Harold Holzer - The Presidents vs. the Press

Authored, co-authored, or edited by Harold Holzer

Monument Man

The Annotated Lincoln

A Just and Generous Nation

1865

Exploring Lincoln

President Lincoln Assassinated!

Lincoln and the Power of the Press

The Civil War in 50 Objects

1863: Lincolns Pivotal Year

Emancipating Lincoln

Hearts Touched by Fire

Lincoln on War

The New York Times Complete Civil War

Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America

Lincoln and New York

Lincoln President-Elect

The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators

The Lincoln Anthology

In Lincolns Hand

Lincoln and Freedom

Lincolns White House Secretary

The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views

The Battle of Hampton Roads

Lincoln in the Times

Lincoln at Cooper Union

Prangs Civil Pictures

Lincoln Seen and Heard

Lincoln as I Knew Him

The Lincoln Forum

The Lincoln Mailbag

Dear Mr. Lincoln

Washington and Lincoln Portrayed

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Lincoln on Democracy

The Union Image

The Lincoln Family Album

The Confederate Image

The Lincoln Image

DUTTON

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

penguinrandomhouse.com

Copyright 2020 by Harold Holzer

Jacket photograph: (cover) President Kennedy and members of the press at the signing of the Cuba Quarantine, October 23, 1962. (Photo by CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

DUTTON and the D colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Holzer, Harold, author.

Title: The presidents vs. the press: the endless battle between the White House and the mediafrom the founding fathers to fake news / Harold Holzer.

Other titles: Presidents versus the press

Description: New York: Dutton, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020000679 (print) | LCCN 2020000680 (ebook) | ISBN 9781524745264 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781524745271 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: PresidentsPress coverageUnited StatesHistory. | Press and politicsUnited StatesHistory. | Mass mediaPolitical aspectsUnited StatesHistory.

Classification: LCC JK554 .H65 2020 (print) | LCC JK554 (ebook) | DDC 070.4/4935230973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000679

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000680

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate internet addresses and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

pid_prh_5.5.0_c0_r0

To Edith

With enormous love and much gratitude for the first 49 years

CONTENTS

I read only the Richmond Enquirer , and in that chiefly the advertisements, for they contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Newspapers villainously mislead the public through ignorance but more frequently from dishonest design.

ANDREW JACKSON

[T]ake possession by military force, of the printing establishments of the New York World, and Journal of Commerce, and hold the same until further order, and prevent any further publication therefrom.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly.

DONALD TRUMP

INTRODUCTION

I n the summer of 1793, five months into his second term as the unanimously elected president of the United States, George Washington caught sight of a gruesome caricature just published in a local newspaper. The crudely drawn pasquinade, meant to taunt him for tilting to Britain over France in foreign affairs, depicted the president with his head placed on a Guillotine, ready for execution in the manner of disgraced French royalty. The typically stoic Washington was incensed. His blood rising, he stormed into a cabinet meeting and, as his secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, observed, got into one of those passions when he cannot command himselfin other words, flew into a rage.

As all his cabinet ministers looked on in astonishment, recalled Jefferson, Washington hurled the offending cartoon to the floor of the executive mansion and launched into a tirade on the personal abuse which had been bestowed on him by opposition journalists. The president [d]efied any man on earth to produce one single act of his since he had been in the government which was not done on the purest motives. Angrily repenting that he had not resigned the presidency earlier, he shouted that by god he had rather be in his grave than his present situation.

First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen George Washington may have been, but he was also the first president to rant against negative press coverage, and anything but the last to believe himself egregiously maltreated by journalists. Even Jefferson, a staunch defender of the presss freedom to criticize presidents as long as Washington led the country, would endureand decrysimilar attacks once he occupied the White House.

The most recent president to respond angrily to press criticism is the most recent president. Donald Trumps relentless attacks on the journalists he brands enemies of the people fillmany opponents say, polluteboth social and mainstream media. Yet, in a way, Trump rails against the press much as his predecessors didjust more publicly, more often, and with faster and wider reach. Nearly all presidents, from Washington to Trump, have reacted to press criticism in this manner: treating what we now call the media as the enemy. Todays critics often complain that Trump circumvents the press to deploy his messages directly to the people through technologically advanced media, but so did Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama. Or that Trump obsesses about his press coverage; but so did Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Or that Trump expects coverage of his personal life to remain off limits, as did FDR, JFK, and Bill Clinton.

In fact, no American president has ever counted himself fully satisfied with his press coverage. Their belief that they are better than their bad press, and that they bear a nearly sacred obligation to counter or control criticism, has remained fixed since the age of bewigged chief executives and hand-screwed printing presses. Most presidents have believed that unfriendly journalists cover their campaigns and administrations predisposed to assail their policies, misconstrue their motives, misunderstand their sincerity, and injure their reputations. What has changed far more than this basic antipathy is the technology that conveys it. The modern high-speed media has expanded the frequency, the timeliness, and abundance of presidential newswhether the presidents or the public like it or not.