President Franklin Roosevelt built a bond between himself and the public through his “fireside chats,” delivered to an audience via the new technology of radio. The President’s use of press conferences has evolved with the presidency and technology. In 1981, the National Commission on Presidential Press Conferences, co-chaired by former Governor of Virginia A. Linwood Holton, Jr. and former Chief White House Correspondent for NBC News Ray Scherer, suggested reforms to the modern presidential press conference.

The National Commission on Presidential Press Conferences (1981)

Read the Commission's Final Report (Adobe Acrobat)

Co-Chairs:

A. Linwood Holton, Jr., Governor of Virginia, 1970-1974

Ray Scherer, Chief White House Correspondent, NBC News

Commissioners:

Douglass Cater, Special Assistant to the President, 1964-1968

Robert Pierpoint, International Correspondent, CBS News; White House Correspondent, CBS News

Julius Duscha, Head of the Washington Journalism Center, 1968-1990, Editorial Writer, Reporter, National correspondent, The Washington Post, 1958-1966

James Rowe

Carroll Kilpatrick, Assistant press secretary at the State Department; White House Correspondent, The Washington Post

Felicia Warburg Rogan

Commission Director:

Kenneth W. Thompson, Director of the Miller Center, 1978-1998