User:Audradelaney/sandbox

Final Contribution (10/20/18)

The White House Office of the Press Secretary deals with the daily press needs of the president and manages his/her/their relationship with the news media. The Office of the Press Secretary deals with the president and his/her/their relationship while the Office of Communications deals with strategic planning of how the president’s statements will be released to the public. The leader of this office must be stable and serve for a relatively long amount of time. In the eighty nine years that the Press Secretary has been a job, only 31 people have ever walked up to the podium. This person gives information to journalists from the president in different formal and informal manners. Success in this position, and for the office, depends on the information given to the Office of the Press Secretary journalists, the President, and White House staff. One example of the type of documentation that comes out of the Office of the Press Secretary is memorandums about different laws and policies. In 2009, President Obama’s Office of the Press Secretary released a memorandum on the Freedom of Information Act. It stated that “the government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.” The Office of the Press Secretary is also responsible for writing statements for the current Press Secretary that are published on the White House website. An example of this statement was published by the Trump Whitehouse on October 19, 2018 about the United States Health Secrurity National Action Plan (the Plan). It will help the “United States Government prepare for and respond to public health emergencies.” The job of the press secretary is just one piece of the administration of the President of the United States, but a piece that handles a crucial part of the administration’s relationship with citizens: its relationship with news sources.