Josh Deckard is an assistant press secretary at the White House.
How did you come to work for George W. Bush?
In 2000, when he was governor of Texas and running for president, he came to Cincinnati, where I was on summer break from college. I volunteered to be a driver in his motorcade.
Describe your current job duties.
My job is to help the press with any of the logistical, operational things that they need, as well as the planning of events at the White House — and outside the White House when the president travels.
When you herd journalists out of the Oval Office after a presidential statement, do you ever get an uncooperative one?
From time to time. Everyone from the president to the press secretary believes in a free press and wants them to be free. But at the end of the day, when it’s time to go, it’s time to go. Fortunately, I’ve never had to drag anybody out.
What’s the secret to the successful care and handling of the media?
To understand that they have a job to do. The press who cover the White House do their jobs very well and they’re professional and hard working. It’s very important that the press be treated with respect and courtesy.
What might surprise the public about journalists?
How hard working they are. Some folks come in at 5 in the morning for TV orradio hits and they’re here until 8 in the evening. People like Mark Knoller of CBS, one of the hardest working men I know, work six, sometimes seven days a week — very hard, very long hours.
