. Let’s ask not if Trump’s poor relationship with the press is unique—it isn’t—but instead, what makes it particularly dangerous, more so than any of his predecessors.