Hillary Clinton in the News: Gender and Authenticity in American Politics
272
Hillary Clinton in the News: Gender and Authenticity in American Politics
272Hardcover(1st Edition)
-
SHIP THIS ITEMTemporarily Out of Stock Online
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
Using theories of nationalism, feminism, and authenticity, Parry-Giles tracks the evolving ways the major networks and cable news programs framed Clinton's image as she assumed roles ranging from surrogate campaigner, legislative advocate, and financial investor to international emissary, scorned wife, and political candidate. This study magnifies how the coverage that preceded Clinton's entry into electoral politics was grounded in her earliest presence in the national spotlight, and in long-standing nationalistic beliefs about the boundaries of authentic womanhood and first lady comportment. Once Clinton dared to cross those gender boundaries and vie for office in her own right, the news exuded a rhetoric of sexual violence. These portrayals served as a warning to other women who dared to enter the political arena and violate the protocols of authentic womanhood.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780252038211 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Illinois Press |
| Publication date: | 01/21/2014 |
| Edition description: | 1st Edition |
| Pages: | 272 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Hillary Clinton in the News
Gender and Authenticity in American Politics
By Shawn J. Parry-Giles
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
Copyright © 2014 Board of Trustees of the University of IllinoisAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-252-07978-8
CHAPTER 1
Hillary Clinton as Campaign Surrogate
U.S. Presidential Campaigns—1992 and 1996
On January 20, 2007, Hillary Rodham Clinton ended weeks, months, and even years of speculation with the simple words, "I'm In," as she announced her formation of a presidential exploratory committee for the 2008 presidential campaign. The person whom Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein called the "most famous woman in the world" had finally ventured into what MSNBC's Tucker Carlson described as the "longest full-scale, full-blown, talk-about-it-every-day run-up to a national election in American history."
For Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, the issue of her political authenticity occupied the attention of many in the press—a preoccupation that had dogged the first lady from 1992 onward. During the 2008 contest, many journalists suggested that Clinton's most authentic self was displayed during two key mediated moments from the 1992 presidential campaign. The first involved her response to allegations of Bill Clinton's alleged extramarital affairs during a January 26, 1992, 60 Minutes special: "You know, I'm not sitting here, some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette." The second involved her reaction to Democratic primary candidate Jerry Brown's questions about her unethical legal practices when Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas. The following day, Clinton justified her decision to "fulfill my profession" instead of having "stayed home and baked cookies and had teas."
Revealing the force of these mediated memories some fifteen years after their initial airing, Tucker Carlson and Rosa Brooks of the Los Angeles Times engaged in a poignant exchange on January 29, 2007:
CARLSON: When was the last time you heard Hillary Clinton say something really courageous, counterintuitive, something that all the cool kids disagree with ... ?
BROOKS: About 1992 ...
CARLSON: The "baking cookies" line?
BROOKS: Yes, the baking cookies line, the Tammy Wynette line ... That was the real Hillary.
The preoccupation with Clinton's authenticity and the mystery surrounding her true political image was revealed most vividly in the sentiments of MSNBC's Chris Matthews on June 1, 2007, when he referenced Bernstein's argument that Clinton's "biggest problem is that she appears inauthentic." He then wondered aloud: "But if the woman isn't Tammy Wynette, is no cookie baker and nobody's fool, then who is she?"
For many journalists, Hillary Clinton's most authentic moments were aligned with what some called her feminist commitments. Of Clinton's political image in the early stages of her national public life, Paula Zahn of CNN remembered the Clinton of 1992 as the "outspoken feminist who put down the stand-by-your-man crowd." Yet, by the 2008 campaign, many in the news business had come to question her commitment to feminism. Republican strategist Amy Holmes argued on Paula Zahn Now in March 2007 that "Hillary [was] trying to soften her image" away from that of a "feminist" to avoid what she argued was her tendency to be "shrill or difficult" as reflected by the "I don't stand by my man" utterance.
These image transformations suggested Clinton's lack of political authenticity in favor of political expediency. In 1992, one cultural anxiety expressed by CBS Evening News related to the potential of Hillary Rodham Clinton to feminize the spaces of the presidency by being "out front and outspoken ... a symbol of the national debate about women and work and power." By the time she stepped into the spaces of the 2008 presidential campaign, however, the concern by some became her exhibition of too much masculinity and not enough feminism. During a CNN broadcast from June 18, 2007, media scholar Susan Douglas of the University of Michigan asserted that "people feel like Hillary has tried too hard to be more like a man," losing what Carol Costello of CNN pondered was "her mantle of political feminism" in favor of "political masculinity." The frames of Clinton's feminism, thus, converged with notions of her political inauthenticity to raise doubts about her true political convictions.
Even as Clinton was portrayed as all empowering in certain stories about her presidential candidacy, other journalists undermined the strength of her political leadership. When Chris Matthews wondered aloud about Bill Clinton's role in a Hillary Clinton White House, he concluded that "some people think Bill Clinton is still the boss." Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post dubbed Hillary Clinton a "wonkish mommy" during a MSNBC broadcast from January 22, 2007, undercutting her political clout through a demeaning reference to Clinton's "mommy" status. These constructions of Clinton, of course, worked to undermine her power rhetorically even before a final decision was made by voters over her presidential preparedness.
The press coverage of the 2008 political race thus reflected the news frames and linguistic residuals from the 1992 campaign, where Clinton was depicted as "polarizing," as possessing "likeability" issues, and as a political "lightning rod" regardless of the political role she served. The television news coverage of the 1992 campaign provided the baseline news frames that were subsequently used to authenticate and inauthenticate Clinton not only in 1992 but over the next sixteen years of her presence in the national spotlight. If Clinton's behavior seemed to contradict the character traits naturalized in the baseline frames, the press would amplify a Clinton makeover that chipped away at her political authenticity. This chapter therefore sets the stage for the remainder of the book by identifying the baseline news frames used by the television news media in its coverage of Clinton as a campaign surrogate during her husband's 1992 and 1996 presidential bids. These frames tell us much about television news practices as well as the ideological meanings associated with the gendered nation at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Specifically, this chapter shows how Clinton's authenticity was reified through baseline news frames associated with her comments about Tammy Wynette and cookies and teas. The chapter also examines the press frames of Clinton as a political partner, a radical feminist, and a political lightning rod. All of these themes were eventually folded into the linguistic frame known simply as the "Hillary Factor," which stood in stark contrast to more traditional conceptions of authentic womanhood. Most reflective of Clinton's contested yet authentic image involved the perception of her outspokenness and her overexposure in the spaces of the 1992 Democratic primary. Yet, as the 1992 Democratic National Convention neared, the news media began to detect a Clinton makeover that resulted in the reduced visibility and increased silencing of Hillary Clinton by the Clinton campaign. By the summer of 1992, the baseline frames would serve an inauthenticating role as journalists invoked them to evidence Clinton's changing political image.
The themes associated with Clinton's feminism, still visible during the 1996 presidential campaign, showed the stronghold of cultural stereotypes in personifying political women as embodiments of tradition or progress. Most resistant to any reconstitution efforts were the feminist images that depicted Hillary Clinton as aggressive, lacking in grace and warmth, and unlikely to fit the traditional model of stay-at-home moms and doting spouses. The latter frames in particular helped inauthenticate the Clinton marriage and turn it into a partnership for political gain. The overarching press thematics from both campaigns suggested that Clinton's transgressive behavior as a candidate's wife precipitated disciplinary intervention by Bill Clinton's staff, culminating in a more diminished role for Clinton publicly. Without such disciplinary actions, the political logic suggested, Clinton stood to harm her husband's candidacy irreparably.
Hillary Rodham Clinton of 1992—the Baseline News frames
Hillary Clinton burst onto the 1992 national scene with considerable fanfare and flourish. The U.S. news media would be forced to contend with how best to cover a candidate's wife who unabashedly sought a public and decidedly political role within a presidential campaign. The early coverage of Clinton would become most formative in how she would be framed from that time forward as a political spouse, first lady, Senate candidate, and presidential contender—roles that contradicted the ideological tenets of authentic womanhood.
In the section that follows, three distinct yet overlapping baseline news frames are examined in the coverage of Hillary Clinton: stock frames, residual frames, and linguistic frames. Stock frames represent shorter news snippets extracted from television news broadcasts that become recycled sound bites. With residual frames, a statement or an idea continues to be recycled in news broadcasts but the context that generated the idea and often the individual who first issued it are no longer referenced. Linguistic frames represent catchphrases invented by the news media that function as linguistic shortcuts, standing in for a host of behaviors and personality characteristics.
STOCK FRAMES
The two most important stock frames from the 1992 campaign integrated visual imagery with Hillary Clinton's statements about Tammy Wynette and cookies and teas. Once Clinton uttered these statements, the press routinely decontextualized the sound bites and then recontextualized and recirculated them throughout 1992 and beyond as authenticating moments for Hillary Clinton—a new personality on the national political stage. These recycled frames—meeting the threshold of "sound bite sabotage"—symbolized Clinton's feminism, which news organizations construed as an affront to traditional women and a threat to her husband's candidacy.
As previously indicated, the first national media moment for Hillary Clinton involved the January 26, 1992, 60 Minutes interview she conducted with Bill Clinton at her side. The Clintons appeared on the popular CBS news magazine after allegations surfaced of an extended extramarital affair between the Arkansas governor and a local news reporter—Gennifer Flowers. During the broadcast, both Clintons testified to the strength and endurance of the Clinton marriage in spite of significant marital strain. The sound bite involving Tammy Wynette referenced the country-and-western singer's famous 1968 hit song—"Stand By Your Man." Clinton made the animated statement in response to Steve Kroft's insinuation that the couple stayed together for political purposes—as "some sort of an understanding or arrangement." Once Bill Clinton scoffed at Kroft's insinuation, Hillary then uttered the phrase associated with the more traditional singer ("I'm not sitting here, some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette"). Showing a strong sense of resolve, Clinton followed with another forceful statement, which she punctuated by clinching her fist and thrusting it up and down as she professed: "I honor what he's been through and what we've been through together. And you know, if that's not enough for people, then heck, don't vote for him." Throughout the interview, Hillary also pledged her spousal support in nonverbal fashion by placing her arm on the sofa behind Bill's back, by looking supportively at her husband as he spoke, by affirming his statements with a nod of the head, and by touching his arm in a display of interpersonal affection.
On Election Day in 1992, Jim Wooten of ABC News extended the implications of Clinton's political performance when he referred to the period surrounding the 60 Minutes interview as "pure melodrama" and a "national soap opera." The importance of the interview to Clinton's political biography was shown in Kroft's memory of the exchange many years later. Kroft boasted that the 1992 interview had "been called one of the great performances of American presidential politics." Apart from Hillary Clinton's debut as an outspoken political wife willing to defend her husband, this moment would also provide the initial hints of a Clinton partnership based more on shared political aspirations than a marriage founded on mutual love and affection.
Nearly two months after the 60 Minutes interview, a second stock frame also gained media traction during the 1992 Democratic primary. As with the Tammy Wynette utterance, Clinton's cookies and teas comment would become the subject of continual re-airing for years to come. Multiple news cameras caught the statement as Bill and Hillary Clinton campaigned together in Chicago's Busy Bea Coffee Shop the day before the Illinois primary. Reacting to Jerry Brown's allegations of corruption between the governor's office and her own Rose Law Firm, Clinton struck a bold, assertive, and slightly irritated tone. Viewers were situated by the camera within the conversational flow as if part of the group of reporters gathered to witness Clinton's much anticipated response. As Clinton spoke, she was surrounded mostly by white men who were all standing near the lunch counter or gathered around her. Clinton's profile was visible to the camera as if she were speaking to someone in front of her. Clinton had the look of a campaigner; she exuded a commanding presence. During the sound bite, Clinton talked rather than listened and gestured vigorously with one hand as she held a drink in the other. Bill Clinton was among the onlookers, positioned over her shoulder as if a bystander to the exchange. Because Bill Clinton was far enough removed from Hillary's conversational circle, he would eventually be cut out of most of the subsequent re-airings. The presence of the cameras that surrounded Hillary Clinton implied that she and not her husband was the centerpiece of the media spectacle.
Of the cookies and teas expression, CBS Evening News journalist Richard Threlkeld subtly critiqued the amount of attention the statement attracted: "How important is a candidate's past political life or whether someone fought in Vietnam or found a way to avoid it. And now as Hillary Clinton is asking, 'must a wife sacrifice her career if it might interfere with her husband's career?' Not the sort of campaign issues the voters were expecting." NBC News, however, put a different spin on the initial declaration. As the camera crew followed Clinton outside of the diner, she elaborated on her initial response—a response that Andrea Mitchell framed as a political gaffe: "Worried campaign aides urged her to soften the message right away." NBC then played Clinton's response that presumed the complexities of choice associated with second-wave feminism: "It could be a full-time mother and homemaker, it could be a full-time career person, to balance the two, to have those decisions at different stages of your life, are very tough ones."
Issuing a juxtaposition of the two stock frames, NBC, through correspondent Lisa Myers, showed the enduring resonance of certain media moments as journalists returned to the same messages in future news stories. Myers initially offered a summarizing statement that celebrated Clinton's role in the 60 Minutes story yet foreshadowed the dark days ahead for the Clinton campaign because of Hillary's most recent cookies and teas snafu: "Hillary Clinton's strong performance during the Gennifer Flowers episode," Myers concluded, "helped save her husband's candidacy. But now, she may be fast becoming an issue herself." Myers derived a similar conclusion the following month, positing more positively how the 60 Minutes interview evidenced how Clinton "took charge and helped rescue his candidacy." Yet, the cookies and teas expression also revealed, Myers claimed, how "she also hurts him. Many women are still fuming over th[at] remark." In NBC's coverage, Clinton was credited with rescuing her philandering husband's presidential campaign. Yet she was also sufficiently warned that her more controversial image as an assertive political wife could ultimately doom her husband's candidacy.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Hillary Clinton in the News by Shawn J. Parry-Giles. Copyright © 2014 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. Hillary Clinton in the News: The Historical Context 1
Chapter 1 Hillary Clinton as Campaign Surrogate: U.S. Presidential Campaigns-1992 and 1996 24
Chapter 2 Hillary Clinton as Legislative Activist and Legal Defendant: Health Care Reform and the Whitewater Investigations-1993-1995 54
Chapter 3 Hillary Clinton as International Emissary and Scorned Wife: Diplomatic Travel and the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal-1995-1999 95
Chapter 4 Hillary Clinton as Political Candidate: U.S. Senate Campaign-1999-2001 135
Conclusion: Hillary Clinton in the News: Lessons Learned 176
Notes 199
Bibliography 229
Index 245