Please explain the difference between "Gaggle" and "Press Briefing" to me.

[VolcanoJen]

A simple request, for you kind-hearted souls.

I keep reading sites like Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos, which refer to the morning "Gaggle." Such sites tend to quote heated exchanges between Scott McClellan, White House Press Secretary, and the press, yet, said heated exchanges seem to occur only during the "Gaggle," and not the later, televised Press Briefing.

Which is the one that C-SPAN shows, exactly? Is it the "Gaggle," or the later briefing? At which times are "Gaggles" and "Briefings" held?

It would appear from the "Gaggle" transcripts that the press only presses McClellan and really does its job when nobody's watching, but I want to be clear on this.

My extreme gratitude to enlightened DUers for helping me get my thoughts together on this subject.

:D
Jennifer

[JohnyCanuck]

1. I understood that gaggles were sort of informal mini press briefings

that occurred in Scotty's office prior to the main event, that being formal press briefing itself in the official White House briefing room.

[Oilwellian]

2. I read somewhere, just today

that the "gaggle" was a morning press conference that occurs around 9:00AM EST, everyday. I was surprised to hear there were two separate press conferences and we're only seeing and hearing one. Why is the press meeting off camera with this corrupt administration?

[VolcanoJen]

3. Thanks for your responses!!!

It is interesting, isn't it, that there are two briefings a day, but we only see one.

I imagine this has been going on long before the Chimpy Administration squatted in the White House. Anyone have any other info?

[chiburb]

4. Think of it as a "focus group"...

Snip:

The morning press briefing, which is held between nine-thirty and ten, is called “the gaggle”; it’s less formal, and TV cameras are banned. Before September 11, 2001, the gaggle was held in the press secretary’s office, with a dozen or so reporters crowded around his desk. These days, the forty-eight press seats in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room are often filled, and, when McClellan arrives, the podium is already crowded with tape recorders.

The press and the press secretary have come to use the gaggle as a dry run for the televised briefing, at about twelve-thirty. McClellan says, “I get a sense of what they’re thinking.” Ari Fleischer, whose briefings were often more vituperative than McClellan’s, recalls that each morning he felt both the rush of “stimulation” from the pending contest and like “a piñata” as he was pummelled by reporters. Since Herbert Hoover appointed the first press secretary, in 1929, the role has changed—often depending upon the relationship between the press secretary and the President, as well as on the condition of the Presidency. Pierre Salinger, who worked for J.F.K., was in many ways superfluous; Kennedy was essentially his own press secretary. Jody Powell, who served Jimmy Carter, was popular because the working press trusted him and knew that he was close to the President. Ronald Ziegler, who worked for Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, fell regularly into the piñata category; Clinton’s press secretary Michael McCurry and his successor, Joe Lockhart, rarely did—even during the Lewinsky affair.

Read more about this here:

http://newyorker.com/fact/content/?040119fa_fact2

[VolcanoJen]

5. chiburb, you rock my world!!

What a great and informative post. Thank you so much!!!!!

:D
Jennifer