Thirty-five years ago I had lunch with Ronald Reagan at the White House
Presidents could learn a media lesson from Ronald Reagan. Some recent presidents have been at odds with “the dishonest media.” They would do well to take a page from Ronald Reagan. The notion that “the media” is a single-minded entity is wrong. President Reagan knew the difference between the networks, their correspondents, northeastern newspapers and the media that delivers news to millions of Americans in cities and towns across this country every day. Here’s my story about media management.
In the spring of 1982 I received a telegram from the White House inviting me to lunch with President Reagan. Remember we didn’t have email in 1982. At first I thought it was a prank. Even back then telegrams were rare. When I called the RSVP phone number, however, the operator at the White House Appointments office answered. I confirmed that I would attend, booked a ticket and a hotel room and prepared for lunch at the White House. There was no logical reason a news director at KCBS, San Francisco would be summoned to the White House. I had no political connections and the invitation came completely out of the blue. I flew to Washington the night before our appointed day and joined a group of strangers at the Old Executive Office Building at 8am sharp. We were escorted into a small theater/briefing room. There were approximately one hundred people in the room. The space was small enough that each of us had a good seat, close to the stage. One by one, members of Reagan’s cabinet, George Shultz, Donald Regan, Casper Weinberger, James Watt, Malcolm Baldrige, Richard Schweiker, Chief of Staff, James Baker, and finally Vice President George Bush came out and met with us. There were no video or audio recordings allowed, but we were encouraged to take notes, and the question and answer period that followed each report was candid and thorough. It was a private briefing for 100 members of the media from outside the Beltway. There were no network reporters, no reporters from New York City or Washington, just members of the American media from every corner of the country. Just before noon, we lined up and walked through a tunnel and up into the White House, past a military honor guard and sat at assigned seats in the State Dining Room for lunch with the President. I sat next to President Reagan’s political advisor Ed Rollins. President Reagan sat at a table to my right. After lunch, the President welcomed us and encouraged questions before taking time for photo ops. As this incredible experience unfolded, I continued to wonder how I got there. Why me? Who were the other people? Why were we being given direct access to the top officials in the Reagan administration and the President himself? One woman told me she was a newspaper editor from Des Moines. Another guy was a TV reporter from Montana. There were no network correspondents, just members of the local news media from every region of the country except New York City and Washington D.C. We were radio, television and newspaper reporters, anchors, assignment editors, news directors, editors and publishers. None of us had any connection to each other, but we were all honored and delighted to have been invited. We were strangers chosen to attend a White House briefing. When we returned home, we all carried the same message to our colleagues and audiences. Regardless of any preconceptions we might have had about the Reagan Administration, we were blown away by the collective intellect of the Reagan team, their human qualities (I would never have guessed that Treasury Secretary Donald Regan had such a wonderful sense of humor), and the incredible openness and candor exhibited by each member of President Reagan’s cabinet. Ronald Reagan’s popularity came from his ability to communicate. On that day he reached outside the Beltway and beyond the mega-media markets of the East Coast to talk directly to the American people, through honest, local media. Later in my career I met a man in Dallas who had worked in the Reagan White House. He said he directed the monthly luncheon program. He told me that during the eight years of the Reagan presidency, 100 assorted journalists from around the country were invited to the White House nearly EVERY MONTH! Washington insiders and New York media conglomerates don’t represent the majority of Americans. There is, however, a strong connection between Americans and their local media outlets. There are thousands of honest, hard working newspeople from coast to coast who take pride in their relationships with their audiences. Local radio, TV and newspapers are “media” and they play a critical role in American politics. Future presidents would do well to distinguish between East Coast networks and and Inside the Beltway reporters and the folks who present news to Americans across the country.
