White House Press Conference

Franklin Roosevelt established the Presidential press conference as an institution. No other U.S. President had ever been so regularly accessible to newsmen. McKinley on occasion had stepped to the White House door, chatted briefly and uninformatively with reporters. Theodore Roosevelt had used favorite correspondents for "trial balloon" stories and consigned them to "the Ananias Club" if the stories proved embarrassing. Wilson had shut off press conferences after war drew near. Harding, after an ill-fated attempt to be frank, would answer only questions submitted in writing. Coolidge dodged behind the anonymity of the "White House Spokesman" and Hoover ruled that all questions had to be submitted 24 hours in advance; in the last months Hoover would not see the press at all, but had a secretary issue mimeographed handouts.

But Franklin Roosevelt, in nearly 1,000 press conferences, took the toughest, most loaded questions newsmen could throw at him. He knew how to dodge by calling the questions "iffy," picayune, or contentious. On occasion he sharply called correspondents liars, or told them to put on dunce caps. But he also had their respect and, in the main, their liking.

From Rooseveltian press conferences came the first tip-offs on such big stories as the recognition of Russia, the devaluation of the dollar, TVA. War inevitably diminished the frankness of the give & take (and though the President himself became increasingly impatient with these insatiably curious guests he had invited to ask him questions), the Rooseveltian press conference at its best was a needed girder in the U.S. democratic structure; it was, like its British counterpart, the Prime Minister's question period in the House of Commons, a chance for the people to ask questions of their Executive. This was a Roosevelt reform whose value newspapers of all political colors were agreed upon -- and one they would fight to perpetuate.

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