Timeline Of President–Press Relations

Interactions between the president and the free press have been central to the United States since the nation’s founding. The Onion takes a look back at key moments that have shaped the executive branch’s relationship with the Fourth Estate.

1803

Local busybody Arthur Swipple wanders into the White House and asks Thomas Jefferson what he’s up to.

1850

Press pool can’t remember who is president. Polk, maybe?

1881

A dying James Garfield begs political cartoonists to stop drawing caricatures of his gunshot wound.

1910

Taft becomes the first president to address reporters from the West Wing bathtub.

1974

Woodward and Bernstein’s takedown of Richard Nixon marks the first and last time the press successfully holds the president accountable. 

1976

Gerald Ford poses nude in Playgirl.

1980

The White House press pool assures Jimmy Carter they can also see Walter Mondale.

2002

George W. Bush reminded for a third time that the “ps” in press corps is silent. 

2018

Assassinated journalist Jamal Khashoggi is posthumously banned from the White House.

2029

Maggie Haberman reveals in a new book that Trump died in office in 2019.

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