Tales from the Washington Press Corp
Washington is just another form of Hollywood… only the people are ugly.
That was how Peter Roussel opened his session on how he faced the Washington Press Corp and lived to tell the story.
He was full of stories. He used to work as George H. W. Bush’s press secretary way back when he was a congressman. When Barbara Bush asked him for advice on the weekly column she used to write for her local newspaper, he suggested that he’d be glad to write it for her. Instead of blowing up, she congratulated him on his honestly and demanded he start calling her Barbara. Rousell said that that being honest all the time is the best advice he can give to communicators. Don’t be a ‘yes’ person. Even if you lose your job, it’s worth it to protect your integrity.
When someone asked him to name some journalists he admires today, he was hard pressed to provide an answer. He feels they lack substance and just don’t listen to the answers to the questions they ask anymore. After thinking about it, he said he admires Hugh Sidey of Time Magazine and Jim Leher of PBS.
If you’re looking for a good book to read on what it’s like to do political PR , he suggested Boys on the Bus by Timothy Crause, who worked for Rolling Stone at the time. It’s an account of the 1972 McGovern /Nixon presidential race.