The White House and the News Media: The Phases of Their Relationship
The legacy of Vietnam and Watergate commonly is assumed to have altered the relationship between the president and the press drastically and permanently. "I think for the most part honeymoons with presidents are over," President Carter's press secretary said, agreeing with an interviewer who suggested that the "hangover" from these crises was responsible for the shortness of the honeymoon phase. "They're sort of a thing from the past," Jody Powell continued. "The basic relationship between president and press or president and Congress has changed over the past decade. It will never be what it was."', Certainly some of the changes in the relationship are a result of a crisis in confidence about the believability of White House officials, including the president, that stemmed from the experience of many reporters during the Johnson and Nixon administrations. In spite of assurances from Presidents Ford and Carter that they would speak with candor and require their subordinates to do the same, many reporters adopt a style of questioning at daily briefings suitable to inquisitors trying to unveil a dark coverup. When spokesmen have announced that the White House has changed its position, reporters have asked both Ron Nessen and Jody Powell if earlier answers were "inoperative," the term used by