The presidency and the press

Abstract

Milligan talks about Pres Barack Obama and the White House press. The press conference, just the fourth formal, solo question-and-answer exchange Obama had held in the White House in 2014, has come to define the current state of White House reporting, one in which there's a gulf between the press and the head of state it's charged with covering. The answers are long, leaving time for just a few questions from a press corps with already-limited access to the president. Actual news is almost never made, since the White House has new tools allowing it to release and manage news on its own schedule and terms--its online news report is but one of these. The press, meanwhile, shows itself to be a willing hostage to the modern demands for a click-worthy story and a tweetable quote. At press conferences, the overwhelming tendency is to ask about the day's headline or to look for the "gotcha" question, instead of addressing long-term accountability issues.