Let's Melt Snow

The White House Press Secretary is, in his most basic definition, the press correspondent of the President. In a deeper sense, he lets the press know what the President wants them to know; henceforth, only such information as relayed by the media ends up in the minds of public viewers. In this blog I will attempt to portray this definition by analyzing a recent White House press briefing conducted (no pun intended) by Tony Snow, the current Press Secretary.
The date of the conference was September 8th, 2006, three days before the 5th anniversary of September 11, 2001. It is quite clear from observing the type of questions posed at the conference, that the primary concern of the press this week, and therefore, the Bush Administration, is 9-11. Why should this be? There are other stories that are newsworthy. For example, the War in Iraq, the situation in the Middle East; and even domestic issues, such as energy consumption and yes, still the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Why should almost all the focus be on 9-11?

Do not take me the wrong way, I am well aware that 9-11 was a catalyst event in history and a tragic day indeed, but perhaps at a White House news conference there should be a wider variety of comments.

From 1999 until June 2000, in a study on how much network news coverage is devoted to national institutions, it has been shown (see Leighley, pg 115) that 60% of the time is devoted to the President of the US. The President is “inherently newsworthy”. Perhaps this is because he has gained so much power these past few decades from utilizing his “power to persuade”, which is channeled through the media, that the public view him as the symbol of the country, instead of just the leader. This being said, the press secretary would not want to “waste time” on petty issues such as domestic affairs and the future of our energy resources when he could grab the attention of the public, thereby advancing his own career and the careers of the White House correspondents, by talking about 9-11, which is the President’s primary motivator for his current political agenda – the War on Terror.

I believe that the Press Secretary uses certain questions as springboards to further the agenda of the President in a positive light while condoning the questions (or reporters) that might shed a negative light on him.

Mr. Snow began the briefing by delving straight into the President’s schedule for the coming week, day by day. This was his primary objective; for after he finished the schedule, he said, “and now I’ll take questions”, as if it was completed. However, perhaps this seemingly innocent schedule isn’t so innocent after all. The press and the government are interrelated, they count on one another for the success of their occupations. The government can use the media to further its political agendas and the media uses the government for the salability of their information. In the case of political agendas, there are certain events that, according to Leighley, are not true events, but rather, pseudo events, events planned for the sake of press coverage. This, perhaps is what Snow was doing: giving the press advance notice about what to report about, and on which day.

Please read this quote and think about the sensibility of it:
[In speaking about how the president will address the nation from the Oval Office on 9-11, he adds]:

“This is not a political speech; there are not going to be any calls to action for Congress. It will be a reflection of what September 11th has meant to the President, and to the country; the realities that it has brought to all of our attention and how we can move forward together to try to win the war on terror.”

Now, he said that there will not be any political agendas in the speech, and then he went on to say that it is for the purpose of bringing to attention the focus on the war on terror – which is the primary agenda of this administration. The reporters were asking questions about the politicization of 9-11, and Snow was answering them, but covered in thick layers of emotional talk about how America is the greatest country and we must fight for our liberty.
One very interesting volley between Snow and the Press was when one of the reporters asked if the President thinks if the Democrats win control of one of the houses of Congress, will the county be less safe. I couldn’t believe he asked it in such a straight foreword manner. Snow’s initial reaction was: “I'm just not playing ball on that.” Let’s examine this for a minute. If he answered yes, then you could throw out any logrolling the President might have had with the Democrats since that would be a slap in the face to them. And if he answered in the negative, that would seem to negate the notion that Democrats are for ending the War on Terror, which they are! As you can see, this is a tough question and Snow knew that and therefore spit out the deferring phrase and moved on to the next reporter.

In conclusion, it is clearly visible from whom the Press Secretary calls on, to what his responses are, and to the way in which he delivers his responses, that the political agenda of the White House is conveyed to the press according to discretion of the administration.