Sunday, September 10, 2006
Driving it Home
The fifth chapter of our course’s textbook, Mass Media & Politics, scrutinizes the complex relationship government maintains with the media. Is the relationship necessarily adversarial in nature, or congenial? To what extent do politicians embrace the familiar channels of mass media to purport their crafted message? To what extent are they successful?
Perhaps we can begin to explore these questions by focusing our attention on a Sept. 8th Press Briefing by Tony Snow, a complete transcript of which is available on the official White House website. Snow set the mood and theme of the briefing with the President’s 9/11 itinerary: a memorial ceremony in New York followed by wreath-laying ceremonies in Shanksville, PA, and the Pentagon. Noteworthy was how Snow clearly articulated the apolitical nature of these events:
“This is not a political speech; there is not going to be calls to action for
Congress. It will be a reflection of what September 11th has meant to the
President, and to the country; the realities it has brought to all of our
attention and how we can move forward together to try to win the war on terror.”
The statement was to become Tony Snow’s overarching message animating most of his responses: 9/11 will not be used as an opportunity to shame Congress into legalizing the NSA wiretapping program or the CIA's worldwide torture cells.
The White House Press Office, in communicating the goals and intentions of the President, generally operates on the proposition that “less is more.” Each day, the Press Office will choose a singular message to project. Regardless of the content of a particular question at the briefing, the Press Secretary will often return to this theme time and time again. Economizing on political discussion allows the government to better control the direction of the discourse, as well as ensuring that the Tony Snow is never required to answer a difficult question; he just recycles the same answers.
Reporters, for their part, attempt to lure the Press Secretary into making unintented, revealing remarks in the interests of unearthing a newsworthy story. At this particular briefing, questions were raised such as "Does the President believe that if the Democrats control one House or another of Congress, security for America will be somewhat compromised?" Snow casually dismissed the question with the evasive rejoinder "we don't think the Democrats are going to win." Snow deflected the question rather than allow it to obscure his crafted message.
# posted by Jonathan Noble @ 11:05 PM 
