The Six O'Clock Presidency: A Theory of Presidential Press Relations in the Age of Television

(Hardback)

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Studying the increasingly powerful role television plays in the political process, Fredric T. Smoller offers a persuasive argument that the big three network coverage of the presidency is gradually eroding public support for and confidence in that office. This book argues that network coverage of the presidency is determined by the political, technical, and commercial nature of the medium itself, producing a bias toward extensive and negative coverage. Smoller studies the thematic nature of television's presidential coverage, demonstrating how producers and correspondents integrate their daily coverage into ongoing themes which provide dramatic unity over a prolonged period of time. Thus, television's portrayal of the White House generally starts out favorable but soon becomes unfavorable. Attempts by the White House to combat these negative portrayals by managing news coverage and isolating the president will subvert democratic values. The Six O'Clock Presidency argues against generally accepted views that network coverage of the presidency is too favorable and reveals the power of the networks to unravel the career of individual presidents and the public's support for that office. Noting that television news is getting tougher on the presidency as each full-term administration president since Richard Nixon has received a bigger measure of poor coverage than its predecessor, the author spent several weeks with the White House press corps to determine how this could be explained. He interviewed television news executives, correspondents and technicians for ABC, CBS, and NBC, as well as White House officials. The result is a comprehensive study of the economics, technology, and personnel of network news and its coverage of the presidency.

Reviews

This book introduces how the press covers the presidency and how the White House manages the news media. Most of the author's observations are based on a study of 'The CBS Evening News' from 1969 to 1985. Smoller finds about one-fifth of all CBS news stories stemmed from the White House and the tone of news coverage tended to mirror whether public opinion was favorable or unfavorable to the president. He adds that news reporting of presidential administrations follows a similar cyclical pattern. Although news coverage of a newly elected president emphasizes favorable personality profiles, reporters later examine the White House's political agenda. This coverage accelerates the pace that the US Congress reviews presidential programs, which eventually frustrates the public's ability to judge the effectiveness of the White House's leadership. The book features interesting comparisons of Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations' tactics to obtain more favorable press coverage. Smoller (political science, Chapman College) makes careful use of previous literature and includes a complete bibliography about the news media's coverage of the president. The book is a good companion to journalistic perspectives about how the press covers the White House, such as David Broder's Behind the Front Page (1987), more scholarly examinations of the presidency and the press, such as Daniel Boorstin's The Image: A Guide to Pseudo Events (1971), and historical analyses of the same issues, such as Betty Houchin Winfield's FDR and the News Media (1990). Recommended for collections for lower-division undergraduates, particularly in political science, journalism, and mass communication.-Choice
"This book introduces how the press covers the presidency and how the White House manages the news media. Most of the author's observations are based on a study of 'The CBS Evening News' from 1969 to 1985. Smoller finds about one-fifth of all CBS news stories stemmed from the White House and the tone of news coverage tended to mirror whether public opinion was favorable or unfavorable to the president. He adds that news reporting of presidential administrations follows a similar cyclical pattern. Although news coverage of a newly elected president emphasizes favorable personality profiles, reporters later examine the White House's political agenda. This coverage accelerates the pace that the US Congress reviews presidential programs, which eventually frustrates the public's ability to judge the effectiveness of the White House's leadership. The book features interesting comparisons of Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations' tactics to obtain more favorable press coverage. Smoller (political science, Chapman College) makes careful use of previous literature and includes a complete bibliography about the news media's coverage of the president. The book is a good companion to journalistic perspectives about how the press covers the White House, such as David Broder's Behind the Front Page (1987), more scholarly examinations of the presidency and the press, such as Daniel Boorstin's The Image: A Guide to Pseudo Events (1971), and historical analyses of the same issues, such as Betty Houchin Winfield's FDR and the News Media (1990). Recommended for collections for lower-division undergraduates, particularly in political science, journalism, and mass communication."-Choice

Author Bio

FREDRIC T. SMOLLER is Associate Professor of Political Science at Chapman College in Orange, California. His articles have appeared in Presidential Studies Quarterly, Congress and the Presidency, and The Political Science Teacher.