Why Presidents have always hated the press!

The practice of refusing to grant the media interviews dates back to the days of President George Washington who refused to be interviewed by the first of the partisan democratic hacks James Callender. Mr. Callender was a paid partisan of Thomas Jefferson who published a series of articles on a sex scandal involving Jefferson’s rival in the Cabinet Alexander Hamilton who had been banging Maria Reynolds and allegedly provided insider information on Treasury matters. President Washington refused to be interviewed by this hack who was later tried and imprisoned under the Sedition Act by President John Adams when he wasn't drinking Merlot and managing second rate prize fighters. There has been a long and illustrious history of ignoring the press by such luminaries as Abraham Lincoln telling Horace Greeley to piss up a rope to William McKinley sitting on his front porch and telling them to stuff it where the sun don't shine. So saying that a complete and utter contempt for the press something new and extraordinary is just completely wrong.

Democratic hero Franklin Delano Roosevelt was noted for his bullying of the press when he wasn’t going on television for one of his fireside chats to reassure the people after the stock market crash. He refused to allow them to take pictures of him in a wheelchair and heavily censored what was reported during the war for security reasons. President Harry Truman also hated the press and although he bantered with them he also often threatened them and in fact threatened to kick a music critic in the balls. One could only wonder what he would do to Frank Rich.

President John F. Kennedy did in fact in enjoy good relations with the press. Of course they were sexual relations as he enjoyed banging girl reporters or the wives or relatives of those reporters who angered him. He reputedly had a relationship with the sister in law of Ben Bradlee the editor of the Washington post as well as many of the beat reporters who where trilled by the attentions of the handsome Democratic president. Of course his most legendary feat was to be able to avoid vomiting while getting a rim job from a young Helen Thomas.

It was a great disappointment to the political classes and the press when the “Era of Good Feelings” ended with the election of John Quincy Adams. During the Presidency of John Monroe, there were in effect no real “political” parties as the entire political class was in basic agreement and tranquility reigned. Unfortunately this ended with the “Corrupt Bargain” in the election of 1824 between Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams where Andrew Jackson lost the election in the House of Representatives and somehow or other Henry Clay ended up as Secretary of State. The spirit of hatred and enmity reigned as charges and counter charges flew and calumny was king. General Jackson managed to wrest the Presidency away in 1829 and the acrimony continued in both the parties and the press. In fact in activies very similar to the personal attacks on Sarah Palin, the press savaged Andrew Jackson’s beloved wife Rachel claiming that their marriage was in fact bigamy since she had never divorced her first husband. The constant attacks on her reputation by the press were so severe that she in effect turned her face to the wall and died. This did not improve General Jackson’s temper and he took it out on the press for the rest of his life. Civility was not returned to politics until the ascension of the dapper Vice President Martin Van Buren to succeed Andrew Jackson. Know for his silky manners and debonair ways Van Buren was a cosmopolitan man of the world who favored internal improvements and massive immigration. It was in fact his support of Chinese immigration which led to the subsequent “Era of Happy Endings.”

William Howard Taft had a legendarily bad relationship with the press. But he had a simple solution. Whenever they published an article he didn't like, he would sit on them. That is in fact how the term"press" was coined.