BROOKE GLADSTONE: To the untrained eye, the White House’s media strategy for the first 100 days has been relatively simple – put the President in front of the cameras every chance you get. But there’s more to it than that. One media tactic that surprised L.A. Times reporter Peter Wallsten was used after the rescue of ship captain Richard Phillips from the Somali pirates. The administration released a minute-by-minute account of the White House “State of Play.”
PETER WALLSTEN: It was kind of along the lines of, President receives update. President [BROOKE LAUGHS] calls. President receives update. President receives update. It wasn't fit for a Hollywood movie script. Keep in mind they wanted us to know that only after the incident ended successfully from the U.S. perspective.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: But they don't always release those play-by-plays, those tick-tocks, as they say [LAUGHS] in media parlance, do they?
PETER WALLSTEN: Oh, no, they don't. But when there’s a major decision made, you will see in many cases anonymous sources discussing the internal deliberations of the White House. Usually there is a give-and-take behind the scenes in the administration and then the president will, as it’s portrayed by the White House officials, make a decisive decision.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: It always follows the same storyline.
PETER WALLSTEN: It seems to, yeah. And there was a sense during the Bush Administration that opposing viewpoints were squelched. They want everyone to know that the President is hearing from many different voices and then he makes a decisive decision. That’s the side of this president that the White House wants us to see.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Do you get the sense that the Obama administration is playing favorites with certain news organizations? I mean, FOX News seemed to function as a P.R. arm for the Bush White House. Do you see anything like that emerging in Obama’s first 100 days?
PETER WALLSTEN: If it were going on, I may not see it, because I don't follow that part of it as closely. One interesting development on that front, however, the Obama White House seems to relish the chance to use FOX News as a foil. Robert Gibbs will often refer to something as a FOX News-driven conspiracy or a FOX News-driven theory. They like having FOX News out there as kind of a whipping boy a little bit.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: I would imagine that FOX News likes it, too.
PETER WALLSTEN: I think FOX loves it. And during the campaign, every time Obama would mention Sean Hannity during a speech, if you watched Sean Hannity’s show that night, you know, three-quarters of the show would be devoted to [BROOKE LAUGHS] a full analysis of what Barack Obama meant from every possible angle, and oftentimes it would involve interviews with Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Joe Ward of The Washington Times recently interviewed Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Deputy Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, and they talked about how our crowded, fractured media landscape can work to the president’s advantage because no single outlet or handful of outlets can drive the daily narrative.
PETER WALLSTEN: They have a much wider range of options for putting a story out there. They recently gave an exclusive interview of Michelle Obama and her mother to Essence Magazine. That interview has been quoted by almost every major media outlet in the country, and it’s part of a broader White House strategy to control the image of the family. And this bigger and wider array of news outlets gives them the option to choose someone who will write about it from a favorable viewpoint, which is not a guarantee from the major media.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Well, let's drill down on that celebrity media issue. How central is this to their overall media strategy?
PETER WALLSTEN: It is a key piece. There’s a few reasons why the White House wants to make deals with the celebrity media. One is they can help build a certain image of the Obamas as kind of an all-American family. The other piece is also very important to the White House, which is controlling the paparazzi. When the Obamas were on vacation in Hawaii, that’s where these pictures of the shirtless Barack Obama showed up online. So how does the White House control it? Well, they do so by deliberately and steadily releasing intimate photos of the Obamas and their kids. But there’s also an economic argument here which is very interesting. Releasing the photos reduces the demand. Why should People Magazine spend 20,000 dollars on a paparazzi photo when they can get a very interesting, provocative photo of the Obamas and their daughters for free from the White House?
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Like it or not – and I guess now the administration likes it, even if it didn't at the beginning of this – 100 days is a familiar and timeworn gauge for measuring the effectiveness of an administration. What were the Obama administration’s principal challenges during this 100-day period, and how well do you think they did?
PETER WALLSTEN: The biggest challenge for their message was to somehow maintain and even build on the President’s popularity at a time that the public was feeling great strain. And part of why it was so important to engage with the celebrity press, as we've been discussing, and these other strategies is that they knew that they needed to make sure Americans liked Barack Obama and that they trusted him, and that no matter what was happening with his policies that people felt that he was at least trying to do the right thing and that he was on their side. That was the biggest challenge. So far they've been successful.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Peter, thank you very much.
PETER WALLSTEN: You’re welcome.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Peter Wallsten writes about national politics for The L.A. Times.