Fox Commentator Named Bush’s Press Secretary

President Bush appointed Fox News commentator Tony Snow as his press secretary Wednesday, signaling that in its final 1,000 days, his White House plans significant changes in the way it reaches the American people.

Before taking the job, Snow -- who was a speechwriter in the George H.W. Bush administration -- sought and was given “walk-in” privileges in the Oval Office and the chief of staff’s office, according to a veteran Republican advisor who asked not to be named because his conversation with Snow was confidential. That would make Snow one of the few officials with unscheduled access to the president and Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten.

The arrangement could be helpful as Snow, 50, attempts to build trust with a White House press corps that had an adversarial relationship with his predecessor and as he tries to help Bush recover from low public approval ratings.

Bush presented Snow on Wednesday morning as his choice to replace Scott McClellan.

“My job is to make decisions,” Bush said, “and his job is to help explain those decisions to the press corps and the American people.... He’s going to work hard to provide you with timely information about my philosophy, my priorities and the actions we’re taking to implement our agenda.”

Snow’s appointment was unusual for a White House that has prized loyalty and long-standing relationships with Bush. He has worked for Fox for the last decade, and has criticized Bush -- calling him “impotent” and “something of an embarrassment” in recent commentary.

He also is the first outsider given a top position during the White House shake-up engineered by Bolten, who has been chief of staff for less than two weeks. But Snow’s selection fits a historical pattern.

At low moments in their terms, other presidents have sought to bolster their credibility by hiring press secretaries seen less as administration loyalists than as independent operators with their own authority and stature.

Suggesting that Snow would present himself as the latter, Tom Rosenstiel -- director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a nonprofit group that studies the media -- said: “One thing we know is that Tony Snow has to eat lunch in this town again. He is going to serve the president, but not sacrifice his reputation while he’s doing it.”

Moments after Bush introduced him, Snow walked through the White House press briefing room, pledging to work with reporters -- “to figure out what you think we can do better.”

“It’s clear they are bringing in someone to do better marketing,” said David Gergen, a former White House communications aide for both Republican and Democratic presidents who now is a professor of public service at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. “Whether they are bringing in someone to bring more complete information to the public is very much an open question.”

Snow, who is expected to take over in the next two or three weeks, will be Bush’s third press secretary. McClellan succeeded Ari Fleischer in July 2003.

The new spokesman brings a “fresh perspective” because he did not serve during the administration’s first five years, said Kenneth M. Duberstein, who took a senior position in the White House at a similarly challenging moment -- as President Reagan sought to emerge from the Iran-Contra scandal in 1987.

But, Duberstein said, the question remains whether Snow can overcome the Bush administration’s aversion to outsiders and get information from the White House that he will need to be an effective spokesman.

Most fundamentally, the appointment of a prominent media figure may indicate that the White House is focused on shaping the way Bush is portrayed in the mainstream media.

Many analysts agree that this White House has appeared less concerned than previous administrations about influencing newspapers and network television -- placing greater emphasis on reaching its core conservative supporters through such outlets as talk radio and cable TV.

They said that the appointment of an accomplished TV personality reflected a White House conclusion that -- with fewer than 40% of the voters approving of Bush’s performance -- it needs to win over a broader segment of the population through the traditional national news media.

“What they’ve done before is use their back-channel media to get their message out to their base supporters .... And when times were good and bills were passing and things were going well, there was less of a concern of dealing with the mainstream media overall,” said a senior Republican congressional aide who was not authorized to speak publicly on the subject and requested anonymity. “Now it becomes critical that they apply a different strategy ... on a daily basis, and they have chosen a guy who can do that.”

Republicans inside and outside the administration said they believed Snow would approach the job with a more proactive agenda than did his predecessors, who often seemed to view the daily press briefings more as an exercise in damage control than as an opportunity to drive a strong political message. A senior White House official acknowledged that the administration was looking to rethink the way it communicated with the public.

“I think it’s fair to say that there is no panic in the White House, but there is concern about the numbers and a real attempt to make these changes an opportunity to relaunch our public message,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

But others said Snow’s selection could indicate more continuity than change in Bush’s approach to the media.

Gergen, for instance, praised Snow as a “person of integrity,” but noted that he came to the job as a conservative advocate. “Coming from Fox, it will send a good message to their base,” Gergen said. “They are not going out and getting an Associated Press reporter. This is a commentator with a conservative point of view.”

Indeed, several Republicans said the White House may hope one benefit of Snow’s appointment will be to signal that Bush hears the complaints of conservatives who believe he has not done enough to restrain federal spending -- a charge Snow often leveled against the administration.

It has been more than 30 years since a journalist served as the White House press secretary. Ron Nessen, who had worked for NBC News, was President Ford’s spokesman.

Snow has largely made his living in the news business, but his experience has been as a commentator and editorial writer, not as a news reporter.

He launched the public affairs talk show “Fox News Sunday.” For several years, he has hosted the news program “Weekend Live,” along with “The Tony Snow Show,” a daily talk show on Fox News Radio.

He grew up in Cincinnati, wrote editorials for the Greensboro (N.C.) Record and the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, and for four years was editorial page editor of the Washington Times.

He has also, Bush said, taught in Kenya. His biography on the Fox News website said he taught physics and geography. He plays flute, saxophone and guitar, and is in a rock band called Beats Workin’.

“The only thing more embarrassing than my old columns is my old music recordings,” Snow said during his walk through the briefing room.

Snow recently underwent surgery for colon cancer. He and his wife live in Virginia with their three children.

Times staff writers Matea Gold in New York and Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger in Washington contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Tony Snow

Born: June 1, 1955; grew up in Cincinnati

Education: Bachelor’s degree in philosophy, Davidson College in North Carolina; graduate work in philosophy and economics, University of Chicago

Experience: Host, “The Tony Snow Show” on Fox News Radio; host, “Weekend Live with Tony Snow” on Fox News Channel; host, “Fox News Sunday,” 1996-2003; syndicated columnist, the Detroit News, 1993-2001; columnist, USA Today, 1994-2000; deputy assistant to the president for communications and director of speechwriting, and later deputy assistant to the president for media affairs, for President George H.W. Bush

Family: Wife, Jill, married 1987; one son and two daughters

Source: Associated Press