Ch. 12 Presidents & The Media

Publications grouped into four categories (what are they?)

1. Regulators- meaning to regulate or sodding subjects to a lesser position or status are publications whose authority/editors /publishers either initially employed "president" or subsequently changed "President" to "president" during the Nixon or Ford administrations (1969-1977. These are tradition breakers, the grammatical trailblazers or trendsetters. We group the Ford Administration with the Nixon administration of the very reason the President Gerald Ford served as VP during the Watergate hearings and completed Nixon's unexpired term. 2. Modulators - meaning to modulate or adjust or alter their views or positions over time includes publications whose authors/editors/publishers switched from President to president after the Ford administration 1977 and later. The modulators are those who appear to follow the regulators and go with the grammatical flow. 3. Vacillators - meaning to vacillate or swing indecisively from one course of action to another are publications that have oscillate between President and president (1) before, during or after the Nixon/ Ford administration or (2) who employed both words in the same publications. 4. Preservers -meaning to preserve or protect established traditions and symbols from injury, harm, or denigration are publications whose authors/editors/ publishers consistently maintained the use of President before and/or during and after the Nixon and Ford Administration. These are the grammatical traditionalist who have maintained the integreity of the political symbol.

trends in political science publications; trends in journalistic publications

Academic political scientist were on the cutting edge of this symbolic movement to recapitalize the president in a sense, they were the trendsetters and opinion leaders, not followers of social practice.

Explain how the failed effort to deal with Social Security is a prime example of Kernell's worries about the negative consequences of going public. Why did the public suffer from the way the politicians handled this issue?

As Kernell might have predicted, by pushing his plan so publicly. President Bush inspired Democrats to see as a winning political issue rather than encouraging them to engage with the president in thoughtful negotiation. The real loser in this batter was the American public because the crisis will probably not be dealt with until the crisis begins. (George W. Bush and Social Security Reform and Barack Obama and HealthCare Reform: Lesson 12)

According to the "Return of the Honeymoon" article, what is beat sweetening? Can the authors say definitively whether or not it happens?

Beat sweetening is a process where reporters are thought to curry favor with new administration officials and potential sources with unusually positive coverage. The author has inconsistent findings and believes the "beat sweetening" idea may be worth future exploration and perhaps redefinition.(The Return of the Honey Moon: Page 591 & Page 600)

did they find that reporters write positive stories about new administrations to gain favor with the new officials?; findings with regard to beat sweetening

But there is more compelling evidence that, if reporters are trying to soften up an administration, they do so by praising the boss. Of the seven statistically significant comparisons between presidential and subpresidential news that achieved statistical significance, six favor the president over the "other executive" category.This is the opposite direction predicted by the "beat sweetening" hypothesis.

Functions served by political symbols

Changes in capitalization of the same word over time indicate change in the meaning of that symbol. If social practice were to change and the proper names of certain persons or places were to shift from uppercase to lowercase, observers might infer that the importance of those persons and place had indeed diminished

Obama- most positive media coverage of any presidential candidate over the past 20 years, no scandals, win majority of the vote, etc. made Obama a likely candidate for a media honeymoon.

Coverage honeymoons may not be equally positive across all issue areas. Presidents traditionally have far more success in shaping foreign policy than domestic policy. The difference are stark enough that scholars often speak of two presidencies one foreign and one domestic - with the president taking the leading role in international matters.

imperial presidency

Cronin- the imperial presidency meant many things to many people. But it especially suggested the abuse and misuse of presidential power and it became an accepted term to describe presidential lying, transgressions against cherished notions of seperation of powers. A growing skepticism set in as an increasing number of Americans lost confidence in President Nixon.

America's Ownership Society

During the campaign in 2004, President Bush began to talk about Social Security reform again. It was part of a larger package of reforms he called "America's Ownership Society" The guiding principle behind all of the president's proposed reforms was that people needed to have a stake in the future of the country and take ownership of their future. He proposed a diverse array of programs, including health savings accounts, tax cuts to encourage entrepreneurship, and programs to encourage private saving for retirement.

how to frame

Early on, Bush and the Democrats tried to out maneuver each other on how to fram the president's social security proposal. At various points, the president referred to his proposal as a reform and referred to the retirement accounts that people would manage on their own variously as private accounts, personal accounts and individual investment accounts. The democrats discovered through their own polling that people were wary about the concept of privatizing social security because they feared the possibility of mismanagement of the program and the possibility of losing all of their retirement nest eggs if the stock management of the program and the possibility of losing all of their retirement nest eggs if the stock market declined just as they were about to retire.

Explain why Kernell feels going public is harmful to the public policy-making process.

He feels that it causes people to take public positions that oversimplify issues and cement people in place. Politicians do not feel they can negotiate because they have taken a public position and do not want to be accused of being wishy-washy.

strongest area of domestic policy was health care

Health care was the only major domestic area where the more positive coverage of Obama was statistically significant when compared to that of his predecessors. Obama's 53% positive coverage in that issue area was well above the 34% positive Clinton received in this area and the 28% positive coverage Bush received in this issue area.

Cognitive and affective reactions to symbols

How people react to a political symbol depends on their emotional tie to that object, as well as their understanding of how the symbol is viewed by other people. Reactions to symbols have both emotive or affective and cognitive aspects. People often learn the cognitive aspect of symbols from media, in schools and daily living. The affective aspect is typically one of personal experience with the symbol. Additionally, the public responds to the use of symbols in evaluating and reacting to news and to events

Karl Rove

In 2004, Bush began to release proposals regarding Social Security. The public campaign to support his plan was a coordinated, highly organized effort, directed by such top White House officials as Karl Rove, the president's campaign strategist, who was not he White House deputy chief of staff and Charles Blahous, and the president's chief Social Security adviser

Bargaining

In Neustadt's book Presidential Power he suggests that successful presidents are those whoa re good at bargaining with the members of Congress and the bureaucrats of the executive branch. Bargaining means that presidents negotiate with the other policy makers in Washington to arrive at a solution everyone can live with. This kind of negotiation is traditionally not done in public. By keeping bargaining low profile, it means that the politicians involved have the freedom to change their positions to compromise without looking weak politically to the members of the public.

One key area where Obama's 2008 campaign was notably different from its precedessors

In the aggressive courting of reporters and extensive use of paid media. Partly as a result of these factors, Obama enjoyed a huge tonal advantage in stories about the campaign in traditional media, with news reports far more positive than reports on the McCain campaign or those of other Democratic and Republican nominees during the past several presidential elections cycles.

Obama health care reform

In the beginning, president Obama's public pronouncements on health care were limited to statements that he wanted to pursue health care reform but that he was leaving the work on the details to Congress. As resistance to health care reform started to mount in the summer of 2009, particularly with the sudden explosion of the Tea Party movement, Obama and members of his administration became more and more public in their support of health care reform, announcing at one point that the time for the president to remain in the shadows on the issue was over.Throughout the summer and fall of 2009, the president became highly engaged on the issue, and the going-public campaign was as big as any presidential going-public campaign the American public had seen. In November 2009, the House of Representatives finally passed its version of health care reform. The Senate passed its own version right before Christmas. There was a major difference between the two bills, however. The House version included the most controversial aspect of reform, a so-called public option, which would have created a government-funded health insurance program. The Senate version did not include a public option. In March 2010, the House passed the Senate version of the health care reform.

what type of media did they examine and why?

In this study we use content analysis to examine the tone of coverage of network evening news stories about Obama during his first year in office . A Pew study of online, cable, and talk radio content during the 2008 election found little difference in topical focus or tone between those media segments and the coverage of the campaign on network television evening newscasts and in the nation's leading newspa- pers. In addition, any comparative analysis going back to 1981 must take note of the fact that the first year of Reagan's presidency took place before the Internet, before Fox News, and even before CNN. The three-decade time frame of this research project severely limits the range of influential media sources available for comparison.

Great Society and Vietnam

Johnson institutionalized the use of television, first to promote his domestic agenda and late in his presidency to explain the war in Vietnam. His plans were even further reaching than Roosevelt's New Deal, and he regularly addressed the nation to discuss his plans and coax Congress to go along. Unfortunately, his twin desires to create the Great societal and end the spread of communism led him to deceive the American people with falsified data about American casualties, enemy casualties and the progress of war, because he feared that if people knew the real costs of the war, that knowledge would cause them. to stop supporting his expensive social programs.

confrontation

Just after his reelection in 1984, Regan planned a new round of budget cuts and a tax reform bill to take advantage of the momentum from his big victory over Mondale. In late November, presidential aides began to anonymously leak plan for confrontation with Congress on spending and tax reform.

scrutiny of symbolism surrounding the presidency in the late 1960s and early 1970s

Led by Thomas E. Cronin (a political scientist), George E. Reedy (a journalist and presidential staffer) and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (a historian), a political scientist began to question the textbook image of the presidency and challenge what they believed had become the imperial presidency.

Michael Deaver

Much of Reagan's communication legacy was due to his natural ability to play to camera, but Reagan owed much of his strategy for when and how to use his natural abilities to a key adviser Micheal Deaver. Deaver played the role of producer for Reagan

Concept of the honeymoon for new presidents

New presidents were long thought to enjoy a honeymoon when they first entered the White House, a brief settling in period of relative harmony among White House officials and the reporters who cover them. In aggressive political and media environments of recent years, new presidents are required to hit the ground running and do not enjoy such forgiving evaluations during their first months.

In the commentary, it is argued that Richard Nixon is the real first TV president. What are the reasons given for this assertion?

Nixon was the first to use television to overcome a political crisis, take advantage of late night and entertainment television to improve his image, and established structures and patters as president, designed to control media coverage and his image which every president since him as duplicated. (Richard Nixon: Lesson 12)

findings with regard to foreign policy issues

Obama had a statistically significant proportion of positive coverage overall, but the wide range of subtopics for the different presidents allows for few comparisons across presidencies. Obama's policies with respect to Iran, which included aggressive outreach efforts to the Middle East, comprised his most positive area of coverage, while news reports were more negative when discussing Obama's antiterrorism policies and his promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.When looking at the distribution of leading foreign policy topics, a consistent pattern emerges: each president had mainly positive coverage of some policy initiatives and mainly negative coverage of others.

tone of Obama's overall news coverage in comparison to Reagan, Bush, Clinton

Obama's overall news coverage was notably more positive than that of Bush, Clinton, and Reagan. The tonal coverage gap favored Obama by at least 12 percentage points over the last three presidents whose election involved a partisan transfer of power.

What did Johnson do on the first day he was president that demonstrated his understanding of the power of television?

On the day John Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson flew back to Washington, DC, from Texas and ordered television cameras to be waiting on the runway when he got off the plane as Kennedy's casket was unloaded in the background. He used this opportunity to give his first live television address as president. The brief speech was meant to assure the American people and the rest of the world that, although a terrible tragedy had just occurred, the government was stable and would continue to function. (Lyndon Johnson: Lesson 12)

Privatize

One charge the Democrats and other critics made of the program was that so called privatized retirement accounts would do nothing about the real funding problems faced by social security. They argued that privatization would make the funding problems worse. they correctly pointed out that it would be costly to make the transition from the current system to president bush's proposed solution

reform

One victory for Democrats was influencing how people referred to Bush's plan. The president referred to it as Social Security reform. The word reform has a positive connotation, suggesting that something proactive is being done to fix a problem. The democrats refused to use the word reform as a descriptor of Bush proposal and constantly referred to the president's plan in a number of disparaging ways, such as "the dismantling of social security."

Define political capital and explain how Neustadt felt presidents might use it.

Political capital is public approval of the president. Neustadt felt the main way for presidents to succeed was to bargain with other policy makers, but he also felt that he could use public approval as a way to improve his bargaining advantage with other Washington policy makers.

going public

Presidents in the modern era regularly seek public support for their policy initiatives. This is done by appealing directly to the public in a variety of ways, such as through speeches, campaign style rallies, public appearances, interviews on local media, and participation in town hall style exchanges with regular folks.

According to Kernell, going public has a negative effect on policy. What are the reasons for this?

Public discussion has a negative effect on policy because it causes policy to be overly simplified for public consumption. This results in policy that is too simplistic to deal with complicated situations. Another problem is that it hardens the bargaining positions of policy makers, and it makes compromises less likely. (Going Public: Lesson 12)

Compare and contrast Ronald Reagan's use of going public with that of George W. Bush. Why was Reagan so much more effective in getting Congress to do what he wanted with tax reform and the budget than Bush was with Social Security reform?

Reagan occasionally went public during the process of producing policy, but he also understood that negotiating with the members of Congress was a necessary part of the process. In this, Reagan rather brilliantly made going public part of the bargaining process itself. Bush, on the other hand, ran into Democrats who were just as willing to go public as he was, and it resulted in killing the negotiation process and making winning a temporary political victory more important than dealing with a serious policy issue such as Social Security. With Bush, Kernell's worst predictions about going public came true. The regularity with which recent presidents have sought public backing for their policies has altered the way politicians inside and outside the White House regard the president. Negotiation is no longer the primary consideration for those who do business with presidents, and it has permanently changed the way business in Washington is done.

In four to five sentences, explain how Reagan used going public as part of his strategy to get the 1985 budget and tax code reform legislation passed.

Reagan's aides tackled the 1985 budget and tax code reform legislation in a campaign style effort. Anytime the opponents of the president's policies appeared capable of extracting major concessions, Regan would stop negotiating and try going public to force Congress to accept his policies. Although Reagan occasionally went public during the process of producing the act, he also understood that negotiating with the members of Congress was a necessary part of the process. Reagan rather brilliantly made going public part of the bargaining process itself. (Ronald Reagan and Going Public: Lesson 12)

According to the "President" vs. "president" article, list and briefly define each of the four categories of publications, based on their use of lower and uppercase spelling of "President." (

Regulators switched from "President" to "president" during the Nixon- Ford Administration. Modulators changed from "President to "president" after the Nixon-Ford Administration. Vacillators alternated between "President" to "president" during and after the Nixon-Ford Administration. Preservers maintained "President" during and/or after the Nixon-Ford Administrations. (Is it "President or "president" of the United States? : Page 167)

Describe Ronald Reagan's presidential media strategy

Ronald Reagan's media strategy was tightly controlled that emphasized simple, positive messages; public appearances that made the president look visually appealing; and limited access for reporters to the president. (Ronald Reagan: Lesson 12)

Fireside chats

Roosevelt used radio out of what he felt was political necessity. Roosevelt received harsh criticism in the editorial sections of many of the nation's newspapers which suggested that many of his New Deal programs were socialist or communist. To counter this, Roosevelt turned to the radio. Using his famous fireside chats, Roosevelt was able to develop an intimate relationship with millions of Americans. He used his addresses on the radio, which brought him directly into the living rooms of millions of Americans, first to sooth their concerns about the Great Depression and then to rally people during WWII.

Explain how Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy used national media to communicate effectively with the American people.

Roosevelt was the first president to effectively use radio, the first national medium. He used it to communicate messages to the American people that calmed and encouraged them, first with the Great Depression and then with the New Deal. Kennedy was the first president to understand how to effectively appear on television in a way that made him attractive to the public. He managed to project an image that had more of an impact on the public than his actual performance as president

60 events in 60 days

Social Security accounted for nearly half of Bush's state of union address in 2005. Following the speech, the president embarked on a massive campaign style tour of the country that was informally referred to as "60 events in 60 days" which were all aimed at promoting Social Security reform. It was a massive effort at going public and included all the tools we have to expect of going public.

Bully pulpit

Teddy Roosevelt originated a famous phrase to describe the public relations power of the presidency as an office. "bully" meaning good and pulpit implying the presidency gave him an opportunity to preach to the public.

Third Rail of American politics

Thanks to a comment by former speaker of the house Tip O'Neill, for a long time, Medicare and Social Security have been known informally as the third rail of American politics. This is a reference to the third rail on subway tracks, such as the Metro in Washington or the El in Chicago. The third rail is the source of electricity, and touching it can be deadly. O'Neil suggested that many members of Congress feel that if they touch Social security, It will be the en d of their political careers.

focus on foreign policy

The Bush II administration was especially adept at using the symbols of patriotism and the presidency to sell the presidential message on foreign policy issues.

George Lakeoff

The Democrats consulted with many sympathetic experts about how to frame their messages opposing Bush's proposals, including a famous linguist named George takeoff. He is the author of the famous book in democratic circles called Don't Think of an Elephant: Know your values and frame the debate.

According to the "Return of the Honeymoon" article, what did Obama have during the campaign that led to more positive first-year coverage than that enjoyed by his predecessors?

The aggressive courting of reporters and extensive use of paid media. Partly as a result of these factors, Obama enjoyed a huge tonal advantage in stories about the campaign in traditional media. (The Return of the Honeymoon: Page 591)

effect of changing from President to president to reduce the standing of and respect directed toward the office

The decision in the post Watergate period to recapitalize the president of the US symbolically reduced the standing and respect. Although Cronin, Reedy and other scholars provided a reality check in examining the swollen textbook presidency, their arguments should be examined and either accepted or rejected by political scientist, authors, journalists and the American people. The practice they started of recapitalizing the office should have received closer scrutiny before it was slowly adopted in other textbooks and periodicals. Evidently, political scientists do influence social convention.

According to the "President" vs. "president" article, what was the impact of the decision of most publications to decapitalize the "president"?

The decision in the post-Watergate period to decapitalize the "president" of the United States symbolically reduced the standing and respect directed toward the office. (Is it "President" or "president" of the United States? : Page 179)

What is suggested by uppercase v. lowercase letters (political symbols)

The decision to capitalize of depcaitalize a title or word is, in itself a telling form of symbolism that again, may reseal as much as the title giver as it does the title itself. Uppercase letters suggest an importance as with capitalized names of persons and place. Thus capitalization is not only a matter of grammatical rules; it also reflects common practice and social status.

What are America's two constitutional presidencies, according to Tulis?

The first imposed restrictions on the president through the separation of powers and the second, more current, restriction is the one in which presidents try to govern by putting a premium on active and continuous presidential leadership of public opinion. (Going Public: Lesson 12)

What does Tulis mean when he argues that we have had two constitutional presidencies? When did the second constitutional presidency begin?

The first presidency imposed restrictions on the president through the separation of powers, and the second—and current—presidency is one in which presidents try to govern by putting a premium on active and continuous presidential leadership of public opinion. What Tulis argues is that when presidents began going public because they wanted to promote a policy agenda, it permanently changed the policy-making process and the balance of power in our government, making it something that is fundamentally different from the system that the framers created. In the framers' minds, Congress was where policy was supposed to originate. In the twentieth century, Tulis argues, the birthplace of policy ideas shifted from the Congress to the White House. In his book, Tulis argues that we do not live under the same system of government that the country began with.

What does Tulis mean when he writes that the emergence of the rhetorical presidency is a profound development in American politics?

The framers were opposed to the idea of an outspoken president, before the twentieth century, congressional leaders also strongly opposed the idea of an outspoken president. The emergence of rhetorical presidents marked a change in the American meaning of governance. (Going Public: Lesson 12)

reasons they predict Obama's first year coverage would be much more positive than that for Reagan, Clinton, or Bush

The lack of a honeymoon for Clinton or Bush may have been due to special factors, not to the end of the media-presidential honeymoon itself. We employed a stringent test of the honeymoon thesis by comparing Obama's coverage with recent predecessors overall as well as within specific policy areas. Along these lines, we expected that the honeymoon effect would be strongest for news coverage of international matters, given the president's communication advantages regarding international matters.

Link between tone of campaign coverage and coverage in first year as president

The less positive campaign coverage other successful presidential candidates received, including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush translated into less than positive first year news reports once they took office.

What is wrong with the public opinion techniques used by Clinton during his presidency?

The problem with using techniques, such as public opinion polls and focus groups to test policy proposals, is that the president becomes risk averse. Rather than make innovative policy proposals, presidents who rely on these techniques introduce only policies they are sure will win. It is not real leadership in the way we have come to expect presidents to lead. Rather than making a stand on a policy issue, presidents that use these tactics let themselves be led by the public.

Effects of writings by Cronin, Reedy, Schlesinger and the Watergate Scandal

The seminal writings of Cronin, Reedy and Schlesinger, couples with the growing cynicism and public mistrust associated with President Richard M. Nixon, the Vietnam Wr, and the infamous Watergate scandal, spearheaded an entire new genre of professional and popular publications that made judicious use of the term "imperial presidency." The term Intel became associated with the harsh criticism of Nixon and the sordid Watergate fiasco.

Tulis writes that it is now taken for granted that presidents are popular leaders with several obligations. What are those obligations?

The three obligations are that they have a duty to defend themselves publicly, they have a duty to promote policy initiatives nationwide and they have a duty to inspire the American people. (Going Public: Lesson 12)

Explain the nineteenth-century perspective about the appropriate public role for presidents to play.

There was a general understanding during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Washington's presidency, that the president would not appeal directly to the people for support and that the people would not try to influence the president directly. Even with the entrance of mass political parties after Jackson, these norms stayed roughly the same. Presidents did not address Congress in person, and presidents rarely promoted their own legislative agenda in public or rallied followers on issues in Congress. Public addresses tended to be limited to patriotic speeches, constitutional analyses, war remembrances, and civic republicanism; they did not involve appeals to the public to back requests to Congress.

What are the reasons many scholars give to argue that JFK was our first television president? Explain your answer.

This consensus comes from the fact that he was the first president to fully understand the power of television as a commination medium, much like Roosevelt did with radio. Kennedy understood that image was important and that television as the best way to promote his image. Kennedy understood camera angles and how to look as good as possible on television. He knew the popular appeal of his young, beautiful wife, Jackie, and got her on camera as much as possible, along with the rest of his camera-friendly family. Kennedy was the first president to hold live press conferences on television, and he came across as witty and very much at ease and just a "regular guy." It is a combination that few presidents have been able to pull off. (John Kennedy: Lesson 12)

Why they study published works and not authors specifically?

This is because publications involve editors and publishers, not just authors. Publications have style manuals dictating capitalization and other conventions that authors are expected to follow. Individual authors may not be consistent in their use of "President" or "president" even between and among their own sundry publications

evidence in support of the return of the media honeymoon for Obama's first year

Using chi-square tests, we observe that these are all statistically significant differences (p < .01). Obama's double-digit advantage in the overall tonal coverage was also present in coverage of his domestic policy (p < .01). The gaps were narrower for foreign policy, where Clinton trailed Obama by only 7 percentage points, but the results still represent statistically significant differences between Obama and all three previous presidents (p < .01).

Leaks

a kind of media strategy. They are a perfect way for members of the administration to get a message out, see the reaction and be able to either take credit for the idea if it is well received or deny all knowledge of it if there is a negative public response.By confrontation the leakers were suggesting that the president planned to go public with an appeal on national television.

relevance of the two presidencies theory to presidential communication

alhough this theory focuses on legislative success, the two presidencies died is not without its relevance to presidential communication. Detailed study of news management strategies of the Bush administration found that the White House has far greater ability to control the political and media discourse on international matters, where it has greater control over the informational flow.

not concentrated in foreign policy, in fact had more positive coverage on domestic issues

the tone of domestic coverage was slightly higher than that of foreign policy news. Perhaps the severe economic downturn present at the end of the Bush years gave Obama more latitude on domestic matters; perhaps the greater deference that Congress usually offers a president in the international arena has evaporated during these more partisan times.

Honeymoon served an important purpose for reporters

who found it useful to cozy up to new sources in exchange for privileged access to policy makers and documents. Given the importance of first impressions upon longer term working relationships, positive profiles of new administration officials can help smooth the way to effective coverage of the White House beat through stories journalist have dubbed beat sweetners.