There Is No White House Press Secretary
It may now seem quaint, but there was a time in recent history when White House press secretaries played a dual role: protecting the president’s image and advocating for the interests of a free press. The very layout of the West Wing suggests that’s the way it’s supposed to be. When they leave their office through the back door, press secretaries stand in a hallway equidistant from the Oval Office and the press-briefing room.
The geography symbolizes the balancing act a good press secretary must perform, says Mike McCurry, who held the job under former President Bill Clinton. “The press secretary has the job, internally, of being a whisperer for the White House press corps,” he told me. “Someone inside needs to defend the interests of a
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