[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[April 12, 1994]
[Pages 673-675]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner
April 12, 1994

    Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Lockman, distinguished guests, 
ladies and gentlemen. I cannot tell you how happy I am to be here 
tonight on the 50th anniversary of the TV dinner. I was a little 
disappointed that the entree wasn't Salisbury steak or chicken pot pie. 
[Laughter] But I really am delighted to be here. If you believe that, 
I've got some land in northwest Arkansas I'd like to show you. 
[Laughter]
    I want to congratulate you on 50 years of TV and radio coverage of 
our national politics, 50 dinners, all the way back to 1945. I thank you 
for letting us know that Helen Thomas was at the first one. [Laughter] I 
don't know if she thanks you for letting us know that. But tonight I 
want to play the journalist. I'd like to ask you, Helen: After 50 of 
these dinners, why? Why? [Laughter] I love Helen Thomas. How would you 
like to start every morning jogging with Helen in your ear? The other 
day, after we had the incident in Bosnia, she said to me as I was 
running, trying to wake up, fighting off the allergies of the 
springtime, ``Yeltsin's mad at you.'' [Laughter]
    Well, anyway, I'm delighted to be here with you, Brian, and I 
appreciate your inviting Garrison Keillor to join us this evening, 
because, as he described in the fabled Lake Wobegon, we also like to 
think that all the kids who work at the White House are slightly above 
average. [Laughter]
    I'm really glad to see, also, that in spite of the dominance of C-
SPAN, that Cokie Roberts is sitting with us tonight at the head table. 
At least it looks like the head table. Actually, I know it's the head 
table; Rick Kaplan told me it was. [Laughter]
    You know, since this is your 50th dinner, we should acknowledge that 
over these last 50 years, radio and television has witnessed some of the 
greatest moments in American political history. And if you believe that, 
I've got some land in northwest Arkansas I'd like to sell you. 
[Laughter] But just think of the highlights you've seen.
    Remember this: Your impact actually goes back before your 50 
dinners, going back to radio, in 1922, when President Warren Harding 
utters the first words ever spoken by a President on the radio, 
``Gergen, come here. I need you.'' [Laughter] In your association's 
first year, 1944, Franklin Roosevelt delivers more of his fireside chats 
over the radio. It's not much different today, except today you insist 
that the President sit directly on the logs. [Laughter]
    Following a reliable source, just hours after the polls closed in 
1948, network news airs the very first televised interview with 
President-elect

[[Page 674]]

Thomas Dewey. In 1952, Eisenhower says he will go to Korea, and the 
first question from the press is about the seating arrangements on the 
plane. [Laughter] In 1960, researchers discover that people who watched 
the Kennedy-Nixon debate on television thought Kennedy won. People who 
listened to the debate on radio thought, ``When in the hell am I going 
to get a television?'' [Laughter]
    In 1972, Democratic Presidential candidate George McGovern concedes 
a 49-State, 23-point landslide election. The press demands to see 
records of his losses. [Laughter] In 1974, two crusading young 
journalists take on a President for abuse of office. And to this very 
day, Evans and Novak still have not forgiven Richard Nixon for price 
controls. [Laughter]
    In 1981, Dan Rather replaces Walter Cronkite. Soon after, an 
impressionable Jim Leach purchases his first sweater. [Laughter] In 
1982, the introduction of the first Saturday morning political cartoon, 
``The McLaughlin Group.'' [Laughter] In 1988, a well-meaning network 
news producer whispers in the ear of a Dukakis advance person, ``Why use 
a Jeep when you can put him in a tank?'' [Laughter]
    In 1994, Senator George Mitchell goes live on CNN to withdraw his 
name from consideration for the United States Supreme Court, fueling 
speculation that he would rather argue with George Steinbrenner than 
Justice Scalia. [Laughter]
    I can only imagine how wonderful your future will be when there are 
500 channels to fill all the airwaves. [Laughter] Anyway, you do have a 
proud history.
    Now, my history with you is another matter altogether. [Laughter] 
Some say my relations with the press have been marked by self-pity. I 
like to think of it as the outer limits of my empathy. I feel my pain. 
[Laughter] People say to me, ``Remember Harry Truman, `If you can't 
stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.' '' It's the only room in the 
house I never want to leave. [Laughter] In fact, I've been trying to get 
Kathleen Sullivan interested in Whitewater.
    I think history, actually, despite what all of you think, I think 
history will show I had a very good relationship with the press. And if 
it doesn't, I'll complain like hell to the historians.
    I do want to say something about my strong views on the question of 
privacy: They're none of your business. [Laughter]
    I do think you're entitled some inside information tonight, however. 
After the dinner--we had this wonderful dinner--Hillary consulted with 
Speaker Foley about the spawning prospects in Washington, and she has 
recommended that all of you purchase salmon futures tomorrow. [Laughter]
    I do want to remind you of one thing. It's 3 days before April 15th, 
and most of you have spent a lot more time on my taxes than your own. 
[Laughter] Many happy returns. [Laughter]
    I do want to complain that, amid all this disgusting media frenzy, 
the many terribly important accomplishments of this administration have 
gone unnoticed or grossly underreported. For example, just since I have 
been your President, the United States Government has raised $21 million 
in back taxes from people with nannies. [Laughter] And we're not even 
through with audits in the West Wing yet. [Laughter] Consider this, 
millions of Americans now feel better about how they look in jogging 
shorts. [Laughter] And there is a hugely increased awareness of the 
information superhighway. Today, 72 percent of all Americans are in 
favor of it, provided the rest stops are clean. [Laughter] Not only does 
our administration look more like America, it changes jobs at the same 
rate other Americans do. [Laughter] We have the first administration to 
have the same senior adviser make the cover of both Time magazine and 
Teen Beat. [Laughter] We've got the first smoke-free back room in 
American political history. And my Vice President has made enormous 
strides in his first and most daunting assignment, reinventing Al Gore. 
[Laughter]
    We've created 2.3 million new jobs, almost 50 percent of them in the 
health insurance lobby. [Laughter] You can see more things like this in 
the years to come. This administration doesn't know the meaning of the 
word ``surrender.'' We don't know the meaning of the word ``timidity.'' 
And with such limited vocabulary and self-awareness, I think we've done 
right well. [Laughter]
    I was asked tonight before I left for this august dinner, ``Why do 
you keep going to these things? They still keep beating your brains 
out.'' And I said, ``Because I still believe in a place called ``Help.'' 
[Laughter] I also came because I love radio and TV. I've been called the 
first President to grow up in the television age. I guess that's true. 
We got our first TV when I was 9 or 10. Before that, I listened to the

[[Page 675]]

radio, doing my homework to baseball games. Then I saw the radio news. I 
got our television in time to watch the '56 Democratic and Republican 
Conventions from gavel to gavel. I've watched the debates, the election 
returns, all the news since then. The fact is, the electronic media has 
changed my life and changed how we all see the world and how the world 
sees us.
    The media's changed, too. You have more information and more 
programs and more channels, more competition and more time to fill than 
ever before. Last night, we celebrated the last day of the year 
celebrating the 250th birthday of Thomas Jefferson, the man whom all of 
you know said if he had to choose between a Government without a press 
or the press without Government, he would unhesitatingly choose the 
latter. I might point out that he said that before he became President 
of the United States. [Laughter]
    But if you think about what Jefferson and the other Founders did, 
they had this uncanny sense of what it would take to preserve a 
republic, a democracy: To permit government enough power so that its 
exercise could keep us together and moving forward, but to limit its 
abuse and to keep it accountable to the people. The power was limited by 
the Bill of Rights and divided--executive, legislative, and judicial; 
national, State, and local--in a brilliant way.
    And if you think about the fabric of our national life, there are 
only two places where power is arguably unaccountable: one, in the 
Supreme Court and its lower courts, where people have lifetime 
appointments, where they have a limited unaccountable power because 
there are some great questions on which someone must have the final say 
in order to permit us to go on with our lives; and the second, in the 
area of the press, because there is no practical way to limit the free 
expression of ideas and opinions, painful though those of us in 
authority might find them from time to time.
    Mr. Jefferson understood so long ago these things that carry us 
through to the present day. But I must say tonight as we come here, 
Hillary and I, to pay tribute to you in this business, your business is 
more difficult, more challenging, more daunting than ever before. And 
the burden of carrying the responsibility that goes with that sort of 
unlimited freedom is greater than ever before. I appreciate it, and I'm 
glad, at least on occasion, we all have the chance to laugh together 
about our common efforts to advance the common good.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 8:30 p.m. at the Washington Hilton Hotel. 
In his remarks, he referred to Brian Lockman, C-SPAN correspondent and 
chairman, Radio and Television Correspondents Association; 
correspondents Helen Thomas, United Press International, and Cokie 
Roberts, ABC News; humorist Garrison Keillor; Rick Kaplan, executive 
producer, ``ABC World News Tonight''; and journalist Kathleen Sullivan.