>> coming up next former white house press secretaries from the ford, reagan, george h.w. bush, t& administrations. they talk about how the position has changed overtime and some of the difficulties they faced while trying to work for the white house and the press. the panelists include ron nessen, marlin fitzwater, mike mccurry and robert gibbs. it was hosted by the national archives.+wb >> in the words of young jeezy, . let's go to work. you know, i thought we would start this the way we usually end these things. by saying thank you. this is the week when we recognize the service of people who have served our country in uniform.d our country in uniform.0)i8 and all of you served in public x

service so i'm going to start by saying thank you. is that okaying?2ag >> you're welcome. [ applause ]úji2 >> and i'm thinking that there @v6wy are others here who served, if 8aúñ you served in any of the administrations represented here, will you be known to us? will you just briefly give us a little wave? [ applause ]fn: and we say thank you.[5c thank you. we'll talk about the whole relationship between the media and press secretaries. if there are any press secretaries here, whether you served on capitol hill or in the white house, elsewhere, can we make yourself -- and if you ,fo especially returned my phone calls, thank you.ú;a9ññ4cq and if you didn't, well, thank you anyway. okay. any press secretaries here? thank you for coming.÷

thank you, thank you. [ applause ] it's a little like the defendant thanking the prosecution, but v whatever. so anyway, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about what we really want to talk about which is all the things we wanted to know when we were sitting in those chairs that we didn't get to talk about then so this is our chanc%!zq spill it. so let's do that.6d÷ so the first thing i wanted to know is, did you actually want these jobs or were you -- did you get drafted or did you volunteer? ron nessen, i will start with you because you were a correspondent. you covered the vietnam war. you were grievously wounded and almost died. you come back here and you reported on the administration. you reported on gerald ford's inauguration and then you were reporting on the then press secretary's appointment and all j@añ of a sudden you're the guy. how did he talk you into that? >> well, as you say, i had been s®hy a reporter for a long time. i had also covered the white y, house for about two and a half úsnr years when lyndon johnson was president.

and then i covered the first month of the ford white house. and i think what persuaded me to do, to take the job when he offered it was i wanted to see y% what it looked like on the g@ g%9m%9ñ in fact, i wrote a book afterward called "it sure looks different on the inside," because i had thñuvn'se as a reporter that i probably knew í5 ñ 10% of what was going on in the z@( white house. and one of the reasons i took this job was i wanted to see what the other 90% was. that was one reason.&5x i think the other reason clearly-ablz was that i really liked gerald ford. xsi2asv i covered him as i say, as an çxee nbc correspondent.wz and so that was the other reason for taking the job because i really did -- i really did like him. the third reason i'm ashamed to say is that i had a pretty large ego in those days. and i thought, hmm. >> imagine that.

>> i'm moving up to a white house job. >> is that right? >> very satisfying for a guy with a big ego. >> marlin fitzwater, you actually first went to the white house as a deputy, right? >> right.÷?p7y i was in the civil service. and i was at the treasury department when jim baker caused and said we need a deputy for y@ domestic policy. somebody to take the heat for the president on the recession, which we were about ready to hit 10% unemployment. would you be interested? i said sure. and so he said come over.!@0m@p and i went over, spent an hour bjaí with him and he said you want the job? i said sure."2mv and he said let's go see the @39=' president.fl1?z we walked down to the oval office and president reagan was sitting there, he said well, marlin, jim here says you're ÷g1( willing to help out.

i said yes, sir.e açélb that was it. >> how come?bi &háhp &hc% >> first time i ever met him and first minute i'd ever spent time with him. !ñ4gq door and said mr. president, i'll do my best¤skz and i got outside the oval office into the secretary's r area, and i went yes! and she said what is that all about? i said history must always record that even if i get fired tomorrow, i for one day, i was a i]$ç president secretary for the president. [ applause ] >> why did you say yes? you could have said no. i don't want that job.m=# why? dealing with people like me every day, really? >> you know, i was a professional public affairs person.

i'd been in government 17 years at the time i went to the white house.+h i worked in a lot of different agencies and so the white house was the pinnacle of our profession, a professional deal. the other thing was i didn't know what the white house was all about. i mean and seeing that press corps and helen thomas said what are you doing here, kid? and it was all downhill from there.k fn [ laughter ] >> mike, what about you? you had come to the white house from the state department and you'd been at the dnc. it wasn't a direct -- >> my story is a little different. i had been around in washington as a press secretary for 20 years.x and i had worked for i'm sure everyone remembers the administration of president john glenn, president bruce babbitt. rzñ president mike dukakis.

president bob kerrey.82f÷ so it was actually probably because i have an unfailing ability to pick the losing candidate.o&pñ i had worked against bill clinton in the primaries so my thought was, i was not likely to get a job and george stephanopoulos took pity on me and said this guy's been around a long time, he worked at the democratic national committee for a long time. so he can probably do the job. luckily, warren christopher, secretary of state, hired me to be a spokesman. but after two years working at the say the department and doing the job there and maybe something we'll talk about later being on television because at briefing was televised, the white house briefing was not fully televised.l i caught the notice of some folks at the white house aqcéñ they invited me to come over. i don't know that i ev;1a"nd of angled for it, but it made sense because had i, obviously, worked in presidential politics for a pretty long time. and it made some sense that that would be the trajectory that i wound up in. >> did you have a yes!

? >> no, because it was -- if you remember, we're in the aftermath of an election now that is not to be called shellacking i guess, but in 1994 at the end of why did you do it? >> because it was an honor to be asked to work in that place. i think all of us would say it's the coolest place on the face of the earth to work.rz!,ç even though i ildi time, i had never been outside the country very much and i had

just worked for the secretary of state and been all over the world, that was pretty exciting. bgñ but the opportunity to work in the white house you know to &x5 drive up that little west executive drive and say i've got m6a> right outside the west wing, it's an honor even when the subject matter you have to deal with becomes fairly zesty. >> let's talk about that in a minute. but before we do, robert gibbs, what about you? if you're on a campaign, isn't kind of the working assumption if your guy wins, you're going to get the job or gal eventually? >> i think in most instances by the time you get to the end of the campaign, you have a fairly decent chance or decent sense of if this person wins, who is likely to be the press secretary. i think mike's absolutely right. i think the you realize pretty 5 ñ quickly how great an honor and 70÷ great a responsibility it is -.bos when you doll drive into that white house, a lot of days when u

uz it's dark. and you realize sitting in that qcdux oval office throughout the week what you're witnessing, what you're trying to describe and what you're part of. know, i think it's truly an amazing honor. i do remember pretty early into my first briefing and i was listening to a question and it was about ten minutes in and i remember this voice in my head saying i can't believe you're here doing this. and there's another voice saying pay attention to the questions. [ laughter ] i thought it would be amazingly gh embarrassing to somehow miss an entire question in your first briefing.hoñ)m so -- but i think that's, you know, you understand that however long you're there, you're just -- you're going to get to witness and see things in a seat that very, very few 0c" people have. and it's remarkable and it's amazing.é! >> so let's keep it going because for those of you who. >> it's all good times.q/[ just keep going. qhñ >> we'll get topfze)ju we'll start it out soft. so you know, the post has a 5f] feature which called date lab which thankfully as a married #-t:z person i don't know about. when they're trying to fix 4x

people up they have this thing caused brag a little. so brag a little. like what was your best day?k1]ñ what was your best day? robert, you want to start?@dfwx >> i think the our best day was probably signing health care. >> i'm starting with you because i don't know that you're going to get too many more questions like this. c that's for sure.acr no, i think -- i just think the 9cjzda+9ñ sense of accomplishment and the ÷n ÷ euphoria of you know walking into the east room and having b the president sign that and now,l3=" you know, you have people come up to you and say you know, i have had a condition for 15 (rk years.

i could never get health care, faduv thank you for being part of 5÷ ñ something like that i think was -- that was probably it. plus also that day is, you know, that's when joe biden said into an open microphone just how big an accomplishment that was. >> exactly.pírix2áfbes he did. #z [ laughter ]f"pp >> and i remember i went back top,el you know, when you're in the east room, the microphone is lry.÷yej the camera. it's not audible. i couldn't hear it and i'm there and somebody. comes running in and said you should just know the microphone sort of picked this thing up. and so we're talking about it and one of my other deputies z]6fñ rushes in and says i don't think he said that..tsxñ&úç i said yeah, i'm pretty sure he said that.xgqñ and i'm sure we'll get some of the technology of this, but i ÷y

remember i was on twitter and i thought, you know, let me try to sum this up. so i remember i sat down and i'm like, and so i wrote, yes, 1gáee mr. vice president, it really is. and i hit send. i think my phone is -- >> demerit.ël÷ interview demerit. >> so two minutes later my tv assistant comes in and says the vice president's chief of staff is on the phone. damn, ix4u&d have checked with them before i tweeted. and it was one of those things, and again, sometimes in even in politics honesty is the best policy.w and ron called in and i picked ri+

up the phone saying hey ron, trying to pretend like nothing was going wrong. he just said thank you. he said we were over here trying to figure out what the statement would say and we read your tweet and it was like yeah, just sort of own it. so that was a good day. >> all right. though? >> good point. >> thank you. >> i just have the to find my phone. >> who is next? mike, what was your best day? >> much more mundane than that although i loved that story and thinking of that, you know, you were the only one of the four of us that had to worry about tweeting because -- >> !. >> it's a whole different job. i think the job that you ended up having to do just because of the changes in technology and media went by so quickly. but mine was okay. very mundane but it captured as i think back on it what i think the best of what the press secretary can do was. and it was a day that we announced in the clinton administration that we were promulgating a very complicated federal regulation to regulate tobacco for the very first time. it was premised on the theory that a cigarette is a delivery, medical delivery device designed to deliver a dose of nicotine to the body, which was stretching 4r& (things as the supreme court later concluded. but it was the regulation went on 30 pages in the federal register.úg and i stayed up a good part of the night to read it even though i said okay, the briefing the next day, we're going to bring in donna shalala, the secretary of health and human services, david kesler, head of the fda, and they'll do the briefing but i want to make sure it's a big deal and make sure i know what's

going on. well, donna and david kesler got up there."ézöñ÷ it was so complicated. they instan"-u(v o7]6 the weeds. and you guys all know terry hunt from the associated press. he's standing there looking up. going -- and it was clear ?$acér watching the reporters that we ó were losing the story because explaining it. and i so i got up and elbowed donna shalala out of the podium which is a very difficult thing to do, if you know her.ñúfv(0ú and i kind of took over the ! briefing. and got the head of the food and drug celebration administration, the secretary of health and human services there and looking at them saying am i explaining this correctly. but i had to simultaneously

translate that complicated language and vocabulary of government to something that would actually get through and help the reporters write the story. a couple of them came up and said boy, you saved y”pbuns there because we were not getting any clue what you were talking about. a6÷a(" that's the best of what the press secretary can do.),o÷k[a i mean, we get accused of being spin doctors.ff( we probably sometimes get a little angry at the press corps.3!úú but at the heart of it is tryingzffs to take the work that the white house does, the president does, ady and the federal government does and help the american people under7# it. so i mean, you know, it was not the most dramatic day. i had plenty of those. but it was the day on which i felt likevbtp&ly did my job. >> ronnie, want to go next. >> just to follow up on that, gneqñ one of my best days in the white 8% house was when is i smoked when i first went to the white house. and a bunch from the press office went to these decided to 4vc[&f' join this class called smoke enders.?[fv and we went.]ó

i think it's eight weeks or so. and i stopped smoking.lbék so but seriously, my best day in the white house clearly was when&$uráup'd up and announce the end of the viu43 and i had as i say as an nbc correspond3t8áñad covered the war. i did five tours there as a correspondent. got wounded almost died.!3rw,b#c go over into the old executive office building and read this statement from the president saying for us, the war is over. and i've guh ait(árrjád cassette tape of that at home. my voice is about five octaves higher than normal, very quavery because of what vietnam had rcu meant in my life and here i'm the one who has to stand up and announce the end of the war. h0 >> did you want to cry? >> yes. >> did you cry? >> not in public but in private i did. >> how about you, marlin? what was your best day? i'm thinking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall this week and i remember -- i shouldn't admit

that i remember that. what about you? >> well, there's so many days and events that you run through your mind. whether it's the fall of the berlin wall or the invasion of kuwait, liberation of kuwait or z4" panama or those kinds of things.8v4 but i think the most special day: day of the reagan gorbachev summit in 1987. and everyone was anticipating an end to the cold war and gorbachev had never been to the west. everybody in the world wanted toy1t see how had he would get along with the guy who said it was an evil empire over there. yx and we had 7,000 correspondents credentialed to attend the up mit. so we moved the white house briefing room to the ballroom of:jwnñ the jw marriott hotel.j$@cñ and we also renovated half the 'fy commerce department or at least

the first floor for overflow crowd. and we got all 7,000 people packed in there.tóq.x(and i explained for several days why we were accommodating these people and also that i had u uñu invited my counterpart to brief :t with me. my rationale was if they were wouldn't get in an argument across town which is what normally happens in these cases. i figured neither one of us wanted to upstage our principles or create a war. we would be very careful. and he and i talked aáp:%rá. we were going to be careful. so we got to the podium and we .wd walked up kind of on the stage like this and we were about halfway across and sam donaldson was sitting in the front row and he said, 50 bucks, marlin takes (;s6ñ+bs

him. [ laughter ] my first response, well, that's sweet.nqw but my second one was, he just destroyed every purpose i had for their entire show. but nevertheless, it was a memorable five days. >> but why was that your best day? was it because of what it meant $. s or was it because of your role in it. >> no, i think p?n11e jt(uáq of what it meant to the world, h7 to us. it was the beginning of the end, the unveiling of the reagan gorbachev relationship and all ám([z the arms control agreements thatroybñfi went with it. at the same time, it had this faoñ kind of very exotic and credible surrounding where access hollywood was sitting in tv?&z front row and entertainment t r tonight was tops on my phone list and things like that. so it was a great show, great pavilion. last of all, it was fragile. and the mistakes could have been disastrous.t9$+ i had kind of underestimated alllstc that.

so but anyway, you put it all together and it was really a @&s series of experiences, you don't very often get. >> when you have an awesome day like that, does the president ever come say, good job? >> almost every briefing i gave. he had a squawk box on the gavel. he would call me immediately i ñrex÷d got back to the office. sometimes he would uk 4iju down while i'm briefing. >> wow. loi)z >> he almost said good job but sometimes he would say a bll criticism was, far lynn i might 8hlrr(t&háhp &hc% say that a little differently. >> anybody else? >> aren't you going to ask us what our worst day was. >> i'm getting there. it. >> go ahead. aet what was your worst day? >> well, i think clearly my, well, the worst day was when t1x÷ ford lost the election to carters#b5@ i think. but i think one of the most aw-lñ difficult days was when betty

ford went out to bethesda naval y@ñ hospital and had a mammogram and cancer.qd"kd2n and she underwent a mastectomy. i'll never forget the look on ford's face. they had been married for 30 years. they were so close and so in love. and you know, he was in danger of losing her. and she wanted to put out the news while she was still in the operating room.a=ñ sent a message out. and i think by being so open about this, it resulted in a lot of women going and having ))q ueç &háhp &hc% mammograms. and happy rockefeller, the vice president's wife discovered she had breast cancer.pvñ my mother went and had a

mammogram, discovered she had breast cancer. this happened all over the $úuñ country.4

was in such great risk.q >> uh-huh.-xdñ >> it had a happy ending, of course.sa:w >> it sure did.ra(ó anybody else? hmm, mike. >> yeah.me!2y well, no, you know, it's funny because i -- [ laughter ] >> everyone assumes that the days of la fair monique would have been you know, the hard fe y days but they were relatively easy days. the press corps was consumed with only one subject and i was saying nothing.k0ó [ laughter ]te#tñ so it was just basically as i said at the time, 100 different ways to be double parked in the no comment zone.f7.yy you know? or hard or wasn't the worst day. it was just unbelievable.mzxñ but my worst day and ron, i appreciate it, it's the emotion

that goes into it sometimes $sy6x because we're supposed to get up there and be cool and collected and calm and as someone said in the introduction, we have to keep it together all the time. and my hardest day was i had worked as ron brown's director $c5q' he was the chairman of the dnc. and the day his plane crashed on7f&ytp) a trade mission in the balkans and went down and it was an awful thing because there were a lot of young people, many of the folks on the white house staff who had been part of the advance party who were also killed in ejñíf& that crash and i remember we had, i mean, we had the oval office, i don't know how the white house communications folks did this but we had piped into the oval office the guys who were on the search and rescue team who were up there to confirm the identity of the body and i remember it was awful. and the president called alma

brown and it was very emotional. and then it happened right around the time of the briefing.6:k and so i said okay, i've got to the go out and brief because everyone's going to want to know what's going on..a?ev i didn't stop to collect myself because here's a guy who i had y"hh cross swords with. i think the only time i got fired in my life, ron brown fired me. and we had a wonderful /by relationship despite that..ymñ and i remember going out there, and i got about two-thirds of the way into this and i felt myself losing it.ú2czt and you know, i still lose it a little bit. i had to stop and say i need to -- i looked down at my staff ç $uq&l i was in turmoil so someone handed me a note which said get off now. so i went out and pretended thatjyy i was getting some information from the president. and then came back and was able to do the briefing. it's those moments that we -- you know, we handle a lot and hr $ prepare for a lot but every once in awhile you g mething thatdbh

jerks you out of your place. and i think those were the hardest moments.4ñ3;r> but you do know what they are? >> i had a passing aquaintance. >> i was a little concerned.2za>y >> so anyway, it was over and`-ñ she called my and said would you

come up to -- this is after she got back from the hospital and yñ she said would you come up to the residence. and i went up and she said, well, i just want to tell you, i thought you did a great job and are there any questions the press are asking about it. i said well, yes, they want to know why you had a double mastectomy when they're now developing other less invasive kinds of operations and she said just tell them this, i want to live. she's still alive today. >> so there's a lot of days like that that are really moving that.ob;saiu you know, i wouldn't say it was ]y

you're part of these policies. you're guilty.m bw and she stomped off. and two of my deputies heard all the screaming and came in.w6"çç and i was crying.ít and they said why, why, i said you know, i just don't think the i deserve this. how can this -- how can this be? but i got over it and you go on. ÷g+tìáhp &hc% is that the worst day, probably not.b> why did that make you cry. >> can we take about a half hour áátáháuju)qáñ >> we could.-y why did that make you cry? >> because it was just seemed so unfair and so unprofessional and not my responsibility and not --yobp r(t&háhp &hc% and it was just painful. the idea that i was res8di &á for killing children. >> do you feel that i'm ígxfñ ñdñ└ondering if why you -- i would cñe/uxs never have known this if you hadn't said this.z

not to let people know you have feelings. >> yeah, i don't tell those it took 20 years to get this oneamñ out. >> what about you, robert?íhff? >> i think the hardest days are when you have really big things xh collide.hpqów and i think mike makes a good -øt point actually the easiest days to get ready to brief are the 8q1 hardest days to brief. and what i mean by that is, they? give you -- you'vex,wkiáhis ízqo÷ notebook with 20 or 25 things in+rcu÷ it. but if you know you're only going to get one question asked >;khf six different ways you don't really have to pay attention to the other 19 tabs in the binder. >> we call it the kitchen sink day because everything in the kitchen sink was going to get @e ñ asked that day. so you had to have ten times as "zahx many answers. >> look, i remember every day of the oil spill was brutal.

stone popped their story about stanley mcchrystal and we've got>c÷ to call a four-star general back from afghanistan and you know, i remember walking over to the e÷][ñ residence you know, i had calledb the president and said i think you need to read this story. and i walked over and he met me a÷ht26 d33 two paragraphs and he just -- we>g'g had a quick conversation.h$n÷y he said whoever's left it was meet in the oval oje minutes. so have you these events that collide. tñ i remember the shooting at ft. x&ézd52rñ 0my÷x hood what an awful day that was.dg >v and pretty, you know, decent part into the evening we had

spent@8ably two or so hours 4jéazf[ry÷ maybe five or six of us seven, i forget how many in the oval zéw office with bob gates and admiral mullen and bob mueller zkb,ñ from the head of the fbi, the 5 president talking through and i won't tell everything but talking through some of the stuff that they had already learned and i remember that was a thursday because i remember i'm walking out of the oval office, and he's walking in, and all of a sudden, i remember oh, yeah, tomorrow's employment report. and, of course, the white house economic team will get the j(éiq employment report. and they don't, it comes out:30 (1vsáh9éy in the morning. it's the day for two years employment report. and larry was going into to tell the president what the report was.z again, i'm so focused on fort &3bñ hood and the investigation and the fbi and all that stuff.igx i see larry and i'm like, he z-a

kind of craned like -- go like this. and he just goes -- and i remember going oh, man.ás- and it was the first t1j "! x/7u unemployment surpassed 10% since reagan. momeóe(5u$ere@ál7ve got all this stuff and then something collides.b+t:pp÷ i think the most powerful moment was late october in 2009 and we djá mhp were in the midst of the 2/eg÷ afghanistan review. and an ied had just %jr a basically truck carrying a nëñ bunch of our soldiers. and so there were 18 dead. and the president had lifted vd

when he came into office the banrhb&ñn transfer process at dover. and we knew at some point we .cyu÷"'c/÷ would go to dover.pjyl?x and we figured this was a good ny'÷ time to go to dover.. sovh+j/ñ >> yeah. óñmfv >> and we left the white house about 12:45 at night. unaccompanied in a helicopter. it's about a 45-minute ride to d x dover. and i'll never forget the j had given us the tail number of the giant plane that had all the and i remember we put the helicopter down and i look out s the window and the first tail d y number is this giant plane and eo]ti&iñ it's that one.

and i can remember coming off the helicopter and seeing in h8! these neat little rows 18 'gám:qz transfer cases with the flag.=êj and the process tï=]1j5yau done, it's a remarkableús >ëtr(t&háhp &hc% ceremony.k$m$ and we were sort of there, we aíah were there for about four hours.í!

afghanistan revik:a!f+z you're there watching the dignified transfer and you're knowing that he's sitting there m'fk7dxpuv6l thinking, i'm going to make a to come back like that.lv% and it's just one of those c3&ñs1$q things er had to describe it the next day and we did the pool reports. i never really had to go out and brief on it, but i just remember&[#cl thinking there are those moments in which you begin to feel a little bit of what they're going through. and in a real sort of in a way understand for a brief moment what weighs on their shoulders. >> yeah. >> so switching gears now, did 7w!b> are you talking to me? >> yeah.z n> did you lie?ñ,çñ did any of you lie? >> i think i never really lied. i think i often. >> and i'm not lying now. i mean, one of the promises i 7mcñpv2$w made when i took the jod3/2jykhfzo cf1 o will never lie and i will never cover-up and i didn't.fiqsñ i really kept that promise."y

i think sometimes i worded things in to make them ysn&fñ=]1ñ less. j9 >> true?r@fdj >> no, no. >> no, just less damaging letgh say. but -- >> did you ever feel you walked v?u1lra ÷ up to the line? >> i thought we walked up to the line,ú%xajy i think we all walked up to the a line. but don't forget this.p let me just back up half a step. ford succeeded richard nixon. and he had done, you know, greatxúaon damage to the presidency and so ñ÷ forth by the watergate.w=t and how he handled watergate.d>2&wzl- and i think this made all the hn people in the ford administration determined to go in a completely different "o direction. plus the fact that i came out ofpqb1 the press.b=h and i knew that there was always

a suspicion that the, you know, that the press was, i mean the press secretary was not being completely honest with us. and so forth. and just to tell you, and i'm ÷ just to show you how i was determined to be completely j÷. pzyqeñ different than the nixon white house, nixon's press secretary was named ron ziegler.@p5p gw÷ and one of the things i said p3úur ford's press secretary was i'm a ron, but not a ziegler. l but no, seriously, you know, ñe0ln given the fact that ford had succeeded nixon and what how the nixon administration ended, you know, and the fact that i came out of the press and the fact that ford you know, in his wholebui

political career had built a reputation for honesty and so z: forth. so you know, we may have delq putting out some stories as i say, i may have described him in the best possible terms without lying. the press corps. ámhs(rq&e. nb[ v >> you cannot lie in that job. i mean2-uáh(p)eer ending. if you ever got caught knowingly misleading the press, the consequences of that would be the rupture in that relationship of fragile trust that exists anyhow and you wouldn't be useful to the president. now, i did, i mean i got in troumiséjáursq elen thomas ?=gdçéq asked me that question. ñapg5 and i said no, i've never lied. but i certainly learned how to tell the truth slowly.(5jfñ [ laughter ] yeah, we were up in martha's odfñ vineyard after this really zódoxu5r3 bizarre thing in which the 4ystçqy president had to go on national television talking about things that we "$r@112

the very next day we were going off on a happy family vacation @jmartha's vineyard and i knew vó that we were going to be back tos the white house because we were m getting ready to launch a cruz 2yq/$.h missile strike against osama bin0 laden to trg; : im at a $kv.rz1v7÷nmmo little pow-wow that he was having. ha g+j i remember being at the little schoolhouse at martha's vineyardt7u dtj1xú$z txoz which i think ron's probably been there and you know, the beach. so they kind of hang around saying when are we going to get )iz the lid? q' are you going to wrap things up. > you know what the lid is? tell them what the lid is. >> no more news for the rest of the day so you're free and clearñ o unless some emergency happens isuíj basically our signal to them &-ky we're not going to be putting

out any more news during the day."4#z what do you say?x was it a lie for me to say you uçzxñ know, no lid right now. i'm just going to check a&?.+ó edmñ what's going on, see if there's qz you know, yeah, we're going to u5qs war in about an hour and a half. would you like to stick around?z@a8ñ [ laughter ]icr)q)e are techniques that nmg you have to use and sometimes they border on a thing called dw"t spin which is that you are aáx trying to take your best ÷q"uv interpretation and offer it up..aéñ but i think if you knowingly m'!kh mislead the ameri!áqp'd i@ their representatives, the press'n÷ kó!?ír+á_q oast. probably. >> marlin, you had access to classified information in that ñh'zi &háhp &hc% you were part of the group of 73"toc>q% nine, correct, in your m administration? how did you handle that?1+

i mean, did you say don't tell !q/a2c me anythi@ )qjit(j$uq&l or how did you handle that? >> well, first of all, i was ó!ñ fortunate to become press secretary to both reagan and bush under circumstances where i knew them. .eá$uju)q" with them before in lesse s. and in both cases i went to them and said, i want to be in all meetings including all national ñ÷

beginning, i would go into all !$y pentagon would call back and say,@amy9l5ñá)jt)u-water here? and fortunately, president bush about the second time this happened he started a meeting and everybody was lined up, and i was just a half a second late coming through the door. and he said, let's just all wait for marlin till he gets here. there was never a question againlvvóç$v was supposed to be &@10 there and why not.@f0x but in my own mind, i had to worry ab $q+ery time. and what i would do first of he%@ñ35 all, is make a judgment on my #!eñ own and try to decide am i really confident this is not ia h classified.tmx then i'd go to general scowcroft was our national security 7xt advisor and say, is this am i getting in trouble here?ms@ and he would often say, here's a better way to say it or here's something a little more nuanced. and it saved me so many times in qa÷p1i,ñ saying something i shouldn't have said to have a process and have it in mind.÷k,u mike makes a really interesting point here about if a press ji1bñ secretary lies, he loses

and why we have to be so carefuldñé% about that.>3ru' and i have two quick examples. asked if we were going to invade grenada, the president had gotten a tip. he went to the national securityú>3w advisor and8j )já ñ/;2ñ 8 $%qeeju)ájápr" that's preposterous.h larry didn't know. he wasn't involved. he went back to the press and said prepost!w&t absolutely not. the nex o-%eájj j(á did. we had over that night.h6mbñ and the press never treated him well again. it was similarly jody powell what was going on. he was very close to president carter. and he was part of the dçtqç everything considerations on the attempt to rescue the hostages kx in iran.ñ= and one niveh hey were making the hostage rescue attempt. the press got a word of it.emsb and went to him and said is this happening?t

happens.>ojz and he in his own mind said the q( same thing i probably 7ñ have said. i think i would have, that the most important thing here is the+9"ñ mission and protecting the lives of our tro;' and i am nol0g1jjur(qsrá thispkqk no matter what. what jody did is he just kind of /fìáhp &hc% hadn't thought it through and he said no.rló ] it's not going on.á

>> and i've twwsááá(rá wvjph about this, but i remember the very beginning of the administration, and i know this 4máñt is going to sound preposterous f@z6&ke but you know, one of the things they said, don't evenïz acknowledge drone strikes. don't even acknowledge that there's a program that does t0l4 like freaked out about saying :ó something that's classified. okay, probably lq-hat!ájd day i was briefing, somebody asked me about a drone strike.gz i -- do i have any information xët on that and you know, not going l3!"q dñ to get into -- it's on the damn %ñf- w front page of "the new york 8afd times." right?b$ryñ because somebody has reported we've killed six people in a zdy drone strike. yet the press secretary to the president of the united states ejs÷ is not capable of acknowledging a program in which that even úq2éá [ñ exists. and i've said this now since i left. i didn't do anything, i didn't say anything about it then.,5e+ i wish i would have because you tzb99=qb uááát+háup'ding up there saying something like that

while they're reading "the new york times)1ús it's sort of preposterous. i have an example sort of like marlin's.nsó

cf1 o in there to give him political advice about afghanistan, then the idea that they don't know the president is -- that's the t""o biggest understatement in the :=!g0(pr(t&háhp &hc% world. i said, if you think i'm going to go, the president's going to go into a three-hour meeting in which we're going to repeat a dozen times and you think i'm somebody who sat in that meetingí'@ and say, hey, i'm about to go brief the president's just been can you give me the five-minute so i can go answer 30 minutes of questhd$v about afghanistan, [ it's crazy. somebody is willing to sign up for that, be my guest. >> were you serious?9,z were you prepared to quit? >> i absolutely would have if i ?zdm could not have been in that 9e! have this -- you have way more information than you can ever h5;ej@euh(t&háhp &hc% say. and particularly at a time, i mean, look i'm sure there was z then and there is now a safe in p/)

gf" the office where you have to i2r lock up classified documents, 9d8 you have to record when the safe'74%om gets open, record when the safe gets closednía@cñ there's a lot that you're -- that you get information on. and i think if you have are ñ5 somebody who isn't in a lot of that and can't watch it and v(0dh;ñ understand what you're supposed to steer around, then the whole job becomes sort of moot. because if (3-tot in that, and ç"v again, it's not as if i'm -- i'm sure plenty of reporters will go back and look at those briefings and say you didn't say a lot ;róf about those 12 three-hour meetings but you at least get ahr$ good sense of what is discussed,. the interplay, the issues they're talking about.omza2kíc ÷ you could bring somebody out to shf do it a general or something would be6;6 as comcr-ted to (v do.$n1fnó bf uk f8ver but if you're not in there listening to that discussion in ="ñç those probably 30 some hour

worth of meetings, i said one izn, áf thing.>úcu and it was the second to last question and the last meeting after the decision had been made and the president said, how are we announcing this? made and?a the president said how are we announcing this? and i said we're doing it with svvt a, you're doing a primü÷ time speech at west point sir. that's all i said in 12 meel&; and pie job wasn't to say anything. my job was to take a lot of notes and try to as best as i could, what was happening. if you]"s[ a briefing wouldn't press secretary, you wouldn't, capability. >> pu1- are two two important things here.o wp >> okay. >> let's get1@k3÷ to those two point things because i want these folks to have theirgly chance. >> it'sf er not what you,ñká press secretary thatg gets you in trouble.n it's what:r

in trouble.. and marlin in his book talks about, it's hgt a process of information and verifying that you know whatt)yz you need toc67uuj @r(t&háhp &hc% in order tovifwñ do the xbriefing.8 that is critical to the job. but the second thing that's important that's come is that the president has to protect that role of the press sent to be there9 ñ and tot6: know what's0í@ a going on and to take it all in. the president would stopíjlo meetings and'2jz say get old mike mccurry in here becauseú? press is going to be on$ ÷uz him about this, and i want him to hear what we're talking about.qjñkér(t&háhp &hc% and he would literally stopç(1v things and make me come to the ]?inaétv meeting so i would see what >,a the conversation was about.q[yqr h(u(p president who doesn't respect that role is going toj0x screw up thetfn relationship that's important. >> but there's an awful lotxqo see, now they're doing to me what i would -- up. >> we'rera$ going@9$( ask questions here, these two mics on either

side are for8 so have at it. go ahead. >> you know fçrq', when ford asked me to take this job i made it clear that and he actually, he made it clear that8 sit in"- ondsj any meeting, sometime2n9opinger,2"ñ was not too happyc÷ about that, but i could sit in on any meeting because ifv%c=÷ you have to go to another white house staff and sayb&7 asked an];eç uestion about this or i expect to be y0 ab< t í< oing to spin6p; ouxábv up for their own sákx÷ purposes. they're going to give you an answer that helps achieve what they're trying to s:q!% ñ not to be truthfulf " q v with the press. so ford said you canúyin on any meeting you wantz said kissinger was a little bit more of a problem but i think that's one of the mosti@ uj (u things you can do to make sure

you're getting all the facts to pass on tov7 çrzá because if you haveúxhñ[= call up somebody else on the staff and say, you know, i think i'm going to be asked a question or i've been asked a question aboutz so-and-so, how shall i answer it, they'll give yr. that helps them you know, with whatever the issue is. so that's why÷ think theh7dw press secretary really needs to have a meeting, daily, with. fp the

in the roosevelt h $yroom. or the oval office. they make big a decisions, and sometimes you're just sittingd(k÷ tñ0z you're wa4gg 0okky9[i"/!e"nt it also h educated about any issue. >> there's a bunch of things we all wanthj/@ to talk about.@-jñ &háhp &hc% oneufed ofk;j talkzí6v&ut is;áv favorites? >> yeah. you were my favorite. [ dtml÷laughter ]t>q [ applause ] >> lt"> whenw,z i was press se&rb>ie1ñ we played favorites;"p onlyf0 to giveìáhp &hc% to certain news organizationsu;jv that we thought wouldw0qç putoéaqç bigger display on a story to try to get it more exposure+-! over time. >> exposure or3

just to get the story out bññthere. t@."give it hdúñto,sj5 hey, %h)usa today, we'll give youslt an exclusive if q@a-+áu put it on the front page because maybe some other people will pay attention and ask abouti kj it. we'll(w"ináát more coverage. >> when i was press secretary, there was only onen 8brz in theb white house press core, helen thomas. >> you desperately want to#qa tell helen thomas stories. >> really big picture of me at one of myjb=u /eb%briefings, and:ú i'm standing up at theil: podium. andáqq this wide angle shot of all these q there were no chairs in the briefing room like this. people sat on the floor and in the windowmy boxes and so forth. anyhow, andi a helen was always sittingï down in the front you know, and i'd makehxoá announcements ifdñ had and say anybody got any questions? or i would announce something thate;j)q president had done and helen would raise her handy@á= and say, well zfbyron, do you agree ! )c with

with him on that? and my answer was always the same. i'mhk president has done and what the president's thinking and õ >> sir and you know who we are and we'd love to know who)p are. >> i'm jimd i wrotejúr a book called "lies my teachers told me". you said you don't ld4 of you said you don'tkqfy mislead, yet i think that the american < people feel often that they've been lied to7 read anñ!n÷ article thatvqz to point out thatx zj oftentimes the people have been lied to whether it was about whatyojp we did inl61e;q1q1 or j6:r cia giving people lsd or more rec%q5]÷

nsa"9í > my name's michaelcs my question is for l gyíi

i was va.ñ"'ñ-yykñwondering, what was the hardest thing about beingnj@;÷ a journalist transitioning to a press zl,jxsecretary? >> well you know y )umq as a simple sort of practical matter i 6 wuáy white house car woulduzol pick me up at home at 7:00kilx in the morning.z y get tojñ,?ñ the office at 8:00."uycf >> youífñ got a white house car?lnt >> you got a white house car? >>go)m!r ÷g >> i'mbu,:s going to ask the next e5"3x question. >>áú@ a6)e. cut a better dealca than%kiñ we did. [ laughtert"& ] >>"h)lñ soy i leave"y6hhome ato get to the white house at 8:00. east breakfast there. [ ánf-ñlaughter ] >> what do you think we're going to get23jiwould farm out to get:h3ñ

the answers, ande z i would have a meeting with the president at->f f 10:00, and my briefing would beu0h at 11:00. then this the afternoon0nj reporters would wander in and out of"áqt myz]ilñ office with their ownr questions, you know, and there were meetings that i attended and so .c&éy and i would 8:00. and i and he would be asleep by the time im sñ w5. x)ñ been asleep in i left and asleep and i would wake him because that's the only time itr would get to see him so you know, that's alrb2ñ long day. but that was >> about yiqrví[ car -- >> we want to know about this car. p:7ybody wants to pö !m about this car. one of the big. x differences is9yñ televised briefings even when i was]kixñthere, marlin, you very rarely had >> my partner to the right --f.o >> what's up with that?

what's up with the televised÷taí÷ briefings? and do you regret it now? >> i had televisedá the state department. theyip was the $ spokesperson back in the iranv-k?xr(t&háhp &hc% hostage crisis. and it seemed weird to me, they had this thing that maybe dated back to march lip's táftime. they turned on the cameras for the first two or three minutes and turned the lights off, and for me it was$ao disconcerting because i felt like 'tpu down a little after o #r wo people came in it wasn't about television,p butñ radio.6 k$qí peterñ]ö peterú[ 7d&d5 maher, and theyusw said our print colleagues can use allurúv the material they get from the briefing, but we don't get any raw material thatx kñ we need from we have to go out hour from thepp, hour and report from thet house and we need sound.

we need your briefing. it needs to befy' ! for electronic broadcast.zú'zi &háhp &hc% i said okay. we'llú+mexperiment. so we kept@ó k l6 lengthening the and the the, amountcb)u of time. and finally, markj";q noeler came iv " youhé know that the entire briefing was televised last, you÷h"jk know, 0 if yourgácñ makeû2 a big deal about it it will never happen again. and it worked finêvy for three years.s !f1 om:v gdnj '96, '97.]tq' we got into the@d+ya> how did youha$4 get away with not that? >> cnn was the only all-cableczb÷ channel, and they weren't interested in9& vñ putting the briefing on. occasionallyzx something, like when theuy murrah

building ble">]ñ up ináfí-ñ oklahomar city. but thep#'t#aily briefing was thex÷ñ raw ingredients of# v news reporting. we were out9÷x there giving our point of view. we werejdzç answering questions giving our take ono but the reporters didn't think of it as a news event t was just part of what went into reporting on the news. and then what happened was,at=x because of the monica stuff, it became its own (o9#qpárical event, and everyone has suffered since then. so it was a stupidqkkk thing for3÷ me to allow live coverage. i should have said, you can record it, use it in)zv g your lates#=ureqmk9[ you are broadcast, which is the way it happened in the state if they want to have it live, they file a brief and the spokesman has to grant as i recall. >> i want tovvy0m toyl defense or the other issue. inté1s one way that wellwvc+÷ i'm

not sure whether it was good or bad in that sense,@q8%(uá i do know this. mike2iqw÷lno was the perfect guy to1gív do it first. he was handsome he5 was oung. [ laughter ] î wasltñ íb government. [ yvzñlaughter?#ñ; ] >> and post importantly,)10 at a&ok time during/sc that scandal or >> it was a scandal.. ñ i'm pretty sure of that. >> when the government wa1) really having tadbdifficulties&l ñ when the white house with d)ñ:n+ulties, mike was

that said government is still operating. it's notñ:)eogbbeasy. impeachment is ngk0;d fun for anybody, but we're)g moving ahead. and so ijev think thatw z televisionfl7 presence paid off.jxñ"dñ in that g/"instance. now since then5o]í we haven'tyrf/d had quite the same kinds offùgj6dzlqbmñ situations, althou? ññ i'm not willing to dismiss it entirely because i think there are somehd circumstances televisiondiyyg7 but itzñ makes it a lotúqie different ball game and different for the[#d reporters. i think it3jgf was the end] of the printbetú journalism powerñ,lsz . and we could!?ç&examinewirñ all'zib(n:háhat at.xzpcnkv[# great ón:/ñ66pñlength, but -- >> okay. >> it was (x a complicatedqbñfd thing. rñ sir, and then this and whereix) are2lgy jui we?2"@q >>1my=q thanks very much. this has! ñ been really enlightening. i'm patrick wilsonwfáiç involvedx

the youngun founders society here at theq' and we'd love to have all of you joinçc us in the young founders ,ñ society, but my about something you haven't talked aboutd you've mostly been talking about the transmit mode. almost a,np?!ñ you also served asl ÷ you've already alluded to as internalpp@

shake government answer. even when9 they might not want to. and you known/hq+ery day"÷(=v -- i didn't have breakfast at 8:15 at the white house.í we were at a 7:30ñ meeting. i'm x y%idding. but when wen@óf went r'to that 7:30 meeting, ther probably in the chieft j of staff's office, and i was always the last one to go because they always knew i had a bunch.,3yt of stuff. you knew, you haven2$ctégqxñ pretty good sense at 7:30 inmm the morningxr szç)what your briefing was(hsp$tájjtjd to be like what your ksñ todrá c iy bept- like. and you know, you start theg process there off9 sure people understand, we read this in the newspaper today. we're going to have to say something on. and we don't get to not say something on it becausefafñ we're go(o5 ñ out there. and i literally have been in=um meetings where people have saidú1áu we don'txb9ñ have a policy prob ñ we have a communications l problem. oh, okay.

tell me what toñ+svñ say, and i'll fix your policyxi&[uproblem. or you know you're going to say something, and i can't remember how many times somebody would say, it would0 well -- >> i agree, but just to÷ clear,p÷y you'reg2v that question. i'yiy getting asked that question. and on more1s-ykoz than a few occasions, you would you you'd sit through a f$1 meeting, andí!$$u &háhp &hc% nobody would come to a i resolution, and you'd say guys,hh 1:30.#ú 02 uhp &hc% so we can do this one of two ]l =eaiz ways. either somebody can stickñhj i.qcxá here and you what we're --t to say, or tune in around 1:30 an9 what the mlñ>g4-s(v is.%-(g÷h remarkable hozlbl quick the they realized, you know, the one thing the is it forces you to have to go out therez even if you don't want to talk

classified and they're hard to# talk about. but we5e #h have agf":z(5ç government thatç$ evera>ñ0zzw has to answer thosem questions. and it it, it makes5$s7át!%q2p are forced. andhj n if it takesaaj>ñ6 the press secretary saying as i remxbu doing a lot,j"7h you d@q'ow

and it helps though, move thatqp1up machinery in a way that you ptq1csay,c(ç [ okay, it onlybcc] works +hy ifwewwe work together and we%l give an answerát ç that's good. >> you know, hesm÷ b makes a very good point about:?,!÷ part of the jobcxfnrr(t&háhp &hc% of being press secretary i mean, clearly partmkxj of the job or most ofm5&c thej2y job is to represent the president and the white house to-l"' the press. but the other part of you.ma@w job is, as hevsam p((qáj@8÷ to the president. now that you guys are outside of the white house and you guys are there, what you@1 can be doing to do a better

public? go ahead. >> well, you know i-u think journalism has changed. and a lot of --6bjñ 60lce i was a journalists, andgp38u i went back to journalism after i left the white house, but i thinkpclb what's happened is, only haveáo huntlyilbñ brickly showc?zi13="nd cronkite2 newspapers, they all 6:30 deadline. so if you"írñ are axkxb reporter and you jpcovered-q mn:gráe house briefing and it was over]ué at noon or something like that, you had the whole rest of the afternoon to do research, go to the files and so forth. gtp8ñ with the internet and cablcáluz television, you don't have ñhz that.j&dsh there's a deadline every minute, and i think that has really content and depth of reporting.

and i think the other0 that's changed it when i was at the v4[upi, where i was before imz? nbc, weux9+r!½uez timeq$÷ñ we had like twod! full time reporters at the pentago63 two at the state departmen¡c& f1 o five on the senate side five on theh&$housevñç side wee' fivereporters at agriculture department justice department. you stayed on@£ long time you learned all the issues, became expert on the issues. you had all these contacts and so forth, so you could0z9rxyi#ñ really report in depth. well as you now,l-e-ç newspapers aregoz)ñú

election about? not the one two weeks ago, butv(r,ñ thevqjhmq presidential election gaffs, gaffs, you know? and that's what reporters do because they don't have a lot ofwqi f1 o expertise issues. >> let me 2 the first, this is the first and$m)r, we haven't z-m$yyt i- you.eyr i'm justuhçe interested in how this hasx your work. >> it's changed1 it a lot. as ron

i joined l:t i realize it'sñ 0é an amazing communications hc!tool, but i was) jñ watching a presidential press zf confereñ]az i hated to do prhj.gntialb) mm mñ conferences in the,÷'< briefing room mostly of where reporters and the press and it was battle, and i thought, don't bring the president in there, and the president would go into the east

to myself, likev .sr%watching theñ91!q human bubble box the voice box that's h thought, this is ingeniqo/ you know, like now i know+s where everybody's heading every ]svc minute of the day, because they're tweeting itr but0e and, you know, digitalu cd ü1 communications,]"m having& weekly radio address nowismíp be the weekly tv and radio address, is )v it's also i think@jc knocked down barriers in?q÷ñ a sense that you jbdai1ephu do and you can communicate in a way that you truly couldn't jh!ñ >> some argu%y .ezóthough, that this administration has put up morevxbwso$gñ barriers than any of thef v preceding, except jxcyfor, let's say the nixony bpw there are those who argue that -- i mean, i'm not there. but there are --lgmk >> look, every white house is,2ób &háhp &hc% every white houseçpu tries desperately to control the message that comes ;uá" and

that's not go@

>> i'm not clear on what this hasb0hác though.fxq?u the question is that the argument is that people who have covered0ñz manylñáçekñ administrations argues that the obama administration has put up more barriers, made more of an effort to control things like" ax pool reports, things like sprays. >>ly let's do pool.sib what i'6> saying[v&!rú segmented thaç you speaking in h6c president puts up anó1w youtube people like 10 million people would watch the newscast. i'll say this1xs reports somebody came to÷ me -- iv#:"ip r(t&háhp1íqi uq&l you who the reporter was -- administration and said we're the pooln÷lg and thenút'd people reports are people that pay to be@mf÷q in the pool.)-jv so we want you to,bwud pool reports to thisvo ifferent

list. i waspmlñy , good luck. and well, what do you mean? we're doing bi#this? and i said let me give you a piece ofãuadvice.grgn get an e-mail program to send out your pools and i would say el

when that lead reporter says thank you, that's a5ó signal to the press secretary that s of what most people would consider a u aa briefing. sometimes it's 30 j+njáá )sqj it's an hour and 15 y.ñs%í! minutes. it's only rooukráe house i think that's not controlled by the white house.d)úgt reporters control that room. they control in large measure briefing. i just don't think if you'reeé wouldn't dependh5: hfe ju poolmy( >> i think/5$w it's one ovza< the mostéóñhhr(t&háhp &hc% shocking v white house correspondent and as+kz a presssz?hsecretarñ#y this is supposed too be five or six reporters whoncpyyt7]l7 represent the whole press corpsá- because they can't all get into an event. these five or six go write out what they see and hear and give it to]]í the otherd(hík i now what role does then house have in that? nowsk they've taken$h÷ that over and are editing the pool reports.

the next thing you know they will ago over to éa the3qs washington post and startg w1páingtdthe post. i mean this is a shocking z" k=a5q9 i'm not making thisñnh i have a tremendous -- this is >> in faqz-mto thez!tfñ white house, andh6÷ don't remember thist issue coming up whenó(2u(ji-tx j/ñ0:á there, but inm fairness toó29n the white house, it's .;zdñ understanding that the reports are not unilaterallyrm;pbyç edited by spa%s[oq hite house, that there's a discussion with the reporter about.djt changing -- i'm not suggesting s right$ wrong. i just don't want youhb #a3 toziñ leave you the impression. >> i don't remember the white house telling me what to pes÷ ind a6%ñ pool report ever. cdlnc "uz say about it ever. >> i thinkx69és the3ud.át thing is&á solved by the correspondentsy@óh having theiluown e-mail: >ñ system. >> let's take the white house out of it. these are the folksrb÷ who wantìáhp &hc% talk to 34 :m0÷vá >> was asked/ñ whatáñ,çéh5me mediaí f?k could do. on start covering the white house as a

are fine$&fx reporters mqh v it as a politicalnó;y story, is the president up or down the pollsx ÷ going up or down. give us more substance. we the people canw÷[áihuj substance, and them

mandelson. you said the rolei1'ñ is55 to shake the truth out of the+!d government hold it accountable. i wonder if you worry that the3cj1whcj[ revolvqxd)6==i uut pev secretary of states and questions, trying to81ñ get a u ob. you have jay carney,#@.d÷ tony snow, sector news organizations afte0qdxl their press secretary 7vaq%ñ ib%b wonder=lhr# that undermines the credibility of the pressr 31bñn sçie1ñ news organization and what you can dou"p÷ about it.anx thanks. >> let me just l, that any of thosee1,l people got unnecessary softball questions? >> i don't 4 i mean, i guess, is the pressea".w 5vt's not a question for you8íbzd but for the press corps. dos@you think the press corps in >> yeah i wish they hadho bbeen. >>7tfsz i would say,ç5@tch the

andtq i guarantee you thatm you will not come away with thehal n impression that somehow josh has beenm1 9]$lmov unnecessarily number of softball questions.fa!k i guess they won't brief in asia. but when he comes j- to comes week where the presidentc do something on&n! you don't have to3@fev listen longx0'f jl0,5euj )q first five questions ofce&9pg i don't thklaxsóz anybodyp i think as eêkçuó are days in which i would have loved towlut >> but il me rephrase dql5%9mq9"uátáh%ay carney'só previous work in timezáq magazine get undermined as soon as he, in his impartial8gq17l&í role at time magazine get undermined as soon as he 1)x takes am political partisan tj9ú5t÷ job in the white house as the .udai m @÷ ñsecretary?

because; z@iq%9 tj if he mak%2. asdfqyd career adjusp@q3u andrbf tj and does that, it's very hard to go back the other s3s being a7hddvsq politicali(& back into the media worldnakbu isk strenuous, as stephanopoulos would m&us saiñyiñ ashtiy my old boss tim russert would say, if he were3u[ñ still here,kf so thatvóp tr# [urjz is more difficult. i don't thinkkij÷ it compromises >> andyñ also their;t&'um uq g2 work. ieb thin3pe]÷#p#éx that their that's my take on it.s6sñr: you get to watchiij$ese people, and youphxget to2fíy decide whether you thvndt÷ they'reotf job for you. >> yeah. >> and their feedback onpó that isfdrz constant, believe mes1á5o!e when i say. sir? s[0p%ñyou. mm-hm. >> hi, myh/÷ name is drew > kbailey i'm a student at the american university here in washington d.c. i just6v wantedé you guys have had úq h:

such a widem# range of presidents if ÷vc@]mvery memorable whether it was something they said that just kind ofñ]"tvutá&d their character and that you will remember for a long time, if you can shareb÷ >> ron? >> well, guessóyjáñ i've already told my two moments. one was qu the vietnam wabñ and the other was announcingñ0 ñ betty ford's d breast cancer. >> is therepe).w a moment that, i ycvink what he's asking, though, is there a moment that perhaps we did not see, because there's so much we think$ but $ little. i meank dá rj a fair oa--tatement, isn't it? wouldn't you say? i don't know, you told thisnñ story on 41 do you want to tellva$?-ruu that=< the houser÷zy at kennebunkport? i don't know how you feel about that. >> two very quickál28 u president

bushy#7s called mer to thet÷ said i hair÷$ éñ the press asking you questions about to have@0ê5!:0s=t.÷ meeting with#z gorbachev. and he said this was early ino@eg&ié the administration. and the pressjö

know about this in c days. so bush said to me i want you secretary of state andrf(@y me know;n about this. and now ty/" the thirdtáu one. ú÷ if it leaks,tlsw you're fired. but he alsoú' know i listen to your briefings,p i want you to kno32 to comeb1hóupdr with language that doesn't deny this isyq."uo happen jt(uáq sooner or later they're going to find outh÷4 that it has been arranged. and that was a great moment for mubj me, because it saidgyr the president'sy qñ sensitive to my problems and to thez problems of -]f information. the o4 story is when his house burned down not burned down, when the perfectb66y storm hit new england and it leveled their house in d just wipedz#c ocean. and we went upçpmgñ there the second or third day afterl0h it happened. i don't á]ñ know exactly how manyx days but it was so sad. 2d]pd the press was with hmd j

but they weren't with him inñkpshç the house. they stayed backñm out of the way.gzáç!ñh and l4-11e1ñ it,]bíyo d was soñ!fh through the z.1shouse, and everything was gone. all the mementos,lpuñ all t/t'émf +hbdh+ pictures. he found one littleyz picture of his father in the yard. so what do i do with this? and our photographer said8&z let me have it, 3$z i'll try and save ävit. andpñ and weq! all in h#& thought he's going into shock. myself and said, will you help + ñ me? we beating thi,bdñ rug and there÷

and finally, at the9!%>ñ end, i said, can i bring he said i don't want to be here. hed3i went and left andejs shack or somewhere there. and theyf"o0ñ[mf remains of the house)af+tu no: emotion.k okay. s:uxost no story and walked away. i mean, that was really]úfpy

city had been turned out to be a domestic terrorism= and it was, you know we had, it happened, we briefings, and the president went to oklahoma city to participate in the memorialv-!py service. iá6 that my third child was about to be abfmuborn and my wife was here, and that wasd and, but i rememberpxêñ watching. i remember in the delivery room and our doctor came in looked at me and said are you boss is having aú.t press conference right now? ky

there are ÷xv&q%=9m about are you stilj6ñç relevant process becauseú newt gingrich+-fp">vyty tajga$yju 1 congress, and in thatç%[[ the president also healing and helping the country trauma, $m" had done an exceptionally good job in that and i had[ru(u(rq"(x it[5?q! uá9 íu(u(rq" it on and heq8ñi3 called. cwlhn t]+t the birth of our son. tickled he was that he_ the presidency to do something"p7 really important to help the mean,kt he had done a great job. but there are those moments when you bez'6oyknow, they get to kind of, with the49ñ lig, cameras off, theyja pxáezp to kind of stop and assess about. and i think those are á[ijrare.jwj and then you get real insight in, you know what kind of person they are at 2u those p moments.

>> good. many times i've been cu 4f off. my!v9+z name's jim burn. i've covered this town for some 50 years and i was at the briefing.é when the committee for the protectiontc d& of journalistsx issued a zç÷very very damning report on the obama administration's behavior with regard to the éluám9ñ and some] in my opinion the" worth thingdz? he did from the point o from the ]÷t to vetooothe(jvezbt

i mean going he didn't. referring to.> çç i3$ report or mention that provision. i mean one of÷jp am remindedpj:b÷59dm gñ(6 with(xcai qe early on in the z2o administration. that wu we had to m!

was a very persuasive case3 not releasing those photos.x½ and why thatqéó would putñc1)h(eople in danger and put soldiers in dangelñt have then-"/ó( ;y reaction of people, even, not directedm at those that were in thetlhzwq photos, but just overall. and we talkedob a little b too much information. i'd been in that meeting. and we walked out ofó i meeting,vl deci wr

challenging answer here because i know that they're notb@h gt2 be released. meeting. i've seen theudixdis3j#wiu;hpáú!@r(t&háhp &hc% i know why. and i was very, sortn213 ofelling the truth slowly i gave an"4áu that led everyone make a very different decision. but8a8÷ it just reminds me of those times which, as we talkedn@babout g5akmtjuá )jr(t what do you do non-transparency. some of the decisions andp#n 3lt r:f1 o definitions are not asú$b(mgx3gf easy as3a some people mightd transparency at large or those decisionsn8qcñ at >> 2hñwell, thank you, i don't know that the gentleman i; trnñ( with that tqmcíqq:fa!canswer. but -- >> -- report,?,fñso.

>> we did talk so60b many things d3÷ talked about including that you were the first" figurewj toi1p appear on saturday night live. but we'll have to save that forr!7 the next session.4p! d÷ [ applause ]h ì7u >> thank you.áív6ñr mmkv ñh @gp&hn?xcmf çunv án1rxf z8 with live coverage of thezáq7ñezuhp &hc% u.s. house on c%(lm? and the senate on c-span 3 we compliment that coverage by showing you the most relevant hearings and public affairs events, and theng onqlvh weekends axrñ n 2 is the home of americanx sif t unique--gw series,4u

war's anniversary,mjh visitj:ñ battlefields and key#9 artifacts touringat÷ history bookshelfru known american historyw t÷6nk'] writers. the xa t+k looking(of$]kqñ at the policies and] / will gosiesp=é of ou nation'sbf/4bbnñ commanders in chief.ckt and our new series, real fóy america,&a/÷ feature archival government and educationaä#hs-i: films from batñ 1930s through the '70s.frqés c-span 3 created by the cable 5! tv industry.]+ahzeìáhp &hc% like4 us on facebook and follow k2014, c-span's p,x communities throughout the country with the help ofp:n our local cablepf partners. here's a? look at one of8 cities.