Media Decoder Blog: Obama Favors Interviews Over Impromptu Q.&A.'s, Study Finds
President Obama grants many more media interviews than his predecessors, but holds far fewer impromptu question-and-answer sessions, according to data compiled by a professor who studies presidential interactions with the press.
By doing so, Mr. Obama and his administration have more control over who asks questions and where they are answered.
Mr. Obama has been interviewed a total of 408 times in his first three years as president, according to Martha Kumar, a professor at Towson University who works alongside reporters at the White House. President George W. Bush had given 136 interviews at the same period in his presidency, and President Bill Clinton had given 166.
However, Mr. Obama has comparatively avoided Q.&A.s with scrums of reporters, according to Mr. Kumar, answering questions at 94 photo opportunities and other such sessions in his first three years. Mr. Bush had spoken at 307 such sessions after three years in office, and Mr. Clinton, 493.
He has held 17 solo news conferences, more than Mr. Bush (11) in the same period, but fewer than Mr. Clinton (31) and far fewer than President George H.W. Bush (56). Ms. Kumar’s data was published by The Hill on Tuesday.
“He prefers interviews because he prefers speaking on a particular topic,” Ms. Kumar told the newspaper. “He likes to develop his thinking. He likes to talk at length.”
The Obama administration has previously gained notice for granting interviews to a great variety of outlets — he was the first sitting president to come on “The Tonight Show,” for instance. He has answered questions from the public through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and most recently Google Plus, which held a conversation with him on Monday.
Such sessions have opened the White House to charges that it is skirting the White House press corps. Daniel Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, responded in an e-mail, “The idea that interacting with the public through social media is somehow going around the White House press corps is a prehistoric notion.”
“The media has become so diffuse that communicating ones’ message requires a lot more work than it used to,” he wrote. “You have to be willing to go where the viewers are, because they now have so much choice in where they get their information.”
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Media Decoder Blog: Obama Favors Interviews Over Impromptu Q.&A.'s, Study Finds