Bringing Mark Hamill to the James Brady Press Room represents a new low for a place that is supposed to be one of the spiritual hubs for the Fourth Estate.
Today, when the great questions of war and peace are upon the United States and the Western World, as well rampant lawlessness in America, instead of answering questions from the free and critical press, it was decided to parade Star Wars star Mark Hamill at the White House Press Room to highlight the accomplishments of the administration, something any White House Press Secretary should be able to do with effectiveness.
To parade a celebrity of a franchise that most adult Americans believe has lost its way since going corporate, instead of remaining true to its roots, to assist the communications strategy of the most powerful office in the land is frankly weird at best and pathetic at worst. While all Americans should have a voice, is parading progressive Mark Hamill really the best that can be done?
Americans do not want to see a reminder of what was once great at the podium, and an actor at that. They want to see their Commander in Chief in the Press Room but that has been a decreasing trend. The current administration has held only half the number of Presidential Press Conferences than the previous President.
It used to be different. There was a lot of give and take in the days of Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and JFK. Roosevelt, his disability and all, was famous in the early days of his administration for taking nearly every question from the press. In those days, the White House Press Secretary reported directly to the President and had much more of an ear as to the thoughts of the Chief Executive (and by extension kept the President more accountable).
Pierre Salinger, President Kennedy’s White House Press Secretary, was so close to the President that he served as JFK’s personal envoy to meet with Soviet Premier Khrushchev and later served, albeit briefly, as a United States Senator. Today the role of the Press Secretary and the White House Press Operation has changed for the worse. What we see now is fewer Presidential press conferences, the Press Secretary having to report to more White House officials, increased restrictions on media (both online and traditional) and a greater gap between the American people and their President.
The idea that a celebrity offers more credibility to the issues of the administration than the administration itself is laughable but in a sense ironically appropriate, merely mirroring a serious decline in public discourse. For those who complain of the tone of the previous administration, it is worth noting the decades long progressive lovefest with celebrities, that has often seen cruel and vile language directed against Conservatives, has long set a tone against the serious nature of rational political discussion and accountability. Conservatives have also used celebrities to further a message, obviously to a far less extent than progressives due to the overwhelming leftist nature of traditional media and Hollywood.
Due to this trend, along with the White House encouraging private companies to censor controversial postings, trust in the White House communications apparatus has come a long way down since the days of Mr. Salinger.
This latest episode in the White House Press Room underscores the need for a reform of the role of the White House Press Secretary as well as the accommodations of the Press Pool. At a minimum, the following reforms are needed:
-First, the White House Press Secretary should, once again, report directly to the President. This has not been the case in recent decades with the rise of the White House Chief of Staff, whose role is often that of de facto Prime Minister, as well as that of the White House Communications Director, whom the Press Secretary reports to.
-Second, White House briefings need to be more diverse to include larger numbers of Conservative and independent voices. To believe in diversity and inclusion necessitates such an accommodation as well promoting the Constitutional provision of a free and critical press, regardless of administration.
-Third, the White House Presidential Press Conferences need to regularly return to the State Department auditorium as in during the days of JFK or other appropriate venues that accommodate very large numbers of reporters. The first televised Presidential Press Conference, held during the Eisenhower Administration, accommodated two hundred reporters in the then Old Executive Office Building that is now named after Ike. The current White House Press Room has but 49 seats, creating jockeying for such small space and is not fully in the spirit of the large, critical and evolving media.
President Kennedy, himself a former reporter, said in a November 20, 1962 press conference that it is important “there is a free flow of news, to which the press is entitled…which I think ought to be in the press, to which any administration must depend as a check to its own actions.”To create a more democratic process for White House Press Briefings, so that the people and even the Press Secretary are closer to the President, as seen during the days of Eisenhower and Kennedy, will not only be beneficial for the people and the press, but will also greatly serve whomever is President.
*Views expressed in this piece are those of the author and not any government agency.