One upon a time in land called the United States there was something called the Presidential news conference and no matter what party the Prez belonged to he could call one and get on prime time TV — but that was once upon a time..
In a showdown that featured inside-the-Beltway lobbying and bare-knuckle boardroom negotiating, Donald J. Trump and President Bush effectively squared off yesterday in pursuit of the same parcel of real estate – a piece of the NBC-TV prime-time lineup. And it was the president who blinked first.
But in the end, the president’s aides appeared to be every bit as canny as those representing Mr. Trump. The decision by the White House to move up the starting time of its news conference by a half-hour – a move that NBC sought, at least in part to protect the starting time of Mr. Trump’s “Apprentice” show – set off a chain of events that wound up garnering the president live coverage on all fourmajor broadcast networks.
As the New York Times notes above, there are new/old realities of 21st Century television (economics)so for a President to get on now during prime time isn’t a given. The irony is that in Bush’s case no one can’t say “He’s abusing the privilege..” because if anything Bush hasn’t held a prime time conference in a year. It was almost time to put his photo on a milk carton. More:
For all the networks, the very selection of last night by the White House, regardless of the time, posed a dilemma. It was first night of the so-called May sweeps period, one of three main times in the year in which network ratings are closely tracked, with an eye on setting advertising rates for the next year.
It was that timing, as much as the White House suggestion that Mr. Bush had no major announcement to make, that gave the networks pause about going live, several executives said.
It isn’t election year so the argument couldn’t be made that he was running for office. The argument COULD be made that a bunch of hot-button issues hung in the balance — Social Security, the Republican’s apparently getting ready to use their long-threatened nuclear option to ban the filibuster on judicial nominees — and that perhaps the President wanted to sway voters. But that would be all the more REASON to hold a press conference, since he would then have to take questions from reporters.
From the networks’ point of view, of course, the economics issue is not a small one. News is part of a larger corporation and the networks are battling increased competition. Plus, from a journalistic standpoint, they do have the right to decide on what to cover: a President does not yet own the airwaves and we don’t have government controlled news (yet).
Even so, in the end, it all looked rather shabby and downright unprofessional: The Times notes how several networks automatically cut away from the press conference at 9, assuming it was over — when it was not. In our case, we then switched to cable saw that (a)the networks jumped the gun by ending live coverage prematurely, and (b) they didn’t cut back to it so if you wanted to watch it you HAD to switch to cable (too much $$$$$ was at stake once they made the switch).
So in the end did GWB increase support due to his prime time press conference? The Washington Post’s Lisa de Moraes:”And if the White House is hoping this news conference will win Bush back some fans, don’t count on fans of the preempted shows.”
PS: Reporters last night performed better than they have for a long time. Despite what some people may think (and wish) news organizations don’t assign a reporter to the White House so they can ask pro forma questions. They’re supposed to ask questions that readers may be asking or questions that advance a story. Those aren’t always what an official or politician would like to get. Last night the reporters asked a good mix of questions and did well on follow up questions.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.