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4 reasons why no president should want to give a press conference
A president’s reputation is safer when he is in the Oval Office, rather than giving a press conference. Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images In mid-March 2021, US President Joe Biden has not given a press conference since his inauguration – the longest a new president has gone without giving a press conference in 100 years. The Associated Press and The Washington Post noted that Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton had previously held five press conferences each in their presidencies. President Barack Obama held two and President George W. Bush three. On March 16, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced that Biden would hold one on March 25. As a scholar of political communication and public relations, I published studies of presidential press conferences, analyzing the effects of journalists asking difficult questions, theorizing about the different strategies of politicians and observing the effects on voters. While critics point to several reasons behind Biden’s evasion, the empirical evidence and my research suggest reasons why no president should want to give a press conference. President Harry Truman, giving his first press conference at the White House on April 17, 1945. Keystone-France / Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images Avoiding questions – or not Before discussing the risks of a presidential press conference, I want to say that I believe that public servants fail to fulfill their obligations if they refuse to face the press. The White House Correspondents’ Association accused Biden of lack of “accountability to the public”. And ABC News questioned Biden’s transparency and accountability. But while democracy may demand such a responsibility from a president, press conferences are definitely risky for them. The first reason to avoid a press conference is that reporters can accuse the president of dodging questions. And viewers are likely to believe the allegations – regardless of what the president actually said. The tendency of political journalists to accuse presidents of deflecting questions has increased in recent decades and has become quite common. For example, at the beginning of the pandemic, President Trump gave daily press conferences. The live events won a large audience, similar to big sports games or hit TV shows. They featured journalists accusing Trump of evading questions. During the 2020 campaign, Biden was accused of avoiding questions by various media about foreign and domestic issues. A campaign spokesman was even accused of dodging a question about Biden dodging questions. I did an experiment testing the effects of a journalist accusing politicians of evasion. All voters in the study saw the same questions and answers. For half of the voters, however, I edited the video to insert the journalist accusing the politician of dodging an answer. Voters who saw the journalist making the accusation believed that the politician really shied away. Voters who saw the interview identical without the allegation of evasion felt that the politician gave adequate responses. What’s more, the politician shown in the experiment had not really shied away. Voters seem to believe in a reporter, not a politician. Voters appeared to have a “standard of truth” that led them to automatically assume that political reporters were telling the truth, without any suspicion being raised. No good answer. A second reason for avoiding press conferences is that the questions tend to be unanswerable. As documented by decades of data, journalists often ask about controversial topics and ask their questions in complicated ways. Reporters ask questions that often focus on controversial issues. For questions like this, there is no politically advantageous answer. Based on my research, journalists covering the White House tend to ask about topics that divide the country – such as abortion or gun control – for which any direct response would offend any group of voters. The time constraints of a press conference, with the public waiting for short answers to massive problems, can also make it impossible to provide an adequate response. You cannot win. A third reason is that even if a question is not divided and the president answers it, many voters will still think that the president is being misleading. I did an experiment in which I filmed an interview with a politician dodging or answering a journalist’s question and manipulated whether the politician had a “D” or “R” next to his name. Regardless of what the politician actually said, Republican voters felt that the politician cheated when he was a Democrat and vice versa for Democratic voters. Simply because it has a party label, the president’s press conference is likely to be distorted by party lenses, no matter what he says. President George W. Bush was on the defensive during his last press conference on January 12, 2009. Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images TMI – too much information One final reason for a president to avoid giving a press conference: polls reveal official events, as formal press conferences, they do not make a president look like a presidential candidate. Historically, the more the public knows the president, the more they dislike him. As the saying goes, “familiarity breeds contempt”. My own research revealed why a president can become less face-to-face the more he gives press conferences. Being perceived as “presidential” may depend on voters ‘perceptions of the nation’s condition, and politicians must match their choice of words with the voters’ personal situation. The more a politician’s words inevitably diverge from voters’ feelings and experiences, the less he will seem presidential. In all, presidents are likely to lose stature, and not gain it, with a press conference. Journalists have the advantage by asking questions that represent a rhetorical minefield and exercising the power to accuse the president of evasion. And voters tend to believe journalists’ criticisms of the president, even if the president answers his questions honestly. Even without journalists’ interference, about half the population will discredit presidents, and the more they speak, the more they become non-presidential. Of course, if what the president wants is not a strategic expedient, but simply fulfilling an obligation to be accountable in his role, the country wins when he gives a press conference – and so does he. [You’re too busy to read everything. We get it. That’s why we’ve got a weekly newsletter. Sign up for good Sunday reading. ]This article has been republished from The Conversation, a non-profit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: David E. Clementson, University of Georgia. Read more: A brief history of presidents revealing – or trying to hide – health problems. Trump craves good ‘fake news’ media publicity – just look at his White House newsletter David E. Clementson does not work for, consult with, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article and did not disclose relevant affiliations beyond his academic appointment.