White House Press Secretary: Difference between revisions

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 [[Image:SevenWhiteHousePressSecretaries.jpg|thumb|right|330px|In August 2006, President [[George W. Bush]] hosted seven White House press secretaries before the [[James S. Brady Press Briefing Room]] underwent renovation. From left, [[Joe Lockhart]], [[Dee Dee Myers]], [[Marlin Fitzwater]], Bush, [[Tony Snow]], [[Ron Nessen]], and [[James Brady]] (seated) with his wife [[Sarah Brady]].]]
-During the United States' early years, there was not a single designated staff person or office responsible for managing the relationship between the president and the growing number of journalists and media entities that were covering him.<ref name="Nelson">{{cite book|title=Who Speaks for the President?: The White House Press Secretary from Cleveland to Clinton|last= Nelson|first=W. Dale|publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]]|year=1998 |url=https://archive.org/details/whospeaksforpres02nels/ |isbn=0-8156-0514-5}}</ref>{{rp|3}} It was not until after President [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s administration that Congress formally appropriated funds for a White House staff, which at first consisted merely of a secretary. [[Ulysses S. Grant]]'s White House staff officially numbered six people at a cost of $13,800, though he supplemented with personnel from the War Department. Fifty years later under the [[Calvin Coolidge|Coolidge]] administration, the staff had increased to just fewer than fifty people at a cost of nearly $100,000.<ref name="Nelson" />{{rp|3}}
+During the United States' early years, there was not a single designated staff person or office responsible for managing the relationship between the president and the growing number of journalists and media entities that were covering him.<ref name="Nelson">{{cite book|title=Who Speaks for the President?: The White House Press Secretary from Cleveland to Clinton|last= Nelson|first=W. Dale|publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]]|year=1998 |url=https://archive.org/details/whospeaksforpres02nels/ |isbn=0-8156-0514-5}}</ref>{{rp|3}} It was not until after President Abraham Lincoln's administration that Congress formally appropriated funds for a White House staff, which at first consisted merely of a secretary. [[Ulysses S. Grant]]'s White House staff officially numbered six people at a cost of $13,800, though he supplemented with personnel from the War Department. Fifty years later under the [[Calvin Coolidge|Coolidge]] administration, the staff had increased to just fewer than fifty people at a cost of nearly $100,000.<ref name="Nelson" />{{rp|3}}
 As presidents increasingly hired more staff, some showed a tendency to pick aides and confidantes who had backgrounds in the field of journalism.<ref name="Nelson" />{{rp|3}} One of Abraham Lincoln's private secretaries, [[John G. Nicolay]], had been an editor and owner of a newspaper in Illinois before he worked for the president in the White House.<ref name="Nelson"/>{{rp|4}} While the modern equivalent of a private or personal secretary to the president of the United States would be more narrowly concerned with the care and feeding of the president,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/30/politics/30letter.html|title=From Jenna's Ex to a Presidential Jeeves |work=The New York Times|last=Bumiller|first=Elizabeth|date=May 30, 2005|access-date=April 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112014449/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/30/politics/30letter.html?_r=1|archive-date=November 12, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> the small size of the White House staff at that point meant that Nicolay interacted with the press occasionally in carrying out his duties.<ref name="Nelson" />{{rp|4}} He was occasionally asked to verify stories or information that various members of the press had heard.<ref name="Nelson" />{{rp|4}} Though the title and establishment of the roles and responsibilities of the press secretary job was still decades in the future, the small and growing White House staff was increasingly interacting with a growing number of professional journalists and mass media entities covering the president and the White House.<ref name="Nelson" />{{rp|4}} [[Andrew Johnson]] was the first president to grant a formal interview request to a reporter, sitting down with Col. Alexander K. McClure from Pennsylvania.<ref name="Nelson" />{{rp|7}} Although various presidents and reporters had participated in conversations or dialogues prior to Johnson, the exchanges had been less formal.<ref name=Nelson/>{{rp|6}}