MEMO
I’ll keep it brief, Tony, because I know you’re going to be busy in your new job. Real busy. When I was President Ford’s press secretary, I used to leave home in the mornings at 6:30 a.m. and get home at night between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. Forget about stopping off at Kinkeads for a drink after work.
Most important rule: Never lie. There will be times when you can’t tell the truth. Or can’t tell all the truth. But never lie. You’ll get caught. You’ll lose your credibility. Reporters won’t believe anything you say. And after that, you’ll be useless as President Bush’s spokesman.
When you can’t tell the truth, or can’t tell all the truth, respond to reporters’ questions by saying something like, “I don’t have anything for you on that” or “I can’t talk about that right now.” But never lie.
Second most important rule: Get your information first-hand. Tell President Bush you want to attend the White House meetings, hear the policy discussions, be present when the decisions are made.
You can decide what to say and when to say it, based on security and other considerations. But insist on getting your information first-hand. Otherwise, you’ll be dependent on briefings from other White House staffers for your information, and they may mislead you. This, in turn, will cause you to mislead reporters. Again, your credibility will be shot.
Many White House staffers believe the press secretary should not know everything that’s going on because he might inadvertently blurt it out when talking to reporters. Nonsense.
Third most important rule: Have a sense of humor when you confront Helen Thomas, David Gregory and the rest of the White House press horde. And if you don’t have a sense of humor going into this job, Tony, you’d betterdevelop one real fast.
A good sense of humor can defuse angry confrontations between the press secretary and the press. I wish I had a better sense of humor (and a thicker skin) when I held the job. For a role model, check out some videotapes of Mike McCurry’s briefings.
Coming directly from your on-air job as a commentator at Fox News to your new role as White House spokesman, you will face the same problem I encountered when I came directly from my on-air job as an NBC News correspondent to my new role as White House spokesman — your former colleagues will treat you like a traitor. You’ve switched sides! You’ve abandoned the sacred calling of journalism for the unsavory trade of politics.
The fact that you’ve publicly criticized President Bush may help to atone for what will be perceived by reporters as your sin of defecting to the enemy. And the fact that President Bush felt comfortable appointing you as his spokesman despite your criticism casts doubt on all those stories about how Bush surrounds himself only with people who agree with him.
Two things you should put on your to-do list:
» Make the effort to educate reporters about the complex issues and policies the White House is grappling with. You’ll always get a better story from an informed reporter than you will from an uninformed reporter. Journalists hate surprises. When you suddenly announce a decision on a topic they’ve never heard of or know little about, they’re going to be suspicious, looking for the most negative explanation. Don’t believe that? Think: Dubai ports deal.
» Convince President Bush and his White House staff to stop being so defensive in dealing with the news media. Like so many other people in all professions, they seem to have reacted to their past encounters with journalists by deciding that the less they say the better the coverage will be. Wrong!
Good luck, Tony. You’ll need it.
Ron Nessen is a journalist in-residence at the Brookings Institution.
