This evening speaker. She is an associate professor of history at Purdue University and a Senior Editor at the made by column at the washington post. Her research and teaching focus on the intersections between media politics and Popular Culture with a particular emphasis on american presidency. Her first book, showbiz politic ex hollywood in american political life, which was published in 2014 by the university of north press, examines institutionalization of entertainment and structures in american politics and the rise of the celebrity presidency. And this book will be available for purchase and signing after the event. Her second book, 24 seven politics, Cable Television and the fragmenting of america from watergate. Fox news will be published august by Princeton University press. It excavates how the growth of Cable Television, transformed political life by tethering politics to profits and catering to narrow audiences, rather than finding common ground. Please me in welcoming dr. Brownell to the president ial library and museum. Good evening. Thank you so much to the Gerald Ford Museum for inviting to speak today and to all of you for coming to hear about my work and a special thank you to brooke and morale and the entire staff of the museum and foundation for of your hospitality and your support of my work. Ive spent a lot of time at the Gerald Ford Library in ann arbor, and its wonderful to be back here in, grand rapids, as well as native michigander. I love any opportunity to come up north and be in my home state and it was especially wonderful to get a private tour of the museum today with morale and i learned so much more about president ial history, but i also loved all of the history i learned about the university of michigan. I and ill wolverine and it was great to get to see that history as well. One of the other really great things about, the current traveling or the current exhibit on guitars and kind of using guitars and culture into a lens into American History and presidency more broadly that i really admired. Is that it takes entertainment and takes Popular Culture, things people enjoy consuming. It takes it seriously as part of politics. And i think that its very common to treat popular and politics in one of two ways. The first is to treat as merely fluff in the political that something is fun and inconsequential its a distraction. If you will or theres another way that people frequently about Popular Culture and cultural development, especially if theyre linked to technological changes in the media. So when you think about the rise of the celebrity presidency or perhaps the current emergence of political echo through on cable news channels, many people assume that these things happened naturally, that perhaps they were preordained because the nature of that particular medium, jack valenti, a former aide to johnson and president of the Motion Picture association and once reiterated this this way of thinking when during the 1990s, he observed that quote movie stars and politicians share the same dna in their search for a desire to perform for an audience and search of applause. But my research in both of my books shows that this intersection of media Popular Culture and president ial politics that turned the president into an entertainer in chief is actually has been a very controversial development. Its thats rooted in decades of negotiations between professional performers Business Leaders and politicians. It is also rooted key policy shifts as well that have shaped how Media Industries and interact with elected officials and democrat institutions. And this is something that has long been neglected how we think about the politics of Popular Culture. Patrick clearly, when it comes to understanding industries and their products as clay whitehead, who was a director of the office of Telecommunications Policy under Richard Nixon, he was frequently frustrated, by this lack of Public Knowledge on how tv functioned and noted during one eye, one congressional hearing when hes talking televisions, regulatory policies that people spend hours day watching, television, but they have little understanding of what he called the corporate and Government Forces behind the medium that so fundamentally shaped their lives. And think this is still true for Many Television and viewers or streamers or social media users today, Popular Culture can serve president ial priorities, certainly as administrations can use it to shape news agenda and even circumvent the press corps and speak directly to the american people. But it is also essential to remember that the television industry, social media and Tech Companies that their businesses and they are more concerned about profits than anything else. Executives in both in all of these worlds have long looked to curry favor with politicians to advance their bottom line. And this can be selling their product or having legislative friends when regulatory or tax issues come up. So its important not to dismiss Popular Culture and especially Media Productions merely fluff or distractions in politics. Rather we should think of it as something that shapes and is shaped by pressures. Campaign and economic structures. So to show you how of these issues intersect, i want to focus on several questions that center on the rise in, the transformation of the entertainer and chief. And so i want to dig into today three main questions. First, how did politics become so central to the presidency . And then how has the of the entertainer in chief changed and evolved as the broadcasting era constructed consensus gave way to the cable era of fragmented shows. And since we are at the Gerald Ford Museum, where does gerald ford, a president popularly known more for his media struggles, then triumphs . How does he fit this broader narrative to answer these question . I want to dig into three key, very memorable moments in the evolution of the entertainer in chief over the past half century, and to show how these wellknown moments reflect shifting ideas, the power of media in american politics and the very policies that shaping the business of television in on the surface. Richard nixons decision to appear laughin as a last ditch effort to win votes in 1968 may appear the same as ron. Nothing. Gerald fords press secretary. His decision to appear on night live and bill decision to appear on mtp. In 1992. And i certainly the argument in the conclusion of my first book that involve a strategy of using to bypass the press and speak directly to voters to sell their personalities on the campaign trail. But my new book shows that theres actually more to the story. Well, and unpacking the shifting media landscape from nixon to ford to clinton illuminates changes in how Popular Culture is used as a political and as a consequence, how embracing such political entertainment has changed, how the public interacts with president and how the public consume arms political information information. My first book show this politics, examines how new technologies, notably get Motion Pictures and. Then television brought alternative for president s to win elections and to govern. It opened up opportunities for political to rethink Communication Strategies and Party Building strategies. I define show biz politics as the reliance on the active of celebrity persona as a path to claim political legitimacy. Say something that John F Kennedy did very controversially in 1960 as he took to the primary trail to appeal to voters as jack kennedy fans. And that was one of the really fascinating documents that i found in the kennedy library, is that its a memo saying we need to appeal to voters, fans first. He defeat the more powerful insider, Lyndon Johnson and winning the president ial nomination with a strategy. And he narrowly beat out Richard Nixon that far. But such a strategy generated as much criticism as it did a claim for being too much style and not enough about substance. And thats why while kennedy experimented with such a strategy, it was a bitter and defeated Richard Nixon, who actually truly ingrained in president ial politics. So heres how. Two years after richard lost the 60 race to kennedy, he suffered political defeat. This, the california governors race in the Beverly Hilton hotel. He lashed out at reporters and what he called his last press conference where he infamously made that declaration. You dont have nixon to kick around anymore. This moment captured nixons anger at the media and his belief that a media bias had personally targeted targeted him and had undermined his political career as he was wallowing in this. He thought long hard about the 1960 election. He thought long hard about the Television Debates and the his poor performance on tv. But he thought more broadly about nick kennedys approach to politics through the entire and he attributed kennedys political success to his embrace of showbiz, of turning himself into this dynamic celebrity that people couldnt get enough of. He thought that was how he won the presidency. And so nixon is studying and he saw the possibilities revamping his political strategy to emulate kennedys approach as he wanted to resurrect his president aspirations. In 1968. For political entertainment, solve the issue of media bias, which he defined both negative coverage and of coverage. Entertainment could create opportunities to appear television and to do in ways that allowed him to control more of the narrative and how or his personality was. As one adviser. This is another great finding from the Nixon Library as one adviser wrote to him, he said, biggest challenge in 1968 was the fact that people a gut instinct that they didnt him. So the mission was how do we change this . We need to make him more likable. And if we make him more likable, people trust him more. And so he revamped political career by trying turn himself into a celebrity. The same way that kennedy had. He started appearing on entertainment like the jack paar program, where he didnt talk about policies. He the piano. He then to the mike douglas show and daytime entertainment talk show where he met producer roger before appearing on that program. Nixon to ailes that he had to engage in gimmicks like this in order to get elected. And ailes shook his head and he said, television is not a gimmick. You need to take seriously and make it a centerpiece of your campaign. And then he brought ailes on board to his campaign. With ailes help, he. Thats why he went on laughin and a very awkward ten second clip and i wanted show you the video of this and snl and mtv. But unfortunately because of technological considerations. A, we cannot play video. So ill do my best to reenact it. Its very simple. Its very it took many takes. And if you dont remember it or havent it, i encourage you to google it when you home where he used the shows catchphrase it to me. But he said in a very interesting way. I said almost as a question, sock it to. In nixons mind. This helped deliver the election for him. He truly believed that his transformation from loser to victor. 1968 hinged on priorities in television and controlling his images through these types of appearances. I want to hammer home a point here that this was a belief. There many reasons why squeaked out a victory that fall in a very close Election Year in which the Democrat Party erupted in chaos at convention in august. And George Wallace was running as a third party candidate. But nixon his media advisers and journal is chronicling the campaign repeatedly pointed to a shift in media strategy as the determining factor and it altered how paula ran their campaigns in the 1970s as they sprinted to Media Consultants like ailes and a variety of pollsters to create their own nixon. Miracle. This belief in the political and necessity of also shaped how nixon then governed. A story that is at the core of my new book 24 7 politics. While its not available here, you can preorder it online. Shameless plug. But heres the ironic thing. Nixon took advantage of an Entertainment Television system that he also wanted to destroy. He believes that the last instant was powerful because he could make himself likable to millions of americans without having to get tripped up by any question about policies or how his his vision for the future and laughin the highest rated show on a dial in which only three networks competed for viewers. But he that reach as certainly advantageous advantageous on the campaign trail and he he would use it. But he very problematic as president because he felt that Network Television had much power and that it was fundamentally against him. The networks abc nbc and cbs did dominate the information that americans received about the world around them. Viewers had only three choices to watch and the news affording networks a huge huge amount of political power. So when nixon was in office, he felt he worked to break down the economic and political power of the Big Three Television networks because he thought their programs, both news and entertainment, but especially early news, were liberal, biased and inherently out. To get him to do this. He is savaged the office of Telecommunications Policy, headed by clay whitehead, pictured here. The other two, he pursued what. Am i . One of my favorite archival findings is this document that i came across in clay white house papers. And its the project that the otp pursued following reelection in 1972. They called it project button, which later learned stood for. Break up networks. And it was a very thorough, very comprehensive way. To change policy and to turn to a new media technology, Cable Television as a tool to wage his war against Network Television. At the time cable was a highly regulated medium and per fcc it could not compete with television and, even enter some of the Top Television across the country. So they overwhelmingly just extended the reach of broadcasting into areas that couldnt get the signal perhaps because of terrain or they were in rural areas far away from a city. And so they extended the reach of broadcasting initially and didnt actually offer alternative programing to compete against Network Television. This began to change, Richard Nixon, because viewed Cable Television as a politico weapon to undermine the power of Network Television and to also advance a free market policy agenda. In doing so, nixon changed the political and structure of Cable Television, helping to shape its development as a disruptive media medium designed to tear down media gatekeeping with market forces. And so this is the media environment that gerald ford inherited. And in his efforts to restore integrity to the presidency, he actually advanced these two components of Richard Nixons media politics. His show style and his cable agenda. Heres it worked. Gerald confronted the challenge how to communicate, govern and then win an election in political environment that won journalist characterized as a disillusionment that had turned into ridicule. He faced a cynical press corps who had witnessed nixon lying. The extensive efforts he went into to manipulate the press and he faced a public that had lost faith, trust in the presidency. For ford entertainment became a way to restore that trust by personally seizing and humanizing the presidency. But he notably wanted to do it differently than nixon and to use Popular Culture, bring that celebrity making apparatus that nixon had so carefully hidden. He wanted to bring it into conversations about how the presidency operated so people could understand it rather than be an manipulated by it. He wanted to transfer over secrecy, so his new press secretary, ron nathan, frequently shared stories about the behind scenes production working to dispel suspicions that any tv performance or address was just about manipulation. The goal is to show that you could use tv, you could use a staged event to actually convey a sense of authenticity. And yet, time and time again, nelson struggled to counter. He called in his memoir, quote, biggest continuing problem in the white house. The portrayal of him in the media as a bumbler. Of course, no one is made so powerful quite like chevy chase, when first saw chevy chase performing the bumbling gerald ford, the edgy news show saturday night. Its called saturday night, its first season, not saturday night live. It took on that third word. Later, he cringed, but he also wondered if this actually might be an opportunity to use humor to embrace it and advance the administrations goals. And so i, gerald ford, invited ch