Press Secretaries and the Press
Former White House press secretary Mike McCurry talks about the inherently adversarial relationship between White House press secretaries and the press, but notes that, "...it (can) also be an amicable relationship, a professional relationship."
Press Secretary Jobs
Former White House press secretary Mike McCurry recalls his two press secretary jobs during the Clinton administration, and says that he greatly preferred his stint as State Department spokesman over his job as White House press secretary. "It was i...
Voter's Challenge, The
Former White House press secretary Mike McCurry talks about the challenge voters face before elections, when they are bombarded with information from the media that is frequently unaccompanied by analysis. In the end, Mr. McCurry explains, the Ameri...
Candidates and Campaigns: Mass-Marketing of Politics
In the past, party rallies and door-to-door canvassing could be handled by volunteers. Today's media-based campaigns need paid specialists, another reason today's campaigns are so expensive. Karen Paget talks about her work on the Dukakis campaign i...
Candidates and Campaigns: Slow Pace of Campaign Reform, The
The strategies that go into a successful campaign are well documented, but it is still hard for candidates to achieve the right combination and emerge the winner. Some change in the approach to political campaigns seems inevitable. The question is w...
Easy Days and Hard Days
Former White House press secretary Mike McCurry recalls that his easiest days were those when there was only one topic on the minds of reporters in the White House press briefings. Mr. McCurry says his greatest challenge on those occasions was figur...
Early Political Training
Former White House press secretary Mike McCurry talks about early lessons in ("...how to deal with pressure...how to deal with lawyers...when crisis erupts in our political system") that would help him in later years when he went to the White House ...
Comparing Presidential Crises (Part Two)
Former White House press secretary Mike McCurry talks about the congressional response to Watergate in the 1970's and to President Clinton's sex scandal twenty-five years later. Mr. McCurry says his memory of Watergate is not the "misbehavior" of Ri...
Comparing Presidential Crises (Part One)
Former White House press secretary Mike McCurry compares the Watergate episode during the Nixon presidency to the Lewinsky episode of the Clinton presidency. In Mr. McCurry's view, there is what he calls a "magnitude difference" between the two. "Pr...
The Fourth Estate: Reporting on the White House: Three Perspectives
Major political figures spend enormous amounts of time directing the attention of the press toward issues they consider important. This intense concern with "managing" the news makes the relationship with the press adversarial, however professionall...