[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/23/obama.presser.gi.art.jpg caption="President Barack Obama delivers remarks on health care during a prime-time press conference from the East Room of the White House July 22, 2009, in Washington, DC."]
Stagecraft.
Since the dawn of the mass media era, presidents have used it to remain popular and move the masses.
FDR’s fireside chats soothed and moved a battered nation.
President Reagan and media guru Mike Deaver transformed the White House into a virtual Hollywood set. Camera angles and lighting were key allies in showing Reagan at his best.
President Bush (43) used stagecraft brilliantly—and not so brilliantly. He’ll forever be remembered for speaking into that bullhorn at Ground Zero to focus the country on the mission at hand.
The aircraft carrier backdrop with “Mission Accomplished,” of course, is remembered for other reasons.
What about President Obama?
There was a Jim Carrey movie a few years ago called “The Truman Show.” Carrey played a character whose life, ENTIRE life, was a TV show. Every word, every facial expression, every move was broadcast.
The president hasn’t gone that far, of course. But a lot of people in Washington say by getting so much media exposure, Obama is risking that the public will respond with one giant collective yawn. There are televised news conferences (last night was his 4th already); NCAA bracketology discussions; burgers with the media; an All Star ceremonial first pitch; “exclusive” interviews over and over and over with network anchors; and of course date night.
Comedian Bill Maher, who supports Obama, recently told his HBO audience, “you don’t have to be on television every minute of every day. You’re the president, not a rerun of ‘Law and Order.’”
Hold on, says the Marketplace’s Jonathan Friedman.
“I think he’s keeping people calm,” says Friedman, “and he’s reassuring people that he’s in control.”
Cornell’s Professor Theodore Lowi adds, “it’s ridiculous to talk about being overexposed ... given the choices that he has, he’s better off being exposed 24 hours a day. He has to vary his appeal, but he’s very good at that.”
When Teddy Roosevelt famously used the “bully pulpit” to advance his agenda, most Americans never heard a word of it. Everything went straight to print. Nowadays, of course, nary a day goes by without every citizen having the opportunity to catch every presidential word. Words matter. Now some say, too many words matter too.