Presidential Communication Before and After, Then and Now

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02049.x
• Published date: 01 September 2009
• Date: 01 September 2009
• Author: James L. Garnett

Book Reviews 983

Presidential Communication Before and After,  en and Now

James L. Garnett is a professor of

public policy and administration at Rutgers

University–Camden. He is the author of

Communicating for Results in Government:

A Strategic Approach,

coeditor of

The Hand-

book of Administrative Communication,

and

the coauthor of several recent

PAR

articles on

government communication and crisis com-

munication. Other research interests include

administrative reform and reorganization.

E-mail: garnett@camden.rutgers.edu

James L. Garnett

Rutgers University–Camden

Mordecai Lee,  e First Presidential Communications

Agency: FDR’s Of‌f‌i ce of Government Reports

(Albany: State University Press of New York

Press, 2005). 278 pp. $75.00 (cloth), ISBN:

9780791463598; $24.95 (paper), ISBN:

9780791463604.

Scott McClellan, What Happened: Inside the Bush

White House and Washington’s Culture of

Deception (New York: Public Af‌f airs, 2008).

$27.95 (cloth), ISBN: 9781586485566; $15.95

(paper), ISBN: 978-1586487003.

Both Mordecai Lee’s  e First Presidential Com-

munications Agency: FDR’s Of‌f‌i ce of Government

Reports and Scott McClellan’s What Happened:

Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture

of Deception highlight the structure, style, and role of

communication at top White House levels, albeit six

decades apart.  ese two books not only contrast the

f‌i rst and current presidential communication appa-

ratus, they contrast with one another in purpose and

style. Lee’s book on the f‌i rst presidential communica-

tions agency aims to describe the historical origins of

the Of‌f‌i ce of Government Reports under President

Franklin D. Roosevelt. In so doing, Lee provides a

macro examination of events involving the executive

branch and Congress as well as the White House (1).

In contrast to Lee’s approach, McClellan, former press

secretary, aims for an insider’s account of politics and

communication within the White House of George

W. Bush, particularly on the selling of the Iraq War,

from 2001 to 2003.

Structure for communication. Lee’s book tells the

story of the U.S. Of‌f‌i ce of Government Reports

(OGR), which was created as part of FDR’s Execu-

tive Of‌f‌i ce of the President in 1939, fully authorized

in 1941, merged into the Of‌f‌i ce of War Informa-

tion, converted back to the OGR by President Harry

Truman after the war, resisted by Congress, and

of‌f‌i cially disbanded in 1948, although its purpose

and functions lived on.  ough Lee shows how

the OGR evolved during its lifetime, the primary

organization of the Of‌f‌i ce of Government Reports

included a Division of Field Operations that had f‌i eld

of‌f‌i ces in all states to disseminate and collect informa-

tion.  e United States Information Service was the

information clearinghouse for Washington, D.C.,

and published the United States Government Manual

and other documents.  e OGR also included a

Press Intelligence Division that clipped and sum-

marized news coverage from around the country. A

Radio Division produced radio programs on dif‌f erent

federal programs, and the Film Service distributed

such award-winning documentaries as  e River and

 e Plow that Broke the Plains, and later f‌i lms for the

war ef‌f ort.

 is humble beginning has been transformed over

the years into the considerably larger and more

inf‌l uential White House communication function, as

reported by McClellan, who brief‌l y describes the basic

functions of the dif‌f erent units within the presiden-

tial communication domain: the Communications

Of‌f‌i ce, Of‌f‌i ce of the Press Secretary, Of‌f‌i ce of Media

Af‌f airs, Of‌f‌i ce of Speechwriting, and later the Of‌f‌i ce

of Global Communications. McClellan, however,

gives little analysis of their functioning, except to note

which unit leader had more political inf‌l uence. His is

an account more about individual actors than about

organizations or institutions.

Role and style. Both the progenitor, the OGR,

and its of‌f spring, the White House Communications

Of‌f‌i ce, were created to enable presidents to com-

municate directly with citizens, interest groups, and

regional and local media without depending on the

national news media to report (and f‌i lter) informa-

tion. According to one of the many documents that

Lee unearthed, the OGR was created to

Provide a central clearinghouse through which

individual citizens, organizations of citizens, and

state or local government bodies could transmit

inquiries and complaints and receive advice and

information

Assist the president in dealing with special

problems requiring the clearance of information

between the federal government and state and local

governments and private institutions

Collect and distribute information concerning

the purposes and activities of executive departments

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