Ghosts in the White House

Welcome to this week's Friday Flashback. Each Friday in the Flashback we offer a post about some part of the past and its relationship to DC. Sometimes, we will write a new entry. Others times, we will showcase articles that previously appeared in The Prices Do DC or some other online publications. But no matter who does the writing, you can trust that you will learn something important from the Flashback. 

The most famous address in America–1600 Pennsylvania Avenue–is also perhaps the country’s most famous haunted house.

Presidents, first ladies, White House staff members and guests have reported feeling ghostly presences, hearing unexplained noises and even running into actual apparitions–even on the way out of the bathtub, in one particularly famous case. 

To continue reading this post, which 1st appeared in History.Com, click here.

Photographers Fighting for More White House Access

Last year, 40 major news organizations filed a formal complaint with the Obama administration contending that officials were barring photographers from taking news pictures at the White House. Instead, on many occasions, the White House was releasing its own pictures of events, which the photographers say "smacks of propaganda."

Last weekend, two White House photographers appeared on an Inside Media edition at the Newseum to provide an update on the ongoing dispute.

"If White House pictures are only supplied by the White House, you (the public) should be concerned," said award-winning White House news photographer Charles Dharapak. "They want to manage the image; they want to manage the message."

Dharapak's colleague, Dennis Brack, a long-time White House photographer for Time magazine, said the issue isn't new. "It started in the Clinton years. We have been protesting this for a long time, but recently it's gotten to be more" Brack explained.

With the explosion of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr, it is much easier for politicians to provide and disseminate their own photographs. "Who could blame a president for using these tools to get their message out. But this shouldn't replace news photography," Dharapak said. "You get to see only their version of these important events. It's great photography, but it's not journalism."

"We're not looking for a gotcha moment. We're not looking to make news, but the event is the news," Dharapak added. "The journalist's job in Washington is to hold our politicians accountable. When the independent press is shut out, journalism isn't happening.

Brack, who has been capturing presidents on camera for decades, provided a historical perspective on the issue. He said the idea of White House prepared photos dates back at least to the Woodrow Wilson ear, when Wilson wanted to disguise the effects of a stroke he suffered while president.

"The difference is everyone then knew the (Wilson) pictures were contrived," Brack said.

Brack said presidents have always been concerned about their image. "Now LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson), he was a photographer's dream," Brack said about the outgoing Texas leader. But even Johnson had his limits. Brack was one of the photographers who took the famous picture of Johnson holding one of his hound dogs up by the ears. That picture sparked controversy at the time around the country. Brack said LBJ called him in and said "You got me in a heap of trouble with that one."

Vanity can also play a role in presidential photography. John Kennedy dismissed his favorite news photographer when he took a picture of the youthful president with his reading glasses on.

Ironically, Obama. when elected, pledged to make his administration the most open in history. But that didn't turn out to be the reality. "I think the the administration thought they were being transparent, but really what they were doing was issuing visual press releases," Dharapak said.

The photographer said people ask what is the big deal about who provides the images. "People need to be conscious of where their news is coming from," Dharapak explained. "If only the White House provides pictures, there is a lot of information that is left out."

Both photojournalists acknowledged that recently the White House has been granting some more access and that trend should continue.

"This is probably an issue that White doesn't want to have keep dealing with right now," Brack said.

The Great White Jail at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Harry Truman called it "the great white jail." Bill Clinton referred to it as "the crown jewel in the federal penitentiary system." President Barack Obama simply calls it "the bubble." But no matter what the name, the terms all point to a major problem for any modern American president - how can he (or someday she) be a man of the people when he is so isolated as president from the realities of everyday life?

"It always strikes me how abnormal the president's life is," says U.S. News reporter Kenneth Walsh, who has covered 5 presidents as a chief White House correspondent - Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. "How do you have normal everyday reactions with people? How do you keep in contact with the flow of everyday life?"

Walsh tackles that subject in his new book Prisoners of the White House: The Isolation of America's Presidents and the Crisis of Leadership. Recently, he appeared at an Inside Media edition at the Newseum to discuss his book and his observations from his White House work.

Even in the earliest days of America, there were problems with the tug between an imperial presidency and a president of the people. Initially, there was sentiment to call George Washington His High Majesty or some  other such elevated term. "Mr. President will be fine," Washington said.

In Abraham Lincoln's years,  any person could walk into the White House and grab the ear of the president, a fact accurately portrayed in Stephen Spielberg's recent movie on Lincoln.

However, by the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the modern world was forcing the president more into seclusion. "Presidents have been trying to break out ever since," Walsh said. For his part, Roosevelt, also inhibited from traveling by his polio disability, had his wife Eleanor tour the country to get a feel for what was going on outside of Washington. "She would travel for him and she spent many hours briefing him over dinner," Walsh said.

Walsh said both Reagan and Obama, although quite different in makeup and political beliefs, did share a common way to keep in touch - both were avid letter readers and writers. In fact, Reagan actually had a young black pen pal in DC that he would secretly visit. Obama tries each evening to read and respond to 10 of the 40,000 emails and letters the White House currently receives daily.

But the physical isolation is only part of the problem, Walsh said. "Every moment (as president) you are focused on as the center of the universe. That's got to change your focus. Maybe you even begin to believe it," he said.

Another drawback to openness is security and protection, which began in 1963 with the assassination of John Kennedy and really ramped up after 9/11. "Right now, it is as intensive as I have ever seen it," Walsh said.

Walsh said that despite the restrictions, Obama attempts to keep himself grounded by trying to have dinner with his wife and their 2 children at 6:30 every night he is in DC. "They talk about the most basic kind of family stuff. But how normal could it be for Melia and Sasha?. They're not everyday people. They're in the bubble, too," Walsh noted.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
As you might expect with President Obama facing 3 scandal situations - the fatal attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, the IRS targeting of tea party and conservative groups for special scrutiny, and the Justice Department's seizure of AP reporters' phone logs - Walsh was asked which one he thought posed the most damage to the president. "We don't know how they're going to play out, but I think the most dangerous politically is the IRS issue. It connects to people's idea that there is too much government, that government is running amok and abusing its power." Walsh said that Obama is facing what some historians have called "the 2nd term curse." During many presidencies, "things go wrong in a very big way" for a re-elected president, Walsh said, noting Reagan's Iran/Contra scandal, Clinton's impeachment, and Bush's handling of the Iraq War and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.