![]() ![]() In the current public health crisis facing the United States, the White House has preferred a different mass communication approach. Underlying those objectives: To establish confidence in presidential authority, which, by itself, should reassure. The second is to inform the citizenry in order to persuade people to believe or act in specific ways. The first is to designate the subject under discussion as historically significant and worthy of the format. Several goals characterize the prime-time, scripted, live Oval Office address. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool) President Donald Trump speaks in an address to the nation from the Oval Office at the White House about the coronavirus Wednesday, March, 11, 2020, in Washington. Yet these bad examples do not overshadow the numerous other historical moments when the nation experienced direct presidential addresses via broadcasting.įrom President Harry Truman’s addresses announcing the surrenders of Germany and Japan in 1945 to President Barack Obama declaring the capture and execution of Osama bin Laden in 2011, the American people were given important and historic information direct from the White House through the same basic framework that Roosevelt pioneered 87 years ago. That speech remains tarnished by a word Carter never actually uttered – it was labeled the “malaise” speech – and it warned future presidents about the format’s rhetorical limits. President Jimmy Carter addressed what he considered a “crisis of confidence” in the United States in 1979. Johnson surprised the country and much of his Democratic constituency by announcing his refusal to run for reelection in 1968. If mishandled or improperly employed, it can backfire.Īmong those that didn’t work out: Lyndon B. The live, prime-time national address from the White House represents a unique opportunity for a presidency. Trikosko, now in the Library of Congress) President Jimmy Carter on television during his first fireside chat at the White House, Feb. It so calmed the nation while slowing (and eventually ending) the bank run that it established the model for all ensuing fireside chats over the next 12 years.Įvery succeeding president eventually followed the basic Roosevelt model. It is your problem no less than it is mine. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system it is up to you to support and make it work. “You people must have faith you must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses,” he told an estimated 60 million listeners. The address was notable for its stylistic clarity and the way it combined an authoritative discussion of banking with a neighborly, even friendly, tone. “I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking,” he began on that Sunday evening. Thus, the informal and informative radio address style that Roosevelt pioneered in Albany was rolled out on the national stage. Aside from legislation, something less formal but perhaps more important was required: reassuring the American people about the safety of their economic system. It soon became obvious that the 1932-1933 crisis was potentially more catastrophic than any earlier panic. At first it appeared to be yet another economic panic of the sort that had occasionally bedeviled the U.S. The banking crisis proved most threatening. (Library of Congress)įollowing his March 4, 1933, inauguration during the Great Depression, the Roosevelt administration had to address the cascading series of dire crises facing the nation. "Like modern town criers, policemen boom the news to depositors that bank is closed," a 1933 photograph by the World-Telegram. Roosevelt and his advisers brought this awareness to Washington after he won the presidential election. ![]() The governor could bypass not only his opposition in the legislature, but also the Republican newspapers editorializing against his policies.īy speaking directly to citizens, Roosevelt measurably influenced public opinion and successfully promoted his policies. His advisers noted both Roosevelt’s natural talent and radio’s remarkable effectiveness in reaching voters directly. He delivered a series of radio addresses in 19 to counter the intransigence of the state legislature’s Republican majority. Roosevelt – had begun using the state’s small radio network to promote his agenda directly to citizens. In New York state, however, the Democratic governor – Franklin D. None of the three Republicans used this new medium of mass communication effectively. But for Harding, and successors Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, radio broadcasting – and the national communication it offered – was never considered an essential tool of governance. ![]()
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