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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
So what's a press corps to do? For one, White House reporters should become more assertive in demanding that the president make himself available. They should raise the issue every day in the daily briefing with McClellan, instead of only once every few weeks. In fact, they should also bring it up every time they get in earshot of the president. ("Mr. President, why won't you meet with us once a month?") Correspondents are sometimes loath to appear too activist or hectoring. But there is nothing inappropriate about the press demanding accountability from the president of the United States.
And they should ask better questions.
Some folks who should know -- because they've successfully asked tough questions of previous presidents -- say there are several ways the current White House press corps could get more value out of even infrequent press conferences. Their advice to the current crew, in a nutshell: When your turn comes to ask a question at a presidential press conference, don't worry so much about how smart you will sound asking it, and resist your urge to ask more than one thing at a time. Instead, try harder to ask one question that will actually get an answer. The question should be simple and direct enough so that everyone, including the president, understands precisely what is being asked -- and so that if the president doesn't answer it, it's clear to everyone that he has chosen to avoid it.
Consider one modest example of what not to do, from Bush's Nov. 4 news conference. Here's what the first reporter Bush called on did with his opportunity to elicit information from the president. "Mr. President -- thank you. As you look at your second term, how much is the war in Iraq going to cost? Do you intend to send more troops, or bring troops home? And in the Middle East, more broadly, do you agree with Tony Blair that revitalizing the Middle East peace process is the single most pressing political issue facing the world?" Even Bush was taken aback at being asked all those questions at the same time. "Now that I've got the will of the people at my back, I'm going to start enforcing the one-question rule," he said. "That was three questions." Possibly encouraged by the corps' sycophantic guffaws, Bush -- after a smooth-sounding response that didn't directly answer any of the three questions, by the way -- announced a new rule: "No follow-ups today."
Putting the appropriateness of Bush's bullying -- and the press corps' accommodation -- aside, the irony is that the one-question rule would actually serve the correspondents well. The no follow-up rule, however, could be fatal. Talking to Cannon, Thomas and others, the same critique emerges over and over again: Of course the president doesn't want to answer tough questions -- but reporters are making it easier on him than they should by asking questions that are entirely too long-winded. Anything lengthy or multipart makes it easier for the president to deflect, distract and filibuster. Plus it gives him more time to collect himself for his response. "One of the things that happens with long questions is they chew up a lot of time. Presidents love long questions," Cannon said. "The best questions are those that are asked simply and asked with the least windup."
And of course long, amorphous questions effortlessly lead to longer, more amorphous answers. So ideally, questions should have concrete answers. John Herbers, who covered the White House in the 1970s for the New York Times, thinks "When did you learn about it?" is often a good thing to ask. Shorter questions that require only short answers also mean there's time for more questions. If the president deflects a really good and important question, the reporter should follow up. "You should always have a follow-up question in mind," Cannon says. "Instead, they ask six questions in one and then they say they have a follow" -- but it's actually a seventh, unrelated question. If need be, other reporters should follow up, rather than sticking to their scripts. "We should listen, and not be so ego-attached to our own questions," said Thomas.
And reporters shouldn't be afraid to look a little disrespectful if that's what it takes to get an answer. "This is not a social engagement, this is a business transaction. The president knows it's business, believe me," said Donaldson. Being aggressive carries a slight risk: "It makes your bosses nervous, when they think of all their relationships, including the state dinners they want to be invited to," he said. "But I never had to worry that my boss would not back me, as long as I was doing something legitimate."
