up with the latest history news. pressmer white house secretary's from the ford, reagan, george h.w. bush, clinton, and obama administrations. they talk about how the position has changed over time. nesson,ls include ron fitzwater, mike mccurry, and robert gibbs. this was hosted by the national archives. >> in the words -- let's go to work. i thought we would start the way we usually end these things. by saying thank you. this is the week we recognize the service of people who served our country in uniform and all of you served in public service. i will start by saying thank you. is that ok? [applause] >> you are welcome. >> there are others here who served. if you served in any of the administrations, will you be known to us? give us a little wave. [applause] can we say thank you? thank you. let's talk about the relationship between the media and press secretaries. are there any press secretaries here? returned my phone calls, thank you. if you did not, thank you anyway. thank you for coming. the defendants are thanking the prosecution, but whatever. let's talk about what we really want to talk about. all the things he wanted to know -- all the things we wanted to know but did not get to talk about than. this is our chance to spell it. -- bill it. did you actually want these jobs? [laughter] did you volunteer? correspondent for nbc. you covered the vietnam war. you were grievously wounded and almost died. you reported on the administration. he reported on general for its -- gerald ford's inauguration. guyof a sudden, you are the . how did he talk you into that? >> i've been a reporter for a long time and i had covered the white house for 2.5 years when lyndon johnson was president. i covered the first month of the ford white house. what persuaded me to do -- to take the job was i wanted to see what it looks like on the inside. i wrote a book after it called it sure looks different on the inside. knew 10% of what was going on in the white house. one of the reasons i took the job, i wanted to see what the other 90% was. the other reason clearly was that i liked gerald ford. i covered him as an nbc correspondent and that was the other reason for taking the job. i really did like him. the third reason, i am ashamed egoay, i had a pretty large in those days. i thought, i am moving up to white house job. very satisfying for a guy with a big ego. >> even to the white house as a deputy, right -- he went to the white house as a deputy, right? >> i was at the treasury department when jim baker called forsaid, we need a deputy domestic policy, somebody to take the heat for the president on the recession. we were getting ready to hit 10% unemployment. he said, would you be interested? [laughter] i spent an hour with him and he said, do you want the job? let's go see the president. we walked down to the oval office, president reagan was sitting there. first time i ever met him and i'm eagerly walked -- i immediately walked out the door and i said mr. president, i will do my best. i got outside the oval office and i said yes! and she said, what is that all about? even if i get fired tomorrow, for one day, i was a press secretary. [applause] >> why did you say yes? meling with people like every day. >> i was a professional public affairs person. i had been in government 17 years. i worked at a lot of different agencies. the white house was the pinnacle of our profession. knowther thing, i did not what the white house was all about. helen thomas said, what are you doing here, kid? it was all downhill from there. >> you came to the white house from the state department. >> my story is different. i been around in washington for private as -- as a press secretary for 20 years and i have worked for the president bruce babbitt, mike dukakis. [laughter] kerry.d for bob i have an unfailing ability to pick the losing candidate. i worked against bill clinton in the primaries. i was not likely to get a job. george stephanopoulos took some pity on me. luckily, warren christopher hired me to be spokesman. after two years, working at the state department and doing the television,eing on because the state department briefing was televised in the white house briefing was not. i caught the notice of some folks at the white house and they invited me. it made sense because i worked in presidential politics for a long time. if you remember, the aftermath of an election that is not to be called shellacking. 1994, things are pretty grim. i moved to the white house in 1995 as result of a pretty large shakeup. leon panetta came in as chief of staff. i was part of a transition that happened in the aftermath. not clear that things were going to get sorted out. youas not a happy moment would celebrate. ask did you do it? >> -- >> why did you do it? >> because it is an honor. i never been outside the country very much. the opportunity to work in the white house, to drive up that executive drive and say, i have my own parking place? it is an honor. matter --ubject if your guy wins, isn't it the working assumption that you will get the job? >> you have a fairly decent chance or sense of if this person wins, who is likely to be the press secretary? mike is absolutely right. you realize pretty quickly how great an honor and responsibility it is when you do drive into that white house. you realize sitting in that oval office throughout the week what you are witnessing, what you are trying to describe, and what you are part of. it is an amazing honor. , i was listening to a question. i remember this voice in my head saying, i cannot believe you are here doing this. there is another voice saying, pay attention to the question. [laughter] i thought it would be embarrassing to miss an entire question in your first briefing. however long you were there you will get to see in a seat that very few people have. going.s keep it for those of you -- will start at soft. when they are trying to fix people up, they have this thing called brad a little. brag a little. what was your best day? >> it was probably citing health care. >> i am starting with you because i do not think you will get too many questions like this. x the euphoria of walking into the east room and having the and now yougn that have people come up to you and condition for 15 years i could never get health care. thank you for being a part of something like that. that was probably at. biden said into an open microphone just how big an accomplishment -- [laughter] i went back to my office and when you are in the east room, the microphone is connected. it.uld not hear somebody says, you should know the microphone picked this thing up. we are talking about it. i do not think he said that. yes, i am pretty sure he did. i am sure we will get some of the technology? it was on twitter. let me try to sum this up. wrote, yes, mr. vice president, it really is. send. says, the vice president's chief of staff is on the phone. damn. i should have checked with them before i tweeted. even in politics, honesty is the best policy. --trying to pretend like nothing was going on. we read your tweet. just sort of own it. that was a good day. >> can you turn your phone off? day? what was your best >> much more mundane. i love that story. you are the only one of the four of us who have to worry about tweeting. that is a whole different job. mine was very mundane, but it day that weit was a announced in the clinton ministration that we were promulgating a complicated federal regulation to regulate tobacco for the first time. it was premised on the theory that a cigarette is a medical delivery device designed to deliver a dose of nicotine to the body, which was stretching things. as the supreme court later concluded. [laughter] the regulation went on 30 pages in the federal register and i stayed up a good part of the night to read it even though i said, we will bring in the secretary of health and human services, the fda and they will do the briefing. i want to make sure it is a big deal. they got up there and it was so complicated, they instantly got way down into the weeds. you guys all know terrie hunt from the associated press. it was clear to me watching the reporters that we were losing the story because they were having a hard time explaining it. elbowed donna shalala out of the podium, which is a difficult thing to do. i took over the briefing. -- miad of the fda explaining this correctly -- am i explaining this correctly? i had to translate the complicated language and vocabulary of government to something that would get through and help the reporters write the story. a couple of them came up and said, you saved your buns there. that is the best of what the press secretary can do. we are accused of being spent doctors. -- spon doctors. trying to take the work the white house does and help the american people understand it. not the most dramatic day. i had plenty of those, but it was the day in which i felt like i really did my job. whene of my best days was -- i smoked when i first went to the white house and a bunch from the press office went to these -- decided to join this class called smoke enders. i think it is a weeks and i stop smoking. seriously, my best in the white house was when i had to stand up and announced the end of the vietnam war. -- i had to go over to the old executive office building and read the statement from the president saying, for us, the war is over. old-fashioned cassette tape of that at home. my voice is about five octaves normal than normal. -- higher than normal. cry?d you want to >> not in public, but in private. >> what was your best day? the 25th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall this week. i should not admit that i remember that. >> so many days and events you run through your mind, whether it is the fall of the berlin wall or the invasion of kuwait or panama. wasink the most special day the first day of the reagan gorbachev summit in 1987. everyone is anticipating the end of the cold war. gorbachev had never been to the west. everyone wanted to see how he would get along with the guy who said it was the evil empire. we had 7000 correspondents credentialed to attend the summit. we moved the briefing room to the ballroom of the marriott hotel and we renovated half the commerce department for overflow crowds. we got all 7000 people packed in there and i explained for several days why we were accommodating these people and that i invited my counterpart to brief with me. if we were both there on the stage, we would not get into an argument across town. either one of us wanted to upstage our principles. he and i talked about it. and weto the podium walked on the stage and we were about halfway across and sam donaldson was sitting in the front row and he said, $50 marland takes them. [laughter] my first response, that sweet. you just destroyed every purpose i had. nevertheless, it was a memorable five days. day?y was it your best >> partially because of what it meant to the world. it was the beginning of the end, the unveiling of the reagan-gorbachev relationship and the arms control agreements that with it. at the same time, it had this very exotic, incredible surrounding where access hollywood was sitting in night front row and entertainment tonight was the top of my phone list. all, it was fragile. mistakes could have been disastrous. i underestimated all of that. put it all together and it was a series of experiences. >> when you have an awesome day like that. does the president say, good job? gave.ost every briefing i he would call me immediately. sometimes he would send a note down. he almost always said good job. a criticism was, i made -- i might say that a little different. [laughter] >> are you going to ask us what our worst day was? >> i will get there. clearly, the worst day was when ford lost the election to carter. i think one of the most difficult days was when betty to bethesda naval hospital and had a mammogram and discovered she had breast cancer and she underwent a mastectomy. i will never forget the look on ford's face. they had been married for 30 years and they were so close and so in love and he was in danger of losing her and she wanted to put out the news while she was still in the operating room. i think by being so open about this, it resulted in a lot of and theving mammograms vice president's wife discovered she had breast cancer. my mother discovered she had breast cancer. this happened all over the country. ford and betty had been so close . he wanted to talk to the press after he found out. i said, he was obviously shaken, and i said, why don't you take a couple of minutes? you know, if you ever look at the old film, you will see how rattled he was. she was an amazing person. as you know, she had a drinking and drug problem. it also led a lot of people to deal with that problem. >> why was it your worst day? >> because she was such a wonderful woman and he was so stricken by. she was at such great risk. it had a happy ending. >> mike? [laughter] >> everyone assumes the days of monique were hard days. [laughter] obsessed with one topic. and i said nothing. 100 ways to be double parked in the no comment zone. it was bizarre, but it was not challenging. it was not the worst day, just unbelievable. emotion that the goes into it. we are supposed to be very cool and collected and calm. we have to keep it together. my hardest day, i worked as ron brown's director of key medications when he was the chairman of the dnc -- communications when he was chairman of the dnc. the day his plane crashed and peoplewn, a lot of young had been part of the advance party, had also been killed in that crash. we had piped into the oval office the guys on the search and rescue team who were up there to confirm the identity of the body. i remember it was awful. emotional and it happened right around the time of the briefing. collectt stop to myself. here is a guy who i had crossed swords with. the only time i ever got fired, ron brown fired me. we had a wonderful relationship despite that. i got two thirds into this and i felt myself losing it. i still feel myself losing it a little bit. i had to stop and say, i look down at my staff and they could tell i was in turmoil. someone handed me a note that said, get off now. i pretended i was getting some important information from the president. -- every once in a row, there is something that jerks you out of place. those were the hardest moments. maybe it was not the worst moment, but it was the hardest moment. >> what was your hardest day? that i not really know could point to a hardest day. as i hear these stories, we have all had stories like these. mrs. reagan had a double mastectomy and i had to announce it on television tonight did not have much -- there was not much experience about talking about breasts on television. i was scared to death. >> you do know what they are? [laughter] >> i had a passing acquaintance. >> a little concerned. >> she calls me, would you come up to the residence? she said, i want to tell you i thought you did a great job. are there any questions the press are asking? they want to know why you had a double mastectomy when they are developing less invasive kinds of operations. she said, just tell them this -- i want to live. she is still alive today. worstd not say it was my day, but you live with it. said,rning, helen thomas you are killing palestinian babies. you are. overnight, they killed 30 palestinian babies and you are responsible. helen, what are you talking about? you are part of this administration. she stomped off. to my deputies heard the screaming -- two of my deputies heard the screaming. i was crying. i said, i don't think i deserve this. how can this be? i got over it. you go on. i will remember it all my life. >> can we take about half an hour to tell helen thomas stories? [laughter] >> why did that make you cry? >> it seems so unfair and unprofessional. not my responsibility. it was painful. the idea i was responsible for killing children. >> i am wondering -- i would never have known that. do you feel that it is your job not to let people know you have feelings? >> i do not tell the stories very often. it did 20 years to get that one out. >> the hardest days are when you have really big things collide. mike makes a good point. the easiest days to get ready to brief are the hardest days to brief. they give you -- you have this notebook and it has 25 things in it. if you know you are going to get one question asked six different ways, you do not have to take -- pay attention to the 19 other tabs. every day of the oil spill. it was brutal. spillmber during the oil was when rolling stone pop their story about stanley mcchrystal and we have a call -- we have to call a four-star general back from afghanistan. i remember walking to the residence to call the president and i said, i think you need to read this story. he read the first two paragraphs and said -- we had a quick conversation. whoever is left, let's meet in the oval office. i remember the shooting at fort hood, what an awful day that was. part of the evening we in thewo or so hours dates -- withth gates and admiral mullen, the telldent -- and i won't everything, but talking through some of the stuff they had learned in the investigation. that was a thursday because i remember i am walking out of the oval office and i see larry summers waiting and he is walking in and i remember, tomorrow is employment report. of course, the white house economic team would get the employment report. it comes out at 8:30 a.m. in the morning. larry was going into tell the president what the report was. i am so focused on fort hood and all of the stuff and i see larry. goes -- [laughter] the first time unemployment surpassed 10% since reagan. there is -- there are these thents when you have all stuff and something collides. the most powerful moment was late october 2009, in the midst of the afghanistan review. on ad had just exploded truck carrying a bunch of our soldiers. 18 dead. lifted the banad of press coverage of the transfer process. dover and would go to we figured this was a good time to go to dover and we left the white house about 12:45 a.m. at night in a helicopter. a 45 minute ride to dover. the helicopter comes down and they've given us the tail number of the giant plane that has all of the transfer cases. we put the helicopter down. i look out the window and the first hill number -- tail number and it is that when. -- it is that one. i remember seeing these neat ws 18 transfer cases with the flag. the process is remarkable ceremony. we were sort of their for about four hours -- we were there for about four hours. the president when out with the honor guard. -- went out with the honor guard. i will never forget we got on the helicopter and we flew back to the white morning,ember the next a great friend of mine, david axelrod, said what did you guys talk about on the way home? what did he said? and i said, nobody said a word on the way home. we just get all the helicopter and we were in the midst of the afghanistan review. your walking the president go to is very dignified transfer anyone knowing that he is sitting there thinking that i am look to make a decision where somebody is going to come back -- i am going to make your decision were some use going to come back like that. dayad to describe the next -- it's the next day so i never had to brief on it but i remember thinking there are those moments where you begin to feel a little bit of what they are going through. and in a real sort of way that you just feel that you can understand for a brief moment what ways on their shoulders -- shoulders.heir >> switching gears, did you ever lie? [laughter] >> are you talking to me? [laughter] >> you. did it -- yes. did any of you lie? >> i think that i never really lied. and i am not lying now. [laughter] one of the promises i made when i took the job was that i would never lie or cover-up. and i did not. i kept that promise. i think that sometimes i boarded things to make them less -- >> true? [laughter] >> was damaging, let's say. l --ess damaging let's say. >> did you ever walk up to the line? >> sure. don't forget this. let me back up a step. succeededded -- ford richard nixon and he had done great damage to the presidency by watergate and how we handled watergate. and i think this made all the people in the form administration determined to go on a completely different direction. plus the fact that i came out of the press. and a new that there was always a suspicion that the press secretary was not being completely honest with us and so forth. and, just to tell you, i am not making this up, just to show you how i was determined to be completely different than the nixon white house, nixon's press secretary was named ron sigler. and one of the things that i said why was first appointed ford's press secretary was, i am a ron but not a sigler. given the fact that ford had way thed nixon and the nixon demonstration -- and the fact that i came out of the press and the fact that ford in his whole political had built a reputation for honesty and so forth. so we may have delayed putting say i maytories, as i have described them in the best possible terms without lying, but i never did lie and that was a real promise to myself to the press corps -- and to the press corps. >> you cannot lie in that job. it it is career ending. if you ever got caught knowingly misleading the press, the consequences of that would be the rupture in that relationship of fragile trust that exists anyhow and you would not be useful to the president. i got in trouble one time, helen thomas asked me that question and i said, no, i have never lied, but i certainly learned how to tell the truth slowly. [laughter] -- what i wass thinking when i answered that question was, were up in martha's vineyard after this is our thing in which the president had to go on national television talking about things that we are all familiar with. the very next day were going off on a happy family vacation to martha's vineyard and i knew that we were going to be going back to the white house because we were getting ready to launch a cruise missile strike against osama bin laden drug addiction at a little powwow he was having. and i remember being at the schoolhouse at martha's vineyard . robert has probably been there. the reporters, they want to go to the beach, so the hang around saying, what are we going to get to live? when are you going to wrap things up?\ >> tell them what the lid is. is our signal to them that we will not get more news during the day. -- put out more news during the day. and what are you going to say? was it a lie to say, no lid right now, i'm a second see if anything is happening. where going to war in an hour and a half, would you like to stick around? [laughter] there are techniques that you have to use them sometimes they border on a thing called spin which is that you are trying to take your best interpretation and offer it up. but i think if you knowingly mislead the american people and their representatives the press corps you are toast. and that is a good thing. >> you were a part of the group of nine in your administration. how did you handle that? tell mesay, don't anything that i can't tell, or how did you handle that? >> first of all, i was fortunate to become press secretary to undereagan and bush circumstances were i knew them, i had worked with him before in lesser jobs. to them ands i want said i want to be in all meetings, including all national security council meetings. and a president bush, who had been the director of the cia, said that is not the way we work. we have a compartmentalization, classified information, and we determine who needs to know. and i said, my view is that i need to know everything you know. and he said, let's see how it works. the last thing i said to him was, if either gold classified information, fire me. i am out. i am out that day, 5:00 that night i am gone. he said ok. beginning,eal at the i would go to all of these meetings and often the pentagon were called back and say why is fitzwater here? bush,unately, president -- and unfortunately, president bush, the second time this happened, he started a meeting and i was a half a second late and he said, let's all wait for marlon until he gets here. there was never a question again about why it was supposed to be there. why not? mind i had to worry about that every time and what i would do first of all is make a judgment on my own in front of decide if i'm really confident this is not classified. the national security adviser and say, is his classified? -- is this classified? and he would say, this is a better way to say it or this is more nuanced. it saves me so many times from saying something -- saved me so many times from saying something that i should not have said to have a process. mike makes an interesting point that if the press secretary lies, he loses credibility, and why we have to be so careful about that. quick examples, one was larry, who was asked if we were going to invade or not a -- grenada. it went to the security advisor and he said, that is preposterous, absolutely not. larry did not know. the winter the press and said that was preposterous. the next morning we did. and the press never treated him well again. similarly, jody powell with president carter. was going on, he was reckless to president carter, he was a part of the considerations on the attempt to -- he was close to president carter, he was part of the considerations of the attempt to rescue the hostages in iran. the president would've word of in which women said, is this happening? jody had not thought about it, would like to when this question happens. -- what do i do when this question happens. he and his own minds of the same thing i would have said, i think i would have, that the most important thing is the mission and protecting the lives of our troops and i am not going to admit this matter what. jody did was he had not thought through and he said no, this is not happening, and of course it did. he had troubles from then on. and he was a good press secretary, a really good one, but it just happened. you kind of live in fear of that all the time. in no we have all come close. -- i know we all come close. crexendo at the beginning of the administration -- it will sound don't eveningbut knowledge -- forget drone strikes, not even acknowledge there's a program that does this. you are new when you are freaked out about saying something, ok. on the third day that i was briefing someone asked about a drone strike. do i have any information on that. to --ot going to get in it is on the front page of "the ."w york times someone is reported that we killed six people may drone strike and yet the press secretary of the president of the united states is not capable of knowledge and a program in which that even exists. -- acknowledging a program in which that even exists. not say anything that i wish i would have because you cannot have somebody standing up there saying something like that while they are reading "the new york times." it is preposterous. i have an example like marlon's. during the afghanistan review, we had 12 or 13 three our situation room meetings to go exhaustive -- three our situation room meetings to go through the process. after the first meeting, ron ,ame into my office and said the pentagon does not want you in those meetings. they do not want a political guy at meetings. yeah area ever been to the pentagon -- yet. ever been to the pentagon? [laughter] i reached over my desk and picked up my id -- because the great thing about being present here is the secret service guys know you when you do not in your id -- and i said take this into me how it all works out. do you mean and i said if those guys think i am in there to give them political advice about afghanistan, then the idea that they do not know the president, that is the biggest understatement of the world. i said, if you think the president is going to going to -- go into ao three hour meeting we are going to repeat a dozen times and i'm going to the walking up to someone who sat in that meeting and say, i'm about to go believe, the president -- go believe, the president has been in these meetings, can you give me the rundown so i can answer 30 minutes of questions about afghanistan? it is crazy. if someone is willing to sign up for that, be my guest. >> are you serious? you would have quit? >> i absolutely would have because like marlin, you have way more information than you can ever say. and particularly at a time -- look, i am sure there was done and is now a citizen the office where you have to lock up classified documents, you want to record when the suit gets opened, record with the circuits closed. when the safe gets closed. when you have somebody that is not in that and cannot watch it and understand what you are supposed to steer around, then the whole job becomes moot. because if i am not in that -- plentyin, it is not -- of reporters look at those briefings and say you did not say a lot about those 12 three meetingsngs -- hour but you get a sense of the interplay and the issues they are talking about and you could bring some of the out to do it, a general or something we just as complicated to do, but if you're not in there listening to in those 30ion hours were the meetings, i said one thing. last aftersecond to the decision was made and the president said, how do we announced this? and i said, we're doing a primetime speech at west point, sir. that is all i said and called meetings. but that was not to say anything, my job was to take a was nototes -- my job to say anything, my job was to take a lot of notes and inform reporters. if you can't do that, then a briefing would not matter, the press secretary would not matter . you would not have any capability. >> two important things here. >> and what these folks to get -- i chance to read >> want these folks to get their chance. not what you know that it's when trouble, it is what people forget to tell you that gets you in trouble. vote, says it is about having a process to verify that you know what you need to know that is critical to the job. the second thing is that the president has to protect that role of the press secretary to be there and know what is going on and to take it all in. i had the same experience. president clinton would stop meetings and say, get michael in may because the press -- michael in here because the press will be on him and i want them to know. he would make the company meeting someone would actually see what the conversation was about. -- make me come to the meeting so i would actually see what the conversation was about. to do want to follow up on that. are going to ask questions, the two mics on either side for the purpose, so have at it. >> one ford asked me to take ford asked mehen to take this job, he made it clear i could sit in on any .eeting sometimes kissinger was not too bad happy about that but other than that i could sit in on any meeting because you do have to go to another member of the white house staff and say, i have been asked a question, how can i answer that, they are going to spin you for their own purposes. are going to give you an answer that helps to achieve whatever they are trying to achieve, not to be truthful with the press. you consider any meeting you -- 40 said that you can sit in on any meeting you want to when he kept that promise. just another more of a problem -- kissinger was more of a problem but that is one of the most important things that you can do to make sure you're getting the facts to pass on to the press. if you have to call the stop and say i have been asked a question, they will give you an answer that helps them with whatever the issue is. so that is why i think the press secretary really needs to have a meeting daily with the president. list, i expect we asked these questions, what do you think i ought to say about that -- you bring in a list, i expect to be asked these questions, what do you think i should say about that? >> the meetings, that is so important. the prosecutor can always come into my office area that is -- press secretary can always come into my office. but it great if you know what you want to ask the president. a bunch of times it is watching the process play out in the meeting, whether in the or the ovalom office, they make the decisions. sometimes you are just sitting there and watching. it helps you get more educated about an issue. bunch of things that we want to talk about because one of the questions i have is did you all play favorites? >> you were my favorite. [laughter] [applause] >> well, i should have been. there was a rumor that one of your predecessors called on women based on what color their jacket was. is that true? >> i don't think so. [laughter] >> when i was press secretary, we played favorites only to certain news organizations that we thought would put a bigger display on a story to try and get more exposure over time. >> exposure or liking you, liking your side? >> know, just to get the story out there. today," will give you an exclusive dual put it on the front page. "usa today," we will give you an exclusive if you will put it on the front page area of >> when i was press secretary, there was only one woman in the press corps, helen thomas area >> you desperately want to tell helen thomas stories. [laughter] >> i was standing at the podium and you see this wide-angle shot of all of the reporters. the renault shares in the briefing room, people sat on the floor and window boxes and so forth -- there were no chairs and the reason room, people sat on the floor and window boxes and so forth. i made my announcements and said, does anyone have any questions, or at what a known something the president has done, and how when her hand and say, ron, do you agree with him on that? and my answer was always the same. who gives a damn? >[laughter] i am here to announce what the president is doing and saying. >> i am jim. said that you do not lie in one of you said you cannot mislead, and yet i think that the american people feel often that they have been lied to. i recently read an article that try to analyze why conspiracy theories are so widely believed in america, such as the conspiracy theory about 9/11, but it was an inside job or the bush administration did it. -- that it was an inside job or the bush administration did it. pointed out that often times people have been lied to whether it was about what we did in guatemala or the cia giving people lsd or more recently the nsa stuff. so i am wondering, does the emperor have any clothes? you folks are in charge of some of his lying that the american people feel we have endured. >> you are wrong. that is not true. would not go and lie. sometimes, you are right, there are things that the government has done that nobody who is speaking for the president knows about. there are things that the government has done that the president did not know about. if theretelling you, are things going on like that better criminal or wrong or against our constitution, i am pretty confident that the people on the stage would have alerted the american people. >> it was decades before we learned some of these things. >> that is true. sometimes it takes a long time. >> question is for ron. hardest thing about transitioning from being a journalist to be a press secretary? talk about the differences between being a member of the press and being on the inside -- can you talk about the differences between being a member of the press and being on the inside? matter, andtical what house car would pick me up at some aquatic and the morning -- a white house car would pick me up at 7:00 in the morning. >> you had a white house car? [laughter] when did that happen? yeah/ . >> he cut a better deal than we did. >> i would leave the home at 7:00, get to the white house at 8:00, you to breakfast there, abouttalking to my staff what are we going to talk about today, and i would have a meeting with the president at 10:00 and my briefing would be at 11:00. in the afternoon, reporters would wander in and out of my office with their own questions and there were meetings that i attended and so forth and i would usually get home at night around 8:00. andd a very young son then he would be asleep by the time i got home. have been asleep when i left in the would be asleep. i would wake him up and play with him, because that was the only time i would get to see him . but is a long day. -- that is a long day, but that was the way it worked. >> robert, you had kids? >> about the car. >> everyone wants to about the car. one of the big differences was televised briefings. marlin rarely had televised briefings. mike, what is up with that? what made you make a decision and do you regret it? >> i had done televised briefings with the state department, which goes back to the iran-contra -- iran hostage crisis. it seemed weird to me, they had this thing that dated back to marlin's time or they would turn the camera's own for the first two or three minutes and then turn the lights off and was disconcerting. and two people came in, it was not about television, it was about radio. two of the finest reporters were radio reporters and they said we are at a disadvantage because can use all the material they get from the briefing but we do not get raw material that we need for our broadcast. report go on the hour from the white house and we need sound. it needs to be available for electronic broadcast. .e will experiment the cap lengthening the amount of time that the briefing was available. -- we kept lengthening the amount of time briefing was available. finally, mark miller came in. did you know the entire briefing was televised last friday? if you make aand big deal, it will never happen again. fine for three years and then we got into the excavated with monica lewinsky and i became a daytime soap escapades with monica lewinsky and i became a daytime soap opera. >> how did you get away with never answering questions about that? was the only all caps on channel and they were not interested in putting the briefing on. occasionally they were like oklahoma city. but the daily briefing was the raw ingredients of news reporting. we were out there giving our point of view, getting questions, answering questions, giving our take on the issues. the reporters did not think of it is in news event, just a part of what came into reporting on the news. the happened is because of monica stuff it became its own separate, theatrical event and everyone has suffered since then. it was a stupid thing for me to allow live coverage. i should've said, you can record it, you can use it in your later broadcast, but nothing lives unless i grant permission. which is what happens in the state department, where they call a filing break and the spokesperson is to grant permission. >> you were totally against it, as i recall. rise to mike's defense, on the other side of the issue. i am not sure if it was good or bad about sense but i do know this. guy to dohe perfect it first. he was handsome, he was young, he was articulate, he knew the government. [laughter] and, most importantly, every at a time with a scandal or whatever it was definitely >> it was a scandal. i am pretty sure of that. >> when the white house was having difficulties, mike was a stable thing during that period. i used to watch him and i would say, i do not know if anyone behind the scenes, what they are are going tohey meetings when they shouldn't or not going or whatever, but mike is there everyday and doing the best he can. government is still operating, it is not easy, impeachment is no fun for anybody, but we are moving ahead. and so i think that the television presence paid off in that instance. had theen we have not same kind of situation, although they are not willing to dismiss thinkirely because i there are some circumstances in which the television presence is important. but it makes it a different ballgame, different for the reporters. it was the end of a lot of the print journalism power and influence in washington. we could examine all of that at great length. it was a complicated thing. >> sir, then this jenna mentor > -- this gentleman. >> thank you very much. we would love to have you join us with the young founder society. my question is about something you have not talked about. you have been talking about the transmit mode, what peasant -- what messages you are putting out. as internal advisors to the president about what the impact of the press will be on decision making. i am wondering if you could add insight into when you have to tell the policy shop, we are not doing that. that is a dumb idea. the press is not going to like it. what are some of those time where as a present visor, you steered policy? >> who would you like to hear from? >> i think for the panel. >> who wants to take that? compelled.s most >> i build off of what marlin said. , whetherthe briefing it is televised or not, the briefing does shake government into giving an answer. even when they might not want to. every day -- i did not have breakfast at 8:15 at the white house. we were at a 7:30 meeting. i'm kidding. when we went into that meeting, there were 10 of us in the chief of staff's office and i was always the last one to go because they knew i had a bunch of stuff. a pretty goodhad sense at 7:30 in the morning what you're briefing was going to be like, what your day was going to be linke. ke. you start the process there is making sure people understand we read this in the newspaper today and we are going to have to say something on it. we do not get to not say something on it because we are going out there. and i literally have been in meetings where people have said, we do not have a policy problem. we have a communications problem. ok, tell me what is. say and i will fix your policy problem to sayknow you're going something and i cannot remember how many times somebody would if you dould be good not get asked that question. [laughter] clear, yout to be are not getting asked that question. i am getting asked that question. on more than a few occasions, meeting andrough a nobody would come to a resolution. he would say, guys, they've advise my briefing for 1:30. we can do this one of two ways. either somebody can stick around here, and you guys can figure out what we are going to say, or i'llin around 1:30 and tell you what the policy is. remarkable how quickly operation started working when they realized, you know, the one thi ng the briefing really does is it forces you to have to go out there and talk about things even if you do not want to talk about them, even if they are classified and hard to talk about. but we have a government that thoseay has to answer questions. and it makes the machinery of government work better because those answers are forced. even it takes sometimes a press secretary saying, i remember doing a lot,and i remember sometimes they would want to -- i'd say, we are not saying that. that is crazy. you cn't do -- can't do that. and you would be 15 or 30 minutes late because he would walk back in and say, i know you do not want to answer this question, but that is not what we are going to say. it helps the machinery sometimes would go out there, when any of us would go out there. the other guys, they do not have to go out there. they tune in. mike's going to do with them. and it helps move that machinery ita way that you say, ok, only works if we were together and we give an answer that's good and informed. part makes a very good about part of the job -- a very good point about part of being the job being press secretary. most of the job is to represent the president and the white house to the press. other part of your job is, as he explained, is represent the press to the white house and the president. and having come out of the press, i felt that particularly. >> sir? >> hi. i'm adam armstrong. i was just curious, you guys have had very exclusive access to the president. of that you guys are outside the white house and you guys are reading newspaper clippings, is kthe, what do you thin media can be doing to be doing a better job to help serve the general public? >> next question. i'm sorry. [laughter] sure, why not? go ahead. thinkl, you know, i journalism has changed. since i was a journalist or since i doubt with journalists. to journalismk after i left the white house, but i think what has happened is, you know, when you only had the huntley brickley show on nbc morningkite on cbs and newspapers. .m.y all had a 6:30 p deadline. if you covered the white house briefing and it was over by noon or something like that, you had the whole rest of the afternoon to call up other sources, do research, to go to the files and so forth. the internet and cable television, you do not have that. there is a deadline every minute. i think that has really changed reporting, and the content and depth of reporting. i think the other thing that has changed it, when i was at upi, we had two full-time reporters at the pentagon, two at the state department, five on the senate, five on the house side. we even had full-time reporters at the commerce department, agriculture, justice. you state on your beat for a l ong time. issues,ned all the became expert, had all these contacts. so you could really report in-depth. as you know, newspapers are really in a dive. and everybody is a generalist these days. thedon't get that depth to reporting that you got when you had experts. as a result, a lot of the reporting does not focus on the substance of the issues, but look at the last election. what was the last election about? not the 12 weeks ago. that lastn presidential election. gaffes. that is what reporters do because they do not have a lot of expertise these days in-depth on issues. >> let me ask robert. you are the first, the first social media administration. i'm curious. you.we have not forgotten i'm interested in how you feel this has changed your work. >> it changes that a lot. as ron said, the whole thing is sped up in a way that is -- everybody works for -- everybody is a wire reporter because your stories do not come out in a newspaper that you get at 6:00 in the morning or you might get at the back of the printing place at 5:00. it's all instantaneous. it's sped up things remarkably, both in good ways and bad. i think, i remember i joined it mostlynd i joined -- you realize it is in the basic medications tool but also, i was watching a presidential press conference. i hated to do presidential press conferences in the briefing room most because it sort of felt like, that's sort of where reporters of the press secretary did battle. and it was battle. and i thought, do not bring the president in there. the present go into the east room or something. i must have lost the battle. we did a press conference in the briefing room. i'm sitting on this row of chairs on the side. and a deputy of mine is on twitter. what'sre, i'm like, that? he's got an ipad. as the president is giving his answers, all these reporters are tweeting, that is a bad answer. i do not think he is saying this. . i'm think it myself, i am watching the human bubble box, the voice box. and i thought, this is ingenious. now i know exactly where everybody is heading every minute of the day because they are tweeting it all out. digital can indication's having the weekly radio address be the weekly tv and radio address. it has sped things up and knocked out barry's in the sense that you can communicate -- knocked out their and a sense that you can communicate the way you could not before. >> some argue this a ministration has put up more barriers than any of the preceding except for my second accident ministration. i'm not there every day. >> every white house tries desperately to control the message that comes out every day. and that is not going to change any time soon, unless there is the advent of state run media, which also is not going to happen anytime soon. i think you have got in some tos it duty - a duty communicate directly with the people. and i think there is a huge challenge. for instance, 1980, right? when marlin was that administration, 50 million people in a country of about 270 million people watched one of the three evening newscasts. 50 million people. you walk into the east room. t.u do your vet -- and aon today hundred people are watching those nightly newscast. a little more than 20 million. there is more information more readily available than at any moment in our nation's history. thi'm not lcleraar on what shas to do with my question. the argument is that the obama administration has put up more barriers, made more of an effort to control poor reports, things like sprays. >> i think that -- what i'm becauses that i think the media has become so segmented that you now are speaking in a way that the president puts up a youtube video. that reaches 10 million people like 10 million people would watch newscast. s. reports, somebody came to me -- pretty early in the administration. and said, we are going to redo the pool. the only people that are going to get reports are people that pay. good luck. ?hat do you mean a piece of me if you advice. get an e-mail program to send out your reports. i was sent to the white house or spun's association, i think it is madness white house sends out poor reports -- pool reports. by an e-mail program and the whole system assault. you'd decide whether or not you have to pay to be part of the pool. there is no discussion about somebody augmenting the pool report before kazaa. >> you say what you want to say in it. i'm just saying that it is remarkable in that white house briefing room, mike and all this, you goingow to that briefing room, the first person that gives you the question, you do not leave that room until somebody in the press corps says thank you. when that lead reporter says thank you, that is the signal to the press secretary that it could lead they have reached the end of what must people would consider useful briefing. sometimes it is 30 minutes, sometimes an hour and 15 minutes. it is the only room and the white house that is not controlled by the white house. reporters control that room. measuretrol it in large the rules of some of that briefing. i just cannot think that if you are just reading pool reports, i would not depend on the white house to disturb it does. -- to distribute those. >> this thing about poor reports as one of the most shocking things. as a former white house correspondent and press secretary, this is supposed to be five or six reporters who represent the whole press corps because they all cannot get into an event. so these five or six, they go, they write out what they see and hear and they give it to the other reporters. now, what role does the white house have in that? now they have taken it over and they are editing the pool reports. the next thing you know they will go to "the washington post" and edit the post. this is a shocking developer. i'm not making this appeared i have a tremendous -- this has had a huge impact on me. to the whites house, i do not remember this issue coming up a lot was there, but in fairness to the white house, it is my understanding that reports are not unilaterally edited by somebody at the white house. but there is a discussion with the reporter about changing -- i am not suggesting it is right or wrong. i do not ever remember being at the white house and somebody telling me what to put in a pool report ever. i don'[t rememb -- don't remember that. >> i think the whole thing is solved by the correspondence having their own e-mail system. >> these are the folks who want to talk about -- >> the suggestion about what the media could do. i'd make two. one stop covering the white house as a political beats. the reports cover it as a political story. is the president up or down? polls up or down? give us more substance. we can handle more substance. the second thing was recognize how hard it is for information to get out there to the public. sometimes news reporters believe, i wrote that story. it is not news anymore. it is the reputation and coming -- the repetition and finding ways to bring important things back into focus that we tried so hard to do. and sometimes we used techniques to try to control that to the advantage of the white house. but it is done with the hope that in this cacophony that is out there, something might break through. i think the press can do a better job of helping on that. >> sir, we have three more folks and have been patiently waiting. i'm hoping we can get all of their questions. >> hi. beingyou so much for here. you mentioned that the role of the briefing is to shake the truth out of the government. hold it accountable. i'm wondering if you worry that the revolving door between press secretaries and private news entities is somewhat undermining that, and people are throwing up softball questions hoping to get a job afterwards. snow,ve jay carney, tony george stephanopoulos all going or coming from the private sector, news organizations. after their president harry gig.-- their press secretary gig. i wonder if that undermines things. thanks. >> do you think any of those people got unnecessary softball questions? >> i don't know. general --s corps in maybe that is not a question for you but for the press corps. do you think the press corps in general is more, i guess, soft o n press secretaries? >> i wish they had been. >> i would say watch the briefing tomorrow. and i guarantee you that you will not come away with the impression that somehow josh hs as been unnecessarily given a huge number of software questions. >> they will not break tomorrow because the president is in asia, but when he comes back. >> when he comes back and it is maybe the week where the president might do something and immigration, and you do not have to listen long -- listen to the first five questions. i do not think anybody -- there are days in which i would have loved to have fixed the person who is going to give me that great softball. tggh person who is somehow going to give me the great softball. previousy carney's work and time magazine as a journalist get undermined as soon as he takes a political partisan job in the white house is a press secretary? >> no, because the content and reporting stands on its own. if he makes a career adjustment and goes and does that, it is very hard to go back the other direction now. going from being a political person back into the media world as georgeus stephanopoulos would say. as my old boss ken russert would say if he were still here. would say.ert i do not think it compromises her prior work as journalists. >> their subsequent work has to stand in its own. that is my take on it. you get to watch these people and you get to decide whether you think they are doing a good job for you. and the feedback on that is constant, believe me when i say. sir? thank you. >> hi. i'm a student at american university and washington, d.c. i wanted to know you guys have had unprecedented access to so many presidents, such a wide if therepresidents, was any one moment that was very memorable something they said or did that show their character and that you will remember for a long time if you can share with us. >> ron? >> well, i guess i have already two mike two -- my moments. one was announcing the end of the vietnam war and the other was announcing that he -- betty ford's breast cancer. >> is there a moment that we did not see? we think we see so much but actually we see very little. that's a fair statement. story in 41 on 41. when you saw the house at kennebunkport. i don't know how you feel about that. >> two quick stories. me was president bush called to the oval office and one said i hear the press asking you questions about what am i going to have a meeting with gorbachev. and he said, this was early in the administration. press was getting their normal cantankerous selves and saying things like, you are supposed to be the foreign-policy president. you have let six months go by and you have not met with gorbachev. what is going on? and he said, so i want you to know this -- i'm going to meet with gorbachev in december. which was four months away. he and i have agreed by telephone. but does not want anyone to know right now because he has got hardliners pressing him in russia that he is getting too close to america and they do not like it. i had better -- can you keep that a secret? and president bush says, we will try. and gorbachev says america keeps no secrets. i'll know about this in days. so bush said to me, i want you know because only jim baker and the secretary of state know about this. now you are the third one. if it leaks, you're fired. also want you to know i listen to your briefings. i want you to know that you need to come up with language that does not deny this is going to happen. sooner or later they are going to find out it has been arranged. great moment for me because it said that the president is sensitive to my problems in the problems of information. the other story is when his house burned down, not burn down -- when the perfect storm hit new england. wipedeled their house, everything out to the ocean. and we went up there the second or third day after it happened. i do not know exactly how many days, but but it was so sad. and the press was with us, but they weren't with him in the house. they stayed back out of the way. shockingally it was so for him to just walk to the house and everything was gone, although mentos, all the pictures. he found one little picture of his father in the yard. what do i do with this? our photographer said, let me have it. i will try and save it. that was it. and we were all in tears. and he started beating this rug. we thought he is going into shock. and he looked at andy card and myself and said, will you help me? rug.l started beating this and there was no purpose to it other than that we were three people caught up, especially the president, in his horrible emotional loss which we see often in hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and stuff across america. but there was really no way for me to explain that to the press. and at the end i said, can i bring the press in? he said, i do not want to be here p he left and went and got in the -- got in a shack or somewhere there. i brought the press over. they walked through the remains of the house and got no emotion. said, ok. almost no story and walked away. i mean, that was really, that's tough for a press secretary or president to have to go through those kinds of emotional things. that's relevant to what you are trying to find out, but i'm just saying those kinds of things happen. >> mike, did you want to add to this? i recall, what actually was a moment that was really important in the clinton presidency where i was absent. and it was not long after i had the white -- in house. the federal building in oklahoma city had been destroyed in what turned out to be domestic terrorism. and it happened. we had done all these briefings, all the stuff that the president -- president clinton went to oklahoma city to participate in the memorial service. i did not go because it happened that my third child was about to be born. and my wife was here. that was probably a wise idea for me to stay. but i remember watching. i remember we were in the delivery room and our dr. came said, looked at me, and i registered in the factor bosses having a press conference? i was, but i -- decided i should probably stay where my appointed duties required me to be. but i remember everyone commenting on it. this was a very pivotal moment for clinton because he had been, he had suffered a lot of midterms losses in the . the request is about, are you still relevant because the republicans and newt gingrich had taken over the congress? process the president often has to do healing and helping a country go through moments of trauma. he had done a good job at that. i had watched it like every it.r american watch watched it on television. he called. he called to congratulate us on the birth of our son. but i remember just how was thaty tickled he he had been able to use the presidency to do something really important to help the people go home city. to help himself. -- in oklahoma city. he understood he is done a great job. that there are those moments when they get to with lights off and cameras off, they get to stop and assess what it is all about. i think those are rare. and you get real insight into what kind of person they are. >> sir, you are the final question for the evening. >> many of the time i have been cut off. my name is jim burn. i have covered this time for 50 years. i was at the briefing a year ago last month when the committee for the protection of journalists issued a damning report on the administration's behavior with regard to the press. and some of the top reporters in town were quoted. in my opinion, the worst thing he did in the point of view of the press, he promised to veto the defense authorization act for fiscal 2013, which has that ourion and it permitting government to arrest any of us, anywhere in the united states on suspicion of treason or whatever. and he signed it. court went to the supreme had this up in court refused to hear it. in any case, i'm wondering, you must have read that report. and then the defense authorization act of fiscal 2013. my god. he said he was going to be to it. he did not. >> i do not know what you're referring to. i was out of government at that point. report orsee that mention that provision. one of the things that i am reminded of a story of -- we were, it's probably early -- in the administration. there were soldier abuse photos that we had to make a decision on. and our first decision was to release those photos of i think it was iraq and afghanistan. and i remember about a few days after the president made the decision that it was a good thing to release those photos, bob gates came over to the white house. and i sat in on the meeting. and he engaged and talked about it and made what i think what i think was everybody believed was a very persuasive case on not releasing those photos. and why that would put people in dangers and put soldiers in danger and have the reaction of people even not directed at those in the photos but just overall. and we talked a little bit about how sort of knowing too much information. i did in that meeting. and we walked out of that meeting and the president had decided, told secretary gates we'll reverse the decision. we will not release the photos. and i do not know if it was that day or a day later, literally the last question i got in the briefing -- i was half off the podium walking away. we it had event -- we said would release the photos but they had not been released. and 70 called out, when are the -- and some be called out, when other photos going to be released? i knew i was not far enough to pretend i did not hear it. i remember sitting to myself, got got tobe be, like i've challenging answer here because i know they are not going to be released. and i know -- i've seen the meeting, seeing the discussion, and i know why. very reminded of telling the truth slowly. i gave an answer that led everyone to understand we were about to make a very different decision. reminds me of those times in which, as we talked about in the beginning, you have god information-- got information, and what do you do with it when you have it? you are making these decisions about transparency, non-transparencies. -- iof the definitions are do not think as easy as some people might presume just transparency writ large or some of those decisions. >> thank you. i do not know that this gentleman is satisfied with that answer. summary things he could have talked about, including -- so many things that we could have talked about including that you were the first political figure to appear on "internet life. -- " saturday night live." thank you. >> join american his tv tonight gannontory tv as mike describes his interviews of richard nixon. we will see clips and hear about the to

Related Keywords

Vietnam , Republic Of , United States , New York , American University , District Of Columbia , Iraq , Iran , Israel , Afghanistan , Hollywood , California , Guatemala , Russia , Panama , Dover , Grenada General , Grenada , Washington , Berlin , Germany , America , Palestinian , American , W Bush Clinton , Robert Gibbs , Lyndon Johnson , Jay Carney Tony , Jay Carney , Warren Christopher , Joe Biden , Jim Baker , Mike Mccurry , Adam Armstrong , Mike Gannon , Betty Ford , Tim Russert , Gerald Ford , Harry Reid , Bruce Babbitt , David Axelrod , Monica Lewinsky , Reagan Gorbachev , Ron Brown , Ken Russert , Mike Dukakis , Ron Sigler , Bob Kerry , Jody Powell , Richard Nixon , George Stephanopoulos , Newt Gingrich , Helen Thomas , Donna Shalala , Stanley Mcchrystal , Sam Donaldson ,