The Unilateral Presidency and the News Media

The Politics of Framing Executive Power

Mark Major

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781137393067
• eBook ISBN:
  9781137387899
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: European Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Media coverage of presidential actions can not only serve journalistic purposes, but can also act as a check against unilateral decision making. The book seeks to uncover how the news media has worked to curtail overreaching power within the executive branch, demonstrating how the fourth estate keeps presidential overreach at bay.

Notes

1 Introduction: The Unitary Executive and the News Media

1. Richard Neustadt 1960; Howell 2003, 2005; Moe and Howell 1999; Cooper 2002, 2005; Mayer 1999, 2001.

2. Though the evolution of presidential unilateralism should not come as much of a surprise to presidential scholars as it is apparent in much of the scholarship in terms of presidential publicity and rhetoric (Kernell 2006; Tulis 1988), party development (Milkis 1993), types and ambitions of presidential candidates (Crenson and Ginsberg 2007), and political regimes (Skowronek 1993).

3. Unilateral powers are defined as “the wide array of public policies that presidents set without Congress” (Howell 2003, xiv). Mayer (2009) defines it as “the different types of administrative and policy changes that the president can initiate on his own without the cooperation, and sometimes over the objections, of Congress or the judiciary” (427).

4. Mayer 2009.

5. Howell 2003.

6. Howell 2003, 2.

7. Lowi 2009; see also Irons 1999; Shane 2009.

8. Crenson and Ginsberg 2007; Genovese 2013.

9. Rudalevige 2005.

10. Crenson and Ginsberg 2007; Howell 2003.

11. Moe and Howell 1999, 856.

12. According to the estimate by Peters, the total is 15,199. Executive order count through end of President Obama’s first term (Peters 2012).

13. Defining “significant” orders vary by scholars. Mayer and Price (1999) define it as meeting at least one of six criteria: news media attention, congressional action, scholarly notice, litigation, presidential publicity, and/or creation of a substantive institution (375; see also Howell 2003, 2005; Mayer 2001; Warber 2006). Significant or not, Cooper (2002) contends that this misses the larger point that presidents are legislating on their own. My project is informed by Cooper’s argument.

14. Howell 2003.

15. Warber 2006.

16. T...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• One  Introduction: The Unitary Executive and the News Media
• Two  Headlining Presidential Power: New York Times Front-Page Coverage of Executive Orders from Truman through Clinton
• Three  Torturing Unilateralism: The Case of Abu Ghraib, the News Media, and a Broken Political System
• Four  Unilateralism Tortured: Critical Press Coverage of the McCain Amendment and Signing Statements
• Five  Predator in Chief: Framing Obama’s Drone Warfare
• Six  Going It E-Lone in the 2012 Election: Covering Obama’s We Can’t Wait in the Traditional and Online Public Spheres
• Seven  Conclusion: The Unilateral Presidency, the News Media, and the Politics of Hiding in Plain Sight
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index