His political opponents-and even some allies-consider President Obama to be aloof, insular, and unreceptive to criticism. Media critics chaff at his administration’s many attempts to control access to the president, circumvent reporters, and chastise journalists and news outlets they deem to be unfriendly.
Those may be valid critiques. Yet it is an undeniable historic fact that no president of the United States has conducted as many interviews as Barack Obama. Not even close. Later this year, he may surpass 1,000 interviews given during his first seven years in office.
At the end of Obama’s sixth year he had given 872 interviews to a broad range of reporters, columnists, bloggers, radio hosts, local television anchors, and others reporting news on a wide scope of issues the president wanted to weigh in on. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined had only 572 interviews at their six-year marks. Obama’s emphasis on interchanges with the press through interviews represents a change from the practices of the presidents who preceded him.
Those previous exchanges took place in press conferences and short question-and-answer sessions with White House reporters assigned to cover them and their administrations. The shift to interviews away from White House-centered queries has come about through the opportunities Obama and his White House staff now have to target the segments of the public they want to reach at a particular time. It is a move White House reporters view as consequential for their reporting on the presidency and for what the public knows about the chief executive.
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