The President and the Press: Obama Style

[Commentary] In his first 100 days, Barack Obama has demonstrated how a chief executive can use the basic communications tools of the presidency and fashion them to a size and shape to fit his needs. To explain his ambitious policy agenda, Obama has gone to the public more frequently than his predecessors and used news organizations as a vehicle to get his thoughts, words, and image to his intended audiences. Television has been a crucial resource; the five major national television networks have interrupted their regular evening programming to provide the president with three one-hour slots for his two nighttime press conferences and his address on the economy to a joint session of the Congress. None of his five most recent predecessors held even one nighttime East Room news conference in the 100-day period. All of Obama's evening events drew large audiences. [Martha Joynt Kumar is a professor of political science at Towson University.]