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1/22/2017 White House Press Secretary Wikipedia White House Press Secretary From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the United White House Press Secretary States government administration, especially with regard to the President, senior executives, and policies. The press secretary is responsible for collecting information about actions and events within the president's administration and issues the administration's reactions to developments around the world. The press secretary interacts with the media, and deals with the White House press corps on a daily basis, generally in a daily press briefing. The press secretary serves by the appointment of and at the pleasure of the president; the office does not require the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate, though because of the frequent briefings given to the media, who in turn inform the public, the position is still a very prominent nonCabinet post. Contents 1 History 1.1 Presidentialpress relations prior to the Incumbent establishment of the role Sean Spicer Lies for Daddy 1.2 Cleveland and McKinley administrations since January 20, 2017 1.3 White House Press Corps 1.4 Working space in the White House for the press Office of the Press Secretary corps Appointer President of the United States 1.5 Woodrow Wilson administration Formation 1929 1.6 Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover administrations First George Edward Akerson 1.7 Roosevelt Administration, Steve Early, and the holder first "White House Press Secretary" Website www.whitehouse.gov/briefingroom (h 1.8 Eisenhower Administration, James Hagerty, ttps://www.whitehouse.gov/briefingro press secretary role evolves om) 2 Responsibilities 3 List of press secretaries 4 References 5 External links History Presidentialpress relations prior to the establishment of the role https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Press_Secretary 1/12 1/22/2017 White House Press Secretary Wikipedia During the United States' somewhat early years, the White House staff or various White House Offices were not as robust as they are today and there was not a single designated staff person or office responsible for managing the relationship between the president and the growing number of journalists and media entities that were covering him.[1] It was not until after President Abraham Lincoln's administration that Congress formally appropriated funds for a White House Staff, which at first consisted merely of a Secretary.[1] Ulysses S. Grant's White House Staff officially numbered six people at a cost of $13,800, though he supplemented with personnel [1] from the War Department. Fifty years later under the In August 2006, President George W. Bush hosted seven Coolidge Administration, the staff had increased to just fewer White House Press Secretaries before the James S. Brady than fifty people at a cost of nearly $100,000.[1] Press Briefing Room underwent renovation. From left, Joe Lockhart, Dee Dee Myers, Marlin Fitzwater, Bush, As presidents increasingly hired more staff to support them in Tony Snow, Ron Nessen and James Brady (seated) with the execution of their duties, some showed a tendency to pick his wife Sarah Brady. aides and confidantes who had backgrounds in the field of journalism.[1] One of Abraham Lincoln's private secretaries, John G. Nicolay, had been an editor and owner of a newspaper in Illinois before he worked for the President in the White House.[2] While the modern equivalent of a private or personal secretary to the President of the United States would be more narrowly concerned with the care and feeding of the president,[3] the small size of the White House staff at that point meant that Nicolay interacted with the press occasionally in carrying out his duties.[2] He was occasionally asked to verify stories or information that various members of the press had heard.[2] Though the title and establishment of the roles and responsibilities of the press secretary job was still decades in the future, the small and growing White House staff was increasingly interacting with a growing number of professional journalists and mass media entities covering the president and the White House.[2] Andrew Johnson was the first president to grant a formal interview request to a reporter, sitting down with Col. Alexander K. McClure from Pennsylvania.[4] It should be noted that while various presidents and reporters had participated in conversations or dialogues prior to Johnson, the exchanges had been less formal.[5] Cleveland and McKinley administrations Prior to the 1880s and the presidency of Grover Cleveland, the relationship between the president, his administration, and the small but growing number of newspapers covering him was such that there was little need for a formal plan or designated spokesperson to manage it.[1] The relationship between government and the press was not as inherently adversarial and arms length as it is today. In fact, prior to the establishment of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), some newspapers were awarded contracts to print government publications and often awarded the president with support in exchange.[1] For example, the Gazette of the United States won an early U.S. Treasury contract and was supportive of thenPresident Washington.[1] In general, though coverage of the president could be harsh and opinionated, newspapers were to some degree extensions of the political party apparatus and subsequently not seen as entities requiring specific, sustained management by the White House or administration. The media had changed significantly by 1884, when Grover Cleveland was elected as President of the United States. Between the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and 1884, the United States had quadrupled in size and increased in population from 2.5 million to 56 million.[4] The number of newspaper publications in active circulation had increased from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Press_Secretary 2/12 1/22/2017 White House Press Secretary Wikipedia 37 to more than 1,200 dailies, in addition to the many new monthly magazines.[4] The rapid growth in journalism as a booming industry resulted in an increase in reporters covering the activities of the president.[6] Grover Cleveland married 21yearold Frances Folsom in 1886. The growing number of reporters and the increasing aggressiveness of their style of coverage led to frustrations when the President and his new bride were unable to rid themselves of reporters who followed them to their honeymoon in Deer Park, Maryland.[6] President Cleveland relied on his private secretary, Daniel Lamont, who had once been an editor of the Albany Argus, to keep the reporters at bay.[6] The controversy surrounding coverage of the trip resulted in a public debate about the balance between the right of the President and his family to privacy and the role of the press in covering the country's most public figure.[7] In an editorial, the New York World defended the right of the press to cover the president at all times: The idea of offending the bachelor sensitiveness of President Cleveland or the maidenly reserve of his bride has been far from anybody's thought...We must insist that the President is public property; that it is perfectly legitimate to send correspondents and reporters to follow him when he goes on a journey, and to keep watch over him and his family.[7] The debate over the coverage of Grover Cleveland's honeymoon is not dissimilar from disagreements between the first family and the press within the last decade. Even before he was president, thenSenator Obama became irritated with his campaign press pool when he felt they were too close to him and his daughters as they trick or treated on Halloween.[8] White House Press Corps At the end of the Cleveland administration, a new feature of press coverage of the White House materialized. William W. Price, a southern reporter, auditioned for a job at the Washington Evening Star by stationing himself at the White House to seek out stories.[9] He interviewed guests coming and going from meetings or events with the President and ultimately reported a story in a piece carrying the headline "At the White House".[9] Competitor newspapers responded by sending their own reporters to cover the White House in a daily, sustained way and soon the White House had reporters dedicated to covering the "White House beat". Some point to this as the early origins of a more formal White House Press Corps.[9] When President Cleveland was elected to a second, nonconsecutive term in 1893, George B. Cortelyou, formally trained as a stenographer, was named confidential stenographer at the White House and later named executive clerk.[10] Though he was not given the formal title of private secretary to the president until later and the term press secretary had not yet been conceived, Cortelyou was highly respected by the press and William McKinley's biographer, Margaret Leach, called Cortelyou "the first of the presidential press secretaries".[10] President Cleveland's successor, William McKinley, kept Cortelyou on during the transition and later formally named him private secretary to the President, though he had been informally doing the job for some time prior.[11] Under McKinley, Cortelyou became notable for his popularity with journalists covering the White House.[12] The correspondents relied on him for information and his tenure as private secretary was noteworthy for some of the same