Presidents and the Press

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The Last Best Hope?

Adam Smith

77 episodes

5 days ago

Historian and broadcaster Professor Adam Smith explores the America of today through the lens of the past. Is America - as Abraham Lincoln once claimed - the last best hope of Earth?

Produced by Oxford University’s world-leading Rothermere American Institute, each story-filled episode looks at the US from the outside in – delving into the political events, conflicts, speeches and songs that have shaped and embodied the soul of a nation.

From the bloody battlefields of Gettysburg to fake news and gun control, Professor Smith takes you back in time (and sometimes on location) to uncover fresh insights and commentary from award-winning academics and prominent public figures.

Join us as we ask: what does the US stand for – and what does this mean for us all?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Historian and broadcaster Professor Adam Smith explores the America of today through the lens of the past. Is America - as Abraham Lincoln once claimed - the last best hope of Earth?

Join us as we ask: what does the US stand for – and what does this mean for us all?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

History

Arts

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Presidents and the Press

The Last Best Hope?

46 minutes 31 seconds

1 year ago

Presidents and the Press

In 1787, the year of the Constitutional Convention, Thomas Jefferson wrote that if he had to choose between “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”. Easy for him to say – but in reality, US presidents and the press have always been locked in an embrace fusing mutual respect and mistrust, cosiness and outright conflict. Both feed off each other, but who’s in charge? But who has the power in that relationship? How does it work and how has it changed? From Woodrow Wilson, the first president to hold proper press conferences, to the present day, this is a story of how presidents sought to project themselves as presidential, using charm, threats and distraction techniques. Adam talks to Kathryn McGarr, author of City of Newsmen: Public Lies and Professional Secrets in Cold War Washington. And to Nick Bryant, former BBC correspondent in the US and author of multiple books including The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with itself.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.