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

by Harold Holzer

he remembers Clinton with genuine respect, believing he was endowed with “TV communication skills that were extraordinary, and definitely unique among the other presidents I covered”—skills that particularly shone in the interview format. “Not even Ronald Reagan’s or Barack Obama’s, in my opinion,” he told me, “could match Clinton’s. The key to it was his seemingly innate ability to adapt to the tone and voice as well as the intellect of anyone who joined him before a public microphone and/or camera. He never appeared to speak down, over, or up. There he was, eye-to-eye, mind-to-mind, fact-to-fact while he listened or talked directly to and fully engaged with whomever was there across the table, studio, or room. He made journalists like me feel worthy—and special. And I never felt it was an act or a technique he trained for on his way to political glory-dom. That was just the way he was. Bill Clinton was born to glow in a spotlight that required company for it to shine its very brightest.”97