Four former White House press secretaries shared some of their biggest challenges – as well as some of their most embarrassing moments – with GW’s School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) Director Frank Sesno and a full house Feb. 7 in Lisner Auditorium.
“Live from the White House: Making and Shaping the News,” part of GW’s Conversation Series, featured Mike McCurry and Dee Dee Myers, who served under President Bill Clinton, and Dana Perino and Ari Fleischer, who served under President George W. Bush.
In his introductory remarks, GW President Steven Knapp noted the GW connections of two White House press secretaries—Ms. Perino was an adjunct faculty member in the Graduate School of Political Management in fall 2010, and Joe Lockhart, former press secretary for President Bill Clinton, is currently a SMPA fellow and teaches a course with CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry.
“Here at George Washington, we provide our students as well as our friends and neighbors with a front row seat in the theater of history, and tonight is no exception,” said Dr. Knapp.
Mr. Henry introduced the event, speaking briefly about the enormous responsibility press secretaries must shoulder daily. “The pressure that we have as journalists – just multiply that when you talk about these press secretaries, who are at that most public podium in the planet every day,” said Mr. Henry. “Their words literally can topple a government and move a market, and that’s why I have enormous respect for all the people coming up on this stage.”
The discussion began with the lack of unified message between the White House and U.S. Department of State on the timing of a political transition in Egypt. Mr. Sesno showed the audience a clip of current White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs trying to deflect questions on the topic during a recent press briefing.
Mr. McCurry said that situation was a great example of “the complexity of this job in the global world we now live.” “If you’re a White House press secretary or a state department spokesman, you’re speaking to multiple audiences simultaneously and you have sometimes nuanced messages that you’re delivering,” said Mr. McCurry. “How you target these messages in a time when everything is instantaneously global is a real challenge.”
“I think each of us could probably name a hundred times we wish we had a do-over and [could] explain more articulately,” said Ms. Myers. “It’s hard when events are breaking and you’re trying to walk that fine line, send the right messages to the right audiences, and parse the situation as best you can. Sometimes you step too far over the line.”
The panelists also shared stories about delivering news during historic moments. Mr. Fleischer, who was press secretary during 9/11 and the announcement of the Iraq War, recalled a briefing in 2003 when he issued President Bush’s warning to Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq in 48 hours. “Reporters literally jumped from their seats and ran to file their stories,” said Mr. Fleischer.
While press secretaries and the press often banter back and forth during briefings, the panelists said their relationship is actually more mutually beneficial than it appears.
Mr. Fleischer said the televised briefings have become “a show.” “It’s really not the real substance of the relationship or work between the spokesman and the press corps,” he said. “What I’ve found is reporters play their aggressive role and posture because they know their editors are watching and really fire away the questions. I do the same thing in reverse and fire away answers. The real work is done 20 times a day when reporters walk in your office, close the door and talk one-on-one with you.”
“One of the most important roles of the press secretary is to protect the role of the press, to remember that they have a job to do,” said Ms. Perino, adding that she has defended the press’s access to the president multiple times.
Other topics included the importance of clear messaging, having the right information and a few of the press secretaries’ more uncomfortable moments.
For Ms. Myers, her most embarrassing blunder was when she was fielding questions about an attempted assassination on former President George H.W. Bush during a trip to Kuwait in 1993. Ms. Myers kept telling the press that the FBI was investigating and would inform then President Clinton of their findings. One day, Ms. Myers learned that the United States had planned to bomb Baghdad’s defense information agency as retaliation—after she had talked to the press.
“You learn that not only do you have to give accurate information but you have to set up your answers so that they don’t trap you down the line,” said Ms. Myers. “You have to think three, four, five moves ahead all the time because it’s not only about what’s happening today, it’s about what’s happening in the future. I certainly learned to do that much better through that painful experience.”
Mr. McCurry told the audience that there are times when a press secretary must withhold information for security reasons.
“All of us have had situations where we know things that are going to happen but we can’t talk about them because sometimes you might put someone’s life in jeopardy or the political and diplomatic protocols don’t allow you to acknowledge something in that moment,” he said, “but you also can’t consciously lie because that destroys the credibility and trust that’s elemental about serving the presidents and press corps.”
He said the hardest part of this job is “reconciling the political work you have to do to be an advocate and a protagonist for the president’s point of view and conveying simple, factual information to the American public.”
The panelists urged students interested in breaking into political communications to network and seize any opportunity that presents itself.
“Take advantage of being in D.C. and take the internship even when it doesn’t sound so exciting,” said Ms. Perino. “D.C. is a wonderful place to be and GW is a fantastic school to have that kind of experience.”
Mr. Fleischer urged students to “dive into” politics and causes they believe in. “Put yourself in the middle of it, which is so easy to do because you’re GW students; it’s right at your doorstep,” he said.
The Conversation Series is produced by SMPA’s Center for Innovative Media. Past guests include Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, Ted Turner and Tony Snow.