that blended into the grey background. It was one of the first tangible examples that, in the television era, style is paramount and substance important only if it is presented stylishly. The influence of the media had only grown in the intervening decade, so much so that upon bowing out of the 1968 presidential campaign, Lyndon Johnson in part blamed the media for his defeat. He noted that he was not by any means a great communicator, but, in ascribing part of his problems to his portrayal by the media, added:
You have the power to clarify and you have the power to confuse. Men in public life cannot remotely rival your opportunityùday after day, night after night, hour after hour you shape the NationÆs dialogue (Maltese 15).
When Richard Nixon was elected President in 1968, it was in large part due to an approach which shielded him from the reporting cores. He used staged television events to take his message directly to the people, making frequent use of televised question and answer sessions which the media was excluded from. Nixon advisor Herbert George Klein w`s the first man to receive the title of ôManager of Communications,ö a departure from the traditional title of press secretary (Maltese 16-17). Klein immediately set out to create a novel role for himself within the administration. Conversations with prior press-secretaries had convinced him of the need to coordinate the entire executive branchÆs press activities. On November 25, 1968, the Office of Communications was created and Klein was named Director of Communications for the Nixon administration in a statement that in part, read:
Mr. Klein will serve as spokesman for the executive branch as a whole. He will coordinate the activities of public information officers in every branch of government (Maltese, 25-27).
The modern era of press manipulation had begun.
Under Klein, the first White House Office of Communications chief activities were ...