Fitzwater shares challenges of the job

by Sarah Morrow and Krysta Lewis
Presidency and The Press

Serving as the Secretary of the Press for both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush for a total of ten years was extremely challenging, Marlin Fitzwater said in an interview today.

Fitzwater described his job as stressful, having two bosses: the president and the press. While he was assisting the president, Fitzwater said he was also acting as the peoples’ window into the White House.

According to Fitzwater, the success of his job depended entirely on timing. “The press wants to know things right away, in a matter of minutes or hours,” he said, “whereas the president may not want information released for days or weeks.”

If the press demands immediate answers, but the president does not want information to be released until a certain time, there must be a happy medium to satisfy everyone, Fitzwater said.

Fitzwater said that in his years of work, he definitely made a mistake or two.

Fitzwater said that Reagan and Bush were very forgiving with him. They understood how difficult it was to reiterate White House business to the rest of the world. He also added that “sometimes, the best thing you can say is nothing.”

The former Press Secretary admitted the hardest part of his job was delivering the bad news. The most difficult was giving details to the nation’s people about the decision to invade Iraq and Kuwait, and what happened after.

He elaborated that it was his job to explain to the world why American troops would be invading. Later during the invasion, he also had to break the news of how our army had mistakenly attacked a building, which held one hundred civilians.

“I don’t know how I did it,” Fitzwater said, “but I cried a lot those nights.”