Power to Persuade
Paper, Lewis J.
Power to Persuade PRESIDENTIAL TELEVISION, by Newton Minow, John Bartlow Martin, and Lee Mitchell. Basic Books. 232 pp. $8.95. reviewed by Lewis J. Paper In his 1960 book, Presidential Power,...
...Despite these shortcomings, Presidential Television is a timely and stimulating book...
...However, I fear that this book will not receive the public attention it deserves unless Minow and his colleagues get some access to television to discuss it...
...However meritorious these proposals, the Minow team offers virtually no discussion of the likelihood that they might be adopted either through legislation or the voluntary cooperation of the broadcasters...
...This seems to be a serious flaw...
...Coolidge paused and then said, "Good bye...
...Calvin Coolidge, about to return to Washington from California after a crosscountry trip in 1924, was asked over a. nationwide radio hook-up if he had a message for the American people...
...But this is not the major deficiency of Presidential Television...
...He is now legislative counsel to Senator Gaylord Nelson...
...It might have been preferable to discuss practical solutions as well as ideal ones...
...The President has virtually unlimited access to the television airwaves...
...These proposals would probably do much to open the airwaves and assure the robust debate that is contemplated by the First Amendment...
...The President's access to television, to be sure, is a potent political tool...
...Never has a Presidential request for air time been denied...
...Neustadt explained that this proposition defined the essence of the President's task in governing the nation...
...Mr...
...The same question surely arises with respect to the public attitudes toward the Watergate affair...
...The history of Presidential use of broadcasting did not have an auspicious beginning...
...The President—but not the Congress or the opposition party—can mold public opinion almost at will...
...These measures would provide for the televised broadcast of certain Congressional debates, debates between the national parties, partisan responses to Presidential broadcasts occurring ten months prior to a Presidential election, some free time for Presidential candidates, and some time available for purchase by any responsible group or citizen...
...This fact should be apparent to those who watch the tube with any frequency...
...Its more basic shortcoming is a failure to explore the full impact of television on the public's opinions on current issues...
...Minow, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commisssion, and his colleagues relate that the early Twentieth Century Presidents were reluctant (or did not know how) to take full advantage of this new medium of communication...
...But what is the effect of news film and commentary on public thinking...
...This, in turn, means that the constitutional system of checks and balances is unable to function properly...
...To restore the constitutional and political balance, the Minow team recommends adoption of five measures either through legislation or voluntary cooperation...
...The problem, according to Presidential Television, is that neither the Congress nor the opposition party has an access to television even remotely comparable to the President's...
...For every public leader, and especially the President, is ultimately obligated to persuade his constituents that his programs and policies are in their best interests...
...Since public opinion is the guiding light for all politicians (especially those looking toward the next election), Congress and the opposition party are often unwilling to challenge the President's policies and programs...
...As Minow and his colleagues state, "Television's impact . . . threatens to tilt that delicately balanced system in the direction of the President...
...My experience suggests that that likelihood is not great...
...The President's virtual monopoly of television, the authors point out, has thus done much to enhance his political power at the expense of Congress and the opposition party...
...The advent of television in the late 1940s was quickly recognized as a far more powerful means of reaching the hearts and minds of the people...
...It presents perspectives and raises questions which until now have received far too little consideration, especially in Congress...
...And Herbert Hoover's most memorable experience with Presidential broadcasts is perhaps Harry von Zell's introduction of him before a national radio audience: "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, Hoobert Heever...
...As an example, how significant was the barrage of pictures and reporting of the Indochina war in shaping public attitudes toward the President's policies...
...reviewed by Lewis J. Paper In his 1960 book, Presidential Power, Richard Neustadt of Harvard observed that "political power is the power to persuade...
...Franklin D. Roosevelt made clear that radio could be a useful tool to garner public support...
...In his first eighteen months in office, Nixon made more frequent use of television than the collective use made by Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson in their first eighteen months in office...
...Every modern President since Truman has therefore relied on television, especially in a crisis, to explain decisions taken or events unfolding...
...Paper, as a staff attorney with the Citizens Communications Center in 1972, represented a group of Senators and Representatives who tried to buy time from the television networks to respond to a Presidential address...
...He can appear simultaneously (and for free) on all three major television networks to discuss any issue he wants, in any format he wants, for as long as he wants, and at any time he wants...
...In Presidential Television, 'Newton Minow, John Bardow Martin, and Lee Mitchell contend that television provides the President with a unique opportunity to manipulate public opinion to his advantage...
...The Minow team readily acknowledges the public benefits of the President's use of television...
...But for those who do not, Minow and his colleagues provide ample documentation to support their conclusion...
...In the absence of answers to these questions, some doubts remain as to whether television coverage of political matters really is unbalanced and, if so, whether the proposals recommended by the Minow team will effectively remedy the imbalance...
...But no President has made greater use of the tube than Richard Nixon...
...Indeed, few would deny the value of having a President appear on a video screen to communicate directly with the public about matters of national importance...
...All this, of course, has changed considerably...
...Neustadt's thesis underlines the potential importance of the broadcast media, and particularly television, in today's politics...
Vol. 38 • January 1974 • No. 1
