White House Press Secretary - History - Roosevelt Administration, Steve Early, and The First "White House Press Secretary"

Roosevelt Administration, Steve Early, and The First "White House Press Secretary"

During the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, former journalist Stephen Early became the first White House secretary charged only with press responsibilities. The manner in which Early approached his portfolio and increasingly high-profile nature of the job have lead many to state that Early is the first true White House Press Secretary, both in function and in formal title. Prior to joining the Roosevelt campaign and administration Early had served as an editor to the military paper Stars and Stripes and also as a reporter for the Associated Press. When Roosevelt was nominated on James Cox's ticket as the Vice Presidential nominee in 1920, he asked Early to serve as an advance representative. As an advance representative, Early traveled ahead of the campaign, arranged for logistics and attempted to promote positive coverage for the candidates.

When President Roosevelt won the Presidency in 1932, he chose Early to be his secretary responsible for handling the press, or as the role was becoming known, "the press secretary." After accepting the job, Early laid out for Roosevelt his vision of how the role should be conducted. He requested having unfettered access to the President, having his quotes and statements directly attributable to him as press secretary, and offering as much factual information to the press as it became available. He also convinced Roosevelt to agree to twice-weekly Presidential press conferences, with the timing of each tailored to the different deadline schedules of the White House Press Corps. Early also made himself available to the press corps as often as he could, and though he was not known for a lighthearted or amiable demeanor, he earned a reputation for responsiveness and openness, even having his own telephone number listed unlike some of those who held the job after him.

Despite the unpopularity of the press conferences by the end of the Hoover administration, Roosevelt continued the tradition. He did away with written questions submitted in advance and mandated that nothing he said in the press conferences could be attributed to him or the White House, but was instead intended for the reporters' general background information. Many reporters found this helpful, as it allowed the President to be forthright and candid in his assessments and answers to their questions. Unlike some of his predecessors who filled the role, Early routinely prepared Roosevelt for his press conferences, bringing the President's attention to issues that might come up, suggesting the appropriate answers, and even planting questions or issues with certain reporters. The press conferences also began a tradition where the senior wire reporter concludes the session by stating, "thank you, Mr. President", signaling that the time for questioning is over, a tradition that continues today. Roosevelt held well over 300 press conferences in his first term.

Though some reporters were unsatisfied with the amount of real news or new information they were getting from the press conferences, the Roosevelt administration under Early's leadership was considered by many to be effective at managing the White House's relationship with the press. During the administration, U.S. News reported that "The machinery for getting and giving the news runs about as smoothly as could be wished from either side."

The Roosevelt White House was also marked by a significant increase in the number of White House staff supporting the President and bureaucracy in general, largely as a result of increased New Deal funding. Early was criticized at times for attempting to closely manage the press officers at various department and agencies across the government, and gave out a number of such jobs to journalists who he knew, instead of the party loyalists who had traditionally received such appointments. A congressional investigation several years later revealed that across the government, just fewer than 150 employees were engaged in public relations along with an additional 14 part-time workers. This is a significant increase given that the White House staff numbered 11 in total when Roosevelt took office.

Early was involved in Roosevelt taking advantage of the radio medium through his fireside chats, an idea some say he got from George Akerson who had unsuccessfully tried to convince President Hoover to do something similar. Early also came under fire for the rules surrounding African American journalists not being allowed to attend Presidential press conferences. Some have said that Early used enforcement of the standing rule, which had been to only allow regular Washington journalists to attend the press conferences, to deny press conference access to black reporters. Since many if not most of black publications at the time were weeklies, they were restricted as a result of the rules. When African American reporters from daily publications requested access to the conferences, Early reportedly told them to seek accreditation from capitol hill press officers, which was another sometimes insurmountable challenge. African American reporters did not gain formal approval to attend White House news conferences until 1944.

Early's tenure as press secretary was also marked by stringent restrictions on photographers, largely aimed at hiding the severity of FDR's polio or his worsening immobility. Photographers were not permitted to be closer than 12 feet of FDR, or thirty feet in larger events.

As a result of the increasingly high-profile nature of the job and Early's sole responsibility of managing the White House press operations, it was during the Roosevelt administration that Early and the position he held began to be formally referred to as the press secretary. As a result, many point to Steve Early as the first White House Press Secretary.