One of the many institutions of any recent U.S. Presidential administration is the job of press secretary. It's a thankless pursuit...standing before a room full of accredited media for a daily grilling of their choosing, and likely judged on how well any real or quotable announcements were avoided.
It's also archaic, and probably unnecessary.
White House press secretaries weren’t a part of American government until 1929 when Herbert Hoover appointed journalist George Edward Akerson to run interference with a burgeoning mass media that were rather curious about the collapse of the American economy. The role of "publicist" had been around since Revolutionary times; Sam Adams, John's brother, was a consummate flack, working the rags of Boston and its environs in support of the cause of Liberty. P.T. Barnum (of circus fame) was first and foremost a creation of press coverage that he himself created, inventing stunts and using leaks and rumors to work it on behalf of his American Museum and favorite starlets. Entertainers were similarly supported at least back to the early 1800s.
Every President since Hoover has wanted their press secretaries to channel and manage media inquiries, and the technology of the day -- video was centrally captured, distributed, and then aired according to a set schedule, and print was similarly set in type, if not in stone -- informed that expectation. The practices of reporting almost required formal engagement with the White House, as reporters would wait for comments, fact-check them and, on more than one occasion, not just individually but collectively decide that something ought not to be reported.
Things are so much better now.
There's no real news cycle anymore. The Internet has made the information stream 24/7. It has also removed any of barriers that limited or qualified its production, so "news" is now "content" that can emerge from, be learned by, and shared among anybody and everybody. There are no mouthpieces nor any outlets but rather an incessant stream of stuff that flows through a fluid network.
The President can issue statements and his Cabinet or Department leaders can give interviews. So can pretty much anybody working in government. It just seems to me that the time and resources wasted on prepping, conducting, and then cleaning-up after the daily press secretary roasts would be better spent building and delivering a strategy to utilize the more extensive, distributed networks of communication that don’t just offer opportunities...but that are already working (sometimes quite poorly) and need attention.
The idea that an official spokesperson takes the time to verbally spar with journalists, or that they waste their time enduring it, is somewhat quaint. In an era of WikiLeaks, it's all but irrelevant. Three cheers for Jay Carney on getting appointed to the role last week. I've got a feeling he accepted a job that sorta kinda already doesn't exist.
(Image credit: George Akerson, Wikipedia)
