Press Coverage of Legislative Appeals by the President

Abstract

By and large, unless the president's public appeals for legislation are reported by the national media, only his immediate audiences will hear them. This article examines 541 presidential legislative appeals from the Reagan and first Bush administrations to determine how often such appeals are reported and which ones generate press coverage. It is discovered that the majority of appeals by the president are not reported. This finding helps explain why presidents struggle to build public support for their proposals, as the public cannot be persuaded by messages it never hears. Presidents themselves appear largely responsible for this limited coverage, as most of their appeals are quite short and not the central focus of their public remarks. However, appeals that meet the press's criteria for newsworthiness are reported more often, particularly those that are most significant to the president and that easily fit the narrative style of reporting favored by journalists.