From the middle of the 20th century until the current time, as First Ladies took on more politically and socially important roles, news coverage of them also changed dramatically. Extensive coverage began to take shape with Rosalynn Carter’s contribution to her husband’s administration, but came with it was also scrutiny from the press and increasing hostility with following generations of the First Lady.
Before Jacqueline Kennedy, news coverage of the First Lady was almost non-existent. However, the only topic among the press then was her sense of fashion and she was mostly still a mere mention in articles about her President husband John F. Kennedy. The same treatment was given to Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Betty Ford. The sudden growth in the amount of news coverage of the First Lady began with Roselynn Carter and her politically active stance in public. From then, subsequent First Ladies also started receiving more interest from the press about their personal lives, and it was Hillary Clinton at the turn of the last century that marked the start of scrutiny and hostility in news coverage towards the First Ladies of the 21st century, with the exception of Michelle Obama. From criticism to nation-wide ridicule, the escalation of animosity in the press is reaching its peak with the incumbent First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump.
News coverage mentioning Jacqueline Kennedy when she was the First Lady was limited and articles about her were even rarer. Those did write about her only ever concentrated on her clothes. One example of such is a column on Newsweek magazine called “Fit for the First Lady” published on January 30, 1961. Starting with “[f]rom the perfumed salons of Paris to the swatch-cluttered world of New York’s Seventh Avenue, the topic of conversation last week was not the new American President but what his wife was wearing. Jacqueline Kennedy had sparked a revolution in fashion,” the article discusses Mrs. Kennedy’s outfits during the first week as the First Lady and her couturier Oleg Cassini.
At the time, apart from fashion, the only other occasion where the First Lady’s name was mentioned in newspapers was in articles about her President counterpart. An example of this is a column in the Wall Street Journal published on January 24, 1964. The article titled “Johnson Defends Acceptance of Stereo Set, Saying Baker Expected Nothing in Return” reports on President Johnson’s comments on his affairs with Robert G. Baker and the insurance transaction conducted by his wife and daughters. The President said that “his wife, Lady Bird, and daughters, Lynda Bird and Lucy Baines, decided two years after his 1995 heart attack to buy the insurance, payable to the family-owned LBJ Co.,” the editorial reports. She was later mentioned again as the article says “[s]ince Mr. Johnson became President, Mrs. Johnson, the principal stockholder, has placed her stock in LBJ Co. in trust.”
This state of lackluster news coverage of the First Lady ended with Rosalynn Carter and her active appearances in public. In lieu of fashion and being only a name in her husband’s affairs, news coverage of Mrs. Carter often consisted of articles about her political work or talks of her devotion to mental health illness. One example of such is an article in The Washington Post on October 17, 1980 called “Rosalynn Carter Confronts the U.N. ‘Error’.” The column reports on the First Lady’s speech at a luncheon the day before and her comments on the United States voting in support of a U.N. resolution condemning Israeli’s settlement policy in Arab lands. “Mrs. Carter, a shrewd and experienced campaigner for her husband, was scheduled to make some remarks yesterday about her visit a year ago to the B’nai B’rith Women Children’s Home in Israel. But she took the initiative at the beginning by telling the delegates that she wanted to give her thoughts on what ‘I know is on your minds’, stated in the article. Rosalynn Carter was also an exemplary advocate for various social issues, and the media did justice to her dedication to the causes. An article headlined “Rosalynn Carter’s Washington” published in The Washington Post on December 12, 1980 serves as a summary of her good doings during her time as the First Lady. “Her contributions as far-ranging as they were quiet and vigorous, included work with the Green Door, a rehabilitation program for the mentally ill; with D.C. General Hospital, where she helped start a nursing education project for geriatric patients; her visits to homes for the elderly; and White House invitations to hundreds of older citizens,” the newspaper claimed.
The following First Lady Nancy Reagan was another women on a mission to help improve pressing social issues, in particular the fight against drug abuse. News coverage of her advocacy became even more extensive in comparison to that of Rosalynn Carter’s. One example is an article named “Nancy Reagan’s Drug Campaign” in The Washington Post published on April 25, 1985. The editorial talks about Mrs. Reagan’s work towards the issue of drug abuse and the conference she was holding at the time. “The conference that Mrs. Reagan is running yesterday and today is a good illustration of her work. In an unprecedented initiative, she has brought together the wives of the leaders of 17 foreign countries in order to publicize the global nature of drug abuse — and of caring about drug abuse,” the newspaper reported.
News coverage of First Ladies until this time generally represented objective and factual reporting, and the aforementioned editorials serve as prominent examples of such. Overall, it was on par with the balanced, objective standards of contemporary journalism.
At the turn of the last century, under the controversial administration of President Clinton, the media also became increasingly scrutinized of the then First Lady Hillary Clinton. A notable example is an article printed in the Wall Street Journal titled “Who is Hillary Clinton?” published on January 5, 1996. The text discusses the conflict between Mrs. Clinton’s statements and new evidence on the Whitewater and White House travel office affairs. “Whoever Hillary Clinton the First Lady ultimately may be, at this point there is very little reason to accept at face value her various professions on the Travel Office, her work at Rose, her commodity trades or her health care task force. In all of these things she was of course a surrogate for her husband, and was officially defended by the White House,” the editorial claims.
In the remnant of President Bill Clinton’s scandalous liaison with Monica Lewinsky, stories surrounding his wife Hillary Clinton were plastered on all newspapers and magazines. An article of such headlined “Hillary Clinton’s Muddled Legacy” was published in the New York Times on August 25, 1998. The editorial discusses the First Lady’s glorious past and how her husband’s infidelity affected her image. “The wife of the Presidential candidate who told a CBS interviewer in 1992 that ‘I’m not some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette’ is now being applauded for doing precisely that. The First Lady who dared to take on health care reform has now been diminished to a popular soap opera heroine. Maintaining the dignity of her marriage, difficult as that may be, is now seen as her greatest professional achievement,” the New York Times states.
It is undeniable that news coverage of the First Lady by the 21st century had become increasingly opinionated and notably evident with Hillary Clinton’s duration in the White House, with the aforementioned text in the previous paragraph being an example. Still, coverage mostly consisted of factual reporting and remained on par with the standards of contemporary journalism.
The press reception of the incumbent First Lady of the United States Melania Trump, who decided to take on a more traditional role similar to that of Jacqueline Kennedy, bears partial resemblance to the news coverage of Kennedy – people only write about her sense of fashion – only with more hostility. In the latest episode in the life of Melania Trump, she appeared in a video unveiling the White House’s Christmas decorations and was instantly met with ridicule from the press. An editorial published on December 2, 2019 from The Washington Post titled “Melania Trump’s Christmas decorations are lovely, but that coat looks ridiculous” is one in thousands of articles on that same topic. “But more than a silly fashion folly, the coat is a distraction. It’s a discomforting affectation taken to a ludicrous extreme. In a video that is intended to celebrate the warmth and welcoming spirit of the holiday season, that simple flourish exudes cold, dismissive aloofness,” author Givhan claims. The text ends with a last bit of commentary on Mrs. Trump’s signature coat-over-shoulders style, saying “she has asked that she be judged on what she does rather than what she wears. But as both a host and a guest, her attire would be less attention-grabbing if she took off her coat and indicated that she was happy to stay a while.”
News coverage of the First Lady in the current time mostly contains opinion pieces that generally reflect the public’s views, Additionally, it has also become incredibly scrutinized of the First Lady’s actions and often hostile in tone. The article mentioned above serves as an example of the reporting style that is now the trend in modern journalism.
Citations:
- “Fit for the First Lady.” Newsweek, January 1961.
- “Johnson Defends Acceptance of Stereo Set, Saying Baker Expected Nothing in Return.” Wall Street Journal, January 1964.
- “Rosalynn Carter Confronts the U.N. ‘Error’.” The Washington Post, March 1980.
- “Rosalynn Carter’s Washington.” The Washington Post, December 1980.
- “Nancy Reagan’s Drug Campaign.” The Washington Post, April 1985.
- “Who is Hillary Clinton?” Wall Street Journal, January 1996.
- Wasserstein, Wendy. “Hillary Clinton’s Muddled Legacy.” New York Times, August 1998.
- Givhan, Robin. “Melania Trump’s Christmas decorations are lovely, but that coat looks ridiculous.” The Washington Post, December 2019.
Days Like This 