Wednesday we had our first site briefing of the summer. The briefing covered the White House, although the event was actually held in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building because our group was too large to fit in the White House press room. Our first speaker was White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett. Bartlett was introduced to us as the youngest man to have walk-in privileges to the Oval Office. Bartlett worked for Karl Rove’s consulting company in Texas and through that experience got involved with George W. Bush’s gubernatorial campaign. He has stayed with the President ever since.
Bartlett manages all aspects of White House communication, both responding to breaking news and shaping the long-range strategic communications of the administraton. These responsibilities are broken up among the White House Press Office, and the Office of Media Affairs, Communications, Speechwriting, and Global Communications.
Our second speaker was Kevin Kellems, the Communications Director for Vice President Cheney. Kellems is a graduate of the TFAS-IPJ program. During the question and answer a student asked Kellems about Fahrenheit 9/11. To his credit Kellems did not get defensive, but simply said that he has not seen the movie because he will not give a dime to Michael Moore. He reminded us that the movie is entertainment not news. Kellem also good-naturedly told about his cameo in the film. Kellems is shown licking his hand and fixing Paul Wolfowitz’s hair moments before news cameras go live. He thought doing so was better than letting the Deputy Secretary of Defense go on national TV with his hair sticking up.
Students also asked the two staffers about the reputation of the Bush administration for limiting access by the media to official spokesmen. The staffers described the current administration as being very disciplined in their public relations approach. The staff are careful about what they communicate, and they try to avoid sending mixed messages by having centralized communications.
The photo is of me at the podium in the press room of the White House. What do you think? Does it suit me?