Kalb Starts Presidential Series

Because he thinks presidential press conferences do not work, Murrow Professor of Press and Politics Marvin Kalb has organized a series of forums at the Kennedy School to study the problem.

The first of three conferences took place last weekend at the K-School's Joan Shorenstein Barone Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy and the two remaining forums will be held in June and September 1988. Kalb declined to discuss last week's meeting, but he said the center will issue a report on the conferences' conclusions next fall.

"We will give [the report] to the next president of the United States in the hope that he will change the way that press conferences are held," Kalb said.

Participants in the three conferences come from a wide variety of backgrounds, Kalb said. "We invited leading journalists, government officials, and scholars," Kalb said, "Presidents Carter and Ford have been invited to attend the next conference."

Washington Post reporter David Broder originally suggested sponsoring a discussion of presidential press conferences, Kalb said. "The idea in its simplest form is that the press conference is in a state of acute disrepair," Kalb said.

"The current system of the prime time televised press conference has had its day in the sun," Kalb said. "It is no longer an effective means of communication between the President and the people. It is political theater."

Reagan's Thursday night press conference demonstrated that "the atmosphere is wrong for a debate of serious issues," Kalb said.

The K-School forums will also address the problem of the decreasing frequency of press conferences. "FDR held about 47 press conferences a year. Reagan has averaged seven a year. [Thursday night's] press conference was only the third this year." Kalb said, "Unfortunately, the frequency [of press conferences] has gone down quite steadily with each Presidency."

"Frequency adds to the reliability of information, it increases knowledge and it eventually must happen." Kalb added.

"Something must be done to repair the press conference because it is the principle means of communication between the President and the American people." Kalb said, "The only question is how to fix it. We are in the process right now of formulating our response to the problem."