The Presidents vs. the Press: The Endless Battle between the White House and the Media–from the Founding Fathers to Fake News

Product Description

An award-winning presidential historian offers an authoritative account of American presidents’ attacks on our freedom of the press.

“The FAKE NEWS media,” Donald Trump has tweeted, “is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” Has our free press ever faced as great a threat? Perhaps not—but the tension between presidents and journalists is as old as the republic itself.
 
Every president has been convinced of his own honesty and transparency; every reporter who has covered the White House beat has believed with equal fervency that his or her journalistic rigor protects the country from danger. Our first president, George Washington, was also the first to grouse about his treatment in the newspapers, although he kept his complaints private. Subsequent chiefs like John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Barack Obama were not so reticent, going so far as to wield executive power to overturn press freedoms, and even to prosecute journalists.
 
Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to actively manage the stable of reporters who followed him, doling out information, steering coverage, and squashing stories that interfered with his agenda. It was a strategy that galvanized TR’s public support, but the lesson was lost on Woodrow Wilson, who never accepted reporters into his inner circle. Franklin Roosevelt transformed media relations forever, holding more than a thousand presidential press conferences and harnessing the new power of radio, at times bypassing the press altogether. John F. Kennedy excelled on television and charmed reporters to hide his personal life, while Richard Nixon was the first to cast the press as a public enemy. From the days of newsprint and pamphlets to the rise of Facebook and Twitter, each president has harnessed the media, whether intentional or not, to imprint his own character on the office.
 
In this remarkable new history, acclaimed scholar Harold Holzer examines the dual rise of the American presidency and the media that shaped it. From Washington to Trump, he chronicles the disputes and distrust between these core institutions that define the United States of America, revealing that the essence of their confrontation is built into the fabric of the nation.

Review

“[
The Presidents vs. The Press] gives us a panoramic survey of the most contentious president-on-press brawls from the past two and a quarter centuries, providing both the scholar and the general reader with valuable perspective on the current bout between Trump and reporters.”
—The New York Times Book Review
 
“A lively, deeply researched history of the roller-coaster relationships between presidents and journalists, from George Washington to Donald Trump . . . Holzer recounts all this and much more in considerable colorful detail.”
—The Washington Post
 
“A perceptive and readable account.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“An immensely informative account of the perennial struggle between presidents and the fourth estate.” 
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
 
“A shrewd history of the fight to convey and repress objective truth.”
—Kirkus
 
“A lively and informative work that will appeal to anyone interested in American history, politics, and journalism.”
—Library Journal

“While this fascinating book doesn’t ease the pain and anxiety of witnessing the elevated battle between Trump and reporters, it does provide an essential historical perspective.”
—Booklist

“Timely and informative.”
—Washington Independent Review of Books
 
“Harold Holzer has brought us a sweeping, groundbreaking, and important history of the conflict between American presidents and the press, and it could not arrive at a more crucial moment.”
—Michael Beschloss, NBC News presidential historian and New York Times bestselling author of Presidents of War
 
“Harold Holzer’s fascinating new book beautifully narrates the long history of contention between the press and the White House, but it does more than that. Pre