What Is a White House Press Secretary For?

Katie Zacharia was out after five days. Where that leaves the role—and the White House Correspondents’ Association—is uncertain.

At the end of The War Room, the documentary on the media and strategy team behind Bill Clinton’s 1992 bid for the White House, George Stephanopoulos, the communications director, takes a call. It is Clinton, on the evening when people will stop calling him governor of Arkansas and start referring to him as president-elect of the United States. The viewer can’t hear him, but he seems to want advice on an upcoming speech. “We really want you to say whatever you wanna say tonight, but you just gotta be careful about being too programmatic,” Stephanopoulos, who is now the host of ABC’s This Week, says, suggesting that Clinton position himself as a New Democrat and lean into patriotism. “But, you know, just speak from your heart tonight, that’s all that matters,” Stephanopoulos tells him. “Say what you want to say. This is your night.”