Radio launched new era of political persuasion

By Martin Shaffer
For the Poughkeepsie Journal

Public relations are a crucial element of presidential politics today, and two former New Yorkers were instrumental in leading the way toward the “public” presidency.

Theodore Roosevelt used the “bully pulpit” to enhance his image and, to some extent, promote his policies. Roosevelt’s Square Deal was the first time a president used a label to focus attention on his policy agenda. In his day, the primary means of public persuasion were the whistle stop tour and newspapers.

By Franklin Roosevelt’s time radio became the prime medium for reaching the public. During the 1932 campaign, FDR utilized his strong voice in well-rehearsed radio speeches that were meant to convey warmth, personality and nonpartisanship.

While it is well known that FDR continued his tradition of radio broadcasts during his presidency in the form of “fireside chats,” it is less known that he used this strategy on the advice of his pollster. The confident leader that FDR embodies in the collective mind of the American public was cultivated by his skillful use of the radio and public appearances. In using the public relations aspect of the presidency so adeptly FDR accelerated the merging of campaigning and governing which lies at the base of the modern presidency.

By the 1960s the public relations presidency came into full view with the growth of television. In the last 40 years an increasing number of people get most of their political information from television.

Media advisers help plans

Franklin D. Roosevelt Library President Roosevelt gives a "fireside chat" from his home in Hyde Park in 1938.

Finally, FDR’s legacy includes high public expectations concerning the president’s role as the preeminent national leader and driver of the policy process. These three trends have necessitated an increased use of the “going public” model of persuasion in which the president uses the media to promote himself and his policies as a companion to the traditional bargaining model of leadership.

In this environment, strategic use of media events and carefully chosen words and phrases are a daily focus at the White House.

President Reagan’s staff thoroughly discussed what the potential headlines might be from a media event, and if a positive story was not assured the event was simply taken off the schedule.

During the 1992 campaign the Clinton and Gore families embarked on a cross-country bus tour to convey youthfulness.

President Carter’s unfortunate attack on a beaver with a canoe paddle only served to reinforce the image of an ineffectual presidency. Reports of President Bush’s amazement at the existence of grocery scanners and President Clinton’s $200 haircut on a Los Angeles runway were events that did not help cultivate favorable support. The media is a double-edged sword for any presidency.

A central component of today’s public relations presidency is the careful selection of poll-tested words and phrases.

President Reagan used the phrase the “wonder and glory of human freedom” in many of his speeches because his pollsters learned in focus groups that those words elicited a favorable reaction. During the defense spending debates in the early 1980s Reagan’s reference to the B-1 bomber as a “peace keeper” helped to create the image that weapons could best be “used” by simply being there.

Clinton talks of ‘investments’

President Clinton is careful in our age of fiscal restraint to refer to new spending as “investments” in order to focus our attention on the positive side of government programs.

In 1994 in response to polling data Clinton changed the emphasis in his health care speeches from employer mandates and purchasing alliances to guaranteed private insurance and real insurance reform.

A preoccupation with media strategy and polling are not just a presidential phenomena, since the language in the Contract with America — the 1994 House Republican’s platform — was drawn from polling data and focus groups.

Martin Shaffer is assistant professor of political science at Marist College in Poughkeepsie.