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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Order Number 8827782 Front page from the White House: A quantitative study of personal news coverage from Teddy Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan Streitmatter, Rodger Allan, Ph.D. The American University,1988 Copyright ©1988 by Streitmatter, Rodger Allan. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. FRONT PAGE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE: A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF PERSONAL NEWS COVERAGE FROM TEDDY ROOSEVELT TO RONALD REAGAN by Rodger Streitmatter submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of The American University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Signatures of Committee: Chairman: CUi£a^ A the College April 26, 1988 Date 1988 The American University Washington, D.C., 20016 U?o)' UHIVEHSITY LIBRARY Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. © COPYRIGHT BY RODGER STREITMATTER 1988 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. FRONT PAGE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE; A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF PERSONAL NEWS COVERAGE FROM TEDDY ROOSEVELT TO RONALD REAGAN BY RODGER STREITMATTER ABSTRACT Historians, political scientists, journalists, politicians, and presidents have criticized today's press for placing too much emphasis on personal news about the president. Critics say presidential news coverage increasingly centers on the man's personality and personal trivia. This quantitative study challenges the criticism by exploring personal news coverage of the twentieth century's fifteen presidents. The study was designed to deterime if personal news about recent presidents has accounted for a larger portion of presidential news coverage. Secondary purposes were to determine which presidents have received the most and the least personal coverage and to identify factors that have influenced the amount of personal news coverage presidents receive. Data were collected from a two-year sample period of each man's presidency. The four major newspapers ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. studied— New York Times. Los Angeles Times. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. and Atlanta Constitution— give the study a national perspective while representing different political leanings. Results show that, contrary to general impressions, early twentieth-century presidents received a higher percentage of personal news than have recent presidents. Data show personal stories represented the following percentages of news coverage: T. Roosevelt, 51; Wilson, 24; Harding, 22; F. Roosevelt, 16; Coolidge, 15; Kennedy, 14; Truman and Johnson, 12; Reagan and Taft, 11; Carter, 10; Ford, 9; Hoover, 8 ; Eisenhower, 7; and Nixon, 5. Regression analysis procedures used the aggregate data for all the presidents to define a trend toward less personal coverage of presidents. The regression coefficient was found to be -.26. Factors identified as influencing the magnitude of a president's personal news coverage are: how early in the century he serves, how newsworthy his personality and personal life are, and how willing he is to provide the press with liberal access to the White House and to him. The study concludes that newspapers are wrongly perceived as being preoccupied with personal coverage from the White House because television news constantly airs 1 1 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. footage depicting trivial activities of the president. Another conclusion is that today's major newspapers are created, with regard to personal coverage from the White House, with a higher degree of professionalism than those of the past; they place very few personal stories about the president on their front page. The study suggests that its findings generally support the previous scholarly research on the press-president relationship. It also discusses the study's repercussions on American newspapers, the American presidency, and the country itself. IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CONTENTS page LIST OF TABLES ......................... vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................. ix INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 1 CHAPTER I : HISTOGIOGRAPHY .................................. 9 CHAPTER I I : PARAMETERS AND METHODOLOGY 35 CHAPTER I I I : DATA ANALYSIS ............................ 64 CHAPTER IV : EARLY-PERIOD PRESIDENTS . 108 CHAPTER V: MIDDLE-PERIOD PRESIDENTS . 180 CHAPTER V I: RECENT-PERIOD PRESIDENTS . 228 CHAPTER V I I : TELEVISION NEWS ...................... 306 CHAPTER V I I I : CONCLUSIONS ................................. 324 APPENDIX ................................................................................... 347 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................ 355 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Presidential Endorsements of Newspapers Studied . 63 2. Presidents Listed Chronologically with Percent of Personal Coverage ............................. 65 3. Presidents Ranked by Percent of Personal Coverage 6 6 4. New York Times Coverage ........................ 70 5. Percentage of General News Devoted to Personal N e w s ............... 74 6 . Percentage of General News Devoted to Personal News (for Presidents Other Than Teddy Roosevelt) 78 7. Ranking of Presidents by Variation between "Expected" and Actual Personal Coverage ......... 81 8 . Regression Analysis Data for General News C o v e r a g e ........................................ 85 9. Regression Analysis Data for Personal News C o v e r a g e ........... 87 10. Regression Analysis Data for General News Coverage Other Than Personal .................... 91 11. Teddy Roosevelt's Newspaper Coverage ............ 112 12. Categories of Teddy Roosevelt's Personal Coverage 121 13. William Howard Taft's Newspaper Coverage .... 127 14. Categories of William Howard Taft's Personal C o v e r a g e .............................................. 15. Woodrow Wilson's Newspaper Coverage .............. 140 VI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table Page 16. Categories of Woodrow Wilson's Personal Coverage 150 17. Warren G. Harding's Newspaper Coverage .......... 157 18. Categories of Warren G. Harding's Personal C o v e r a g e ......................................... 165 19. Calvin Coolidge's Newspaper Coverage ............ 170 20. Categories of Calvin Coolidge's Personal Coverage 176 21. Herbert Hoover's Newspaper Coverage .............. 183 22. Categories of Herbert Hoover's Personal Coverage 190 23. Franklin Roosevelt's Newspaper Coverage . = . 194 24. Categories of Franklin Roosevelt's Personal C o v e r a g e ......................................... 203 25. Harry Truman's Newspaper Coverage .............. 208 26. Categories of Harry Truman's Personal Coverage . 215 27. Dwight Eisenhower's Newspaper Coverage .......... 219 28. Categories of Dwight Eisenhower's Personal Coverage ........................................... 225 29. John Kennedy's Newspaper Coverage ................ 232 30. Categories of John Kennedy's Personal Coverage . 240 31. Lyndon Johnson's