Most Significant Events Covered
Television news correspondent, presidential advisor and university professor Marvin Kalb looks back over his years as a network news correspondent and talks about the most significant events and people that he covered. The Cuban Missile Crisis is fi...
Job of Press Secretary, The
Former White House press secretary Mike McCurry explains that he spent most of his time as press secretary researching issues he knew he'd be asked about in press briefings, as well as trying to make sure he knew exactly what the President thought a...
Language of International Diplomacy, The
Former White House press secretary Mike McCurry talks about the need to speak "an entirely different language" as a State Department spokesperson. "While you're doing the briefing in English," Mr. McCurry explains, "...it's a peculiar variant called...
James Baker's Political Roots
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker talks about his political roots, including the fact that he was a Democrat until 1970, when his friend George Bush told him that, to help get his mind off the grief of losing a wife at thirty-eight, he should...
James Baker's Family Background
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker talks about his family background, explaining that, "...my family was, basically, apolitical."
Presidency and Fiduciary Responsibility, The
Presidential advisor, political analyst and university professor David Gergen talks about his experience working in the Clinton White House. He notes that, prior to the Monica Lewinsky episode, President Clinton was "...really working pretty hard to...
Politics of Extremism, The
Former White House press secretary Mike McCurry talks about the tendency to be, "...provocative, or angry, or loud, or shrill..." as perhaps the only way to cut through the enormous amount of information that is cluttering the political landscape at...
Post Cold War Foreign Policy
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker explains that, "...it was easy during the Cold War to know what you were for. You were for anything the Soviet Union was against and you were against anything the Soviet Union was for." In the post Cold War e...
Politics of Diplomacy, The
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker recounts his experience joining with the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union to condemn the Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
News Organizations
Former White House press secretary Mike McCurry explains how and why news organizations often cover events the way they do, especially in the case of high interest news stories. "It becomes kind of this moment of high drama in which the press has on...