White House Press Secretary
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The White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official with a rank one step below Presidential Cabinet level. The Press Secretary is the primary spokesperson for the Administration. The current Press Secretary is Tony Snow.
[edit] Responsibilities
Responsibilities center on collecting information about what is happening inside the Administration and around the world, and getting that information to the media in a timely and accurate fashion. The information includes things like a summary of the President's schedule for the day, whom the President has seen, called or had interactions with, and the official position of the Administration on the news of the day.
The Press Secretary traditionally also fields questions from the White House Press Corps in briefings and press conferences, which are generally televised, and "press gaggles", which are on-the-record briefings without video recording, though transcripts are usually made available.
The position of White House Press Secretary has often been filled by individuals from news media backgrounds:
- Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Stephen T. Early, a United Press International reporter and Associated Press correspondent;
- Harry S. Truman appointed J. Leonard Reinsch, a radio man; Jonathan W. Daniels, a newspaper man who was in the Franklin Roosevelt Administration in multiple agencies and boards just prior to becoming White House Press Secretary; Charles Griffith Ross, a newspaper man who received the Pulitzer Prize in 1932; Early; Joseph Short, a newspaper man; and Roger Tubby, a reporter and editor turned Democratic National Committee spokesman before becoming White House Press Secretary;
- Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed James C. Hagerty, a New York Times reporter;
- John F. Kennedy appointed Pierre Salinger, a reporter and editor;
- Lyndon B. Johnson appointed George Christian, a reporter for International News Service;
- Gerald Ford appointed newspaper veteran Jerald terHorst and NBC News correspondent Ron Nessen to the post;
- Ronald Reagan appointed Larry Speakes, a newspaper man, and Marlin Fitzwater, a newspaper man;
- George H.W. Bush retained Fitzwater.
- George W. Bush appointed Fox News anchor Tony Snow, who also had extensive experience in the fields of print and radio journalism.
[edit] Trivia
- Stephen Early and Marlin Fitzwater are the only press secretaries with two terms of service, under two presidents.
- Jonathan W. Daniels had the shortest term of service of all ex-press secretaries.
- Bill Moyers is the "senior" ex-press secretary; all preceding press secretaries are deceased.
- Dee Dee Myers is the only female to serve as White House Press Secretary.
- The average tenure of White House Press Secretaries from 1950 to the present is 2.66 years.
[edit] External links and references
- Bush administration Press Briefings (by date)
- Clinton administration Press Briefings (use search box in lower left corner)
- White House Press Corps.org home page. Daily Adventures with the White House Press Corps, in their own words..
White House Chief of Staff
Deputy White House Chief of Staff • White House Press Secretary • White House Counsel • White House Office of Presidential Communications • White House Office of Presidential Speechwriting • White House Office • White House Office of the Executive Clerk • Office of Management and Budget • National Security Council • Homeland Security Council • Office of the United States Trade Representative • Office of National Drug Control Policy • Council of Economic Advisers • Council on Environmental Quality • Domestic Policy Council • National Economic Council • Office of Administration • Office of Advance • Office of Scheduling • White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives • United States Office of National AIDS Policy • Office of Science and Technology Policy • President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board • President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board • USA Freedom Corps • White House Military Office
