
The Presidents vs. the Press
The Endless Battle Between the White House and the Media - from the Founding Fathers to Fake News
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $27.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
James Lurie
-
By:
-
Harold Holzer
About this listen
An award-winning presidential historian offers an authoritative account of American presidents' attacks on our freedom of the press.
"The FAKE NEWS media", Donald Trump has tweeted, "is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" Has our free press ever faced as great a threat? Perhaps not - but the tension between presidents and journalists is as old as the republic itself.
Every president has been convinced of his own honesty and transparency; every reporter who has covered the White House beat has believed with equal fervency that his or her journalistic rigor protects the country from danger. Our first president, George Washington, was also the first to grouse about his treatment in the newspapers, although he kept his complaints private. Subsequent chiefs like John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Barack Obama were not so reticent, going so far as to wield executive power to overturn press freedoms, and even to prosecute journalists.
Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to actively manage the stable of reporters who followed him, doling out information, steering coverage, and squashing stories that interfered with his agenda. It was a strategy that galvanized TR's public support, but the lesson was lost on Woodrow Wilson, who never accepted reporters into his inner circle. Franklin Roosevelt transformed media relations forever, holding more than a thousand presidential press conferences and harnessing the new power of radio, at times bypassing the press altogether. John F. Kennedy excelled on television and charmed reporters to hide his personal life, while Richard Nixon was the first to cast the press as a public enemy. From the days of newsprint and pamphlets to the rise of Facebook and Twitter, each president has harnessed the media, whether intentional or not, to imprint his own character on the office.
In this remarkable new history, acclaimed scholar Harold Holzer examines the dual rise of the American presidency and the media that shaped it. From Washington to Trump, he chronicles the disputes and distrust between these core institutions that define the United States of America, revealing that the essence of their confrontation is built into the fabric of the nation.
©2020 Harold Holzer (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Lincoln and the Power of the Press
- The War for Public Opinion
- By: Harold Holzer
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 26 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Lincoln and the Power of the Press, Harold Holzer shows us an activist Lincoln through journalists who covered him from his start to the night of his assassination. In a wholly original way, Holzer shows us politicized newspaper editors battling for power and a masterly president who used the press to speak directly to the people and shape the nation.
-
-
Outstanding!
- By Sleepykitty on 02-22-15
By: Harold Holzer
-
Romney
- A Reckoning
- By: McKay Coppins
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, McKay Coppins
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few figures in American politics have seen more and said less than Mitt Romney. An outspoken dissident in Donald Trump’s GOP, he has made headlines in recent years for standing alone against the forces he believes are poisoning the party he once led. Romney was the first senator in history to vote to remove from office a president of his own party. When that president’s supporters went on to storm the US Capitol, Romney delivered a thundering speech from the Senate floor accusing his fellow Republicans of stoking insurrection.
-
-
Political and intellectual biography at its best!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-23
By: McKay Coppins
-
All the President's Men
- By: Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning with the story of a simple burglary at Democratic headquarters and then continuing with headline after headline, Bernstein and Woodward kept the tale of conspiracy and the trail of dirty tricks coming - delivering the stunning revelations and pieces in the Watergate puzzle that brought about Nixon's scandalous downfall. Their explosive reports won a Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post and toppled the president. This is the book that changed America.
-
-
THE FUMBLING OF AN ASSUAGED
- By Dudley H. Williams on 08-17-13
By: Bob Woodward, and others
-
Tired of Winning
- Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party
- By: Jonathan Karl
- Narrated by: Jonathan Karl
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Packed with new reporting, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party tracks Trump’s improbable journey from disgraced and defeated former president to the dominant force, yet again, in the Republican Party. From his exile in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has become more extreme, vengeful, and divorced from reality than he was on January 6, 2021. His meddling damaged the GOP’s electoral prospects and his legal troubles were mounting. Yet he re-emerged as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and the president-elect.
-
-
Compelling and Terrifying
- By Shaz on 11-15-23
By: Jonathan Karl
-
G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
- By: Beverly Gage
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 36 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today's conservative political landscape.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Jessica Armas on 12-06-22
By: Beverly Gage
-
And There Was Light
- Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Jon Meacham
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations. This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end.
-
-
A Winner
- By Diane Moore on 10-31-22
By: Jon Meacham
-
Lincoln and the Power of the Press
- The War for Public Opinion
- By: Harold Holzer
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 26 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Lincoln and the Power of the Press, Harold Holzer shows us an activist Lincoln through journalists who covered him from his start to the night of his assassination. In a wholly original way, Holzer shows us politicized newspaper editors battling for power and a masterly president who used the press to speak directly to the people and shape the nation.
-
-
Outstanding!
- By Sleepykitty on 02-22-15
By: Harold Holzer
-
Romney
- A Reckoning
- By: McKay Coppins
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, McKay Coppins
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few figures in American politics have seen more and said less than Mitt Romney. An outspoken dissident in Donald Trump’s GOP, he has made headlines in recent years for standing alone against the forces he believes are poisoning the party he once led. Romney was the first senator in history to vote to remove from office a president of his own party. When that president’s supporters went on to storm the US Capitol, Romney delivered a thundering speech from the Senate floor accusing his fellow Republicans of stoking insurrection.
-
-
Political and intellectual biography at its best!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-23
By: McKay Coppins
-
All the President's Men
- By: Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning with the story of a simple burglary at Democratic headquarters and then continuing with headline after headline, Bernstein and Woodward kept the tale of conspiracy and the trail of dirty tricks coming - delivering the stunning revelations and pieces in the Watergate puzzle that brought about Nixon's scandalous downfall. Their explosive reports won a Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post and toppled the president. This is the book that changed America.
-
-
THE FUMBLING OF AN ASSUAGED
- By Dudley H. Williams on 08-17-13
By: Bob Woodward, and others
-
Tired of Winning
- Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party
- By: Jonathan Karl
- Narrated by: Jonathan Karl
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Packed with new reporting, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party tracks Trump’s improbable journey from disgraced and defeated former president to the dominant force, yet again, in the Republican Party. From his exile in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has become more extreme, vengeful, and divorced from reality than he was on January 6, 2021. His meddling damaged the GOP’s electoral prospects and his legal troubles were mounting. Yet he re-emerged as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and the president-elect.
-
-
Compelling and Terrifying
- By Shaz on 11-15-23
By: Jonathan Karl
-
G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
- By: Beverly Gage
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 36 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today's conservative political landscape.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Jessica Armas on 12-06-22
By: Beverly Gage
-
And There Was Light
- Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Jon Meacham
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations. This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end.
-
-
A Winner
- By Diane Moore on 10-31-22
By: Jon Meacham
-
American Midnight
- The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a groundbreaking reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threated by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor
-
-
Disturbing yet Reassuring
- By Sams95 on 11-18-22
By: Adam Hochschild
-
Blowback
- A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump
- By: Miles Taylor
- Narrated by: Miles Taylor
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donald Trump will be president again, whether he is on the ballot or not. That is because Trumpism is overtaking the Republican Party and will mount a vigorous comeback, potentially in the hands of a savvier successor. This prophecy will come true, according to Miles Taylor, if we do not learn the lessons of the recent past. With the 2024 election approaching, the formerly “Anonymous” official is back with bombshell revelations and a sobering national forecast. Taylor predicts what could happen inside “Trump 2.0,” the White House of a more competent and more formidable copycat.
-
-
We will only have ourselves to blame if we sink into autocracy
- By MS on 07-23-23
By: Miles Taylor
-
A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States, 1961-2021
- By: Alan S. Blinder
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alan Blinder, one of the world's most influential economists and one of the field's best writers, draws on his deep firsthand experience to provide an authoritative account of sixty years of monetary and fiscal policy in the United States. Spanning twelve presidents, from John F. Kennedy to Joe Biden, and eight Federal Reserve chairs, from William McChesney Martin to Jerome Powell, this is an insider's story of macroeconomic policy that hasn't been told before—one that is a pleasure to listen to, and as interesting as it is important.
-
-
Listen for Nixon's Sake
- By Tricia on 10-26-22
By: Alan S. Blinder
-
The House of Morgan
- An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P.Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece.
-
-
The construction of the House of Morgan
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-18
By: Ron Chernow
-
How the South Won the Civil War
- Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While the North prevailed in the Civil War, ending slavery and giving the country a "new birth of freedom," Heather Cox Richardson argues in this provocative work that democracy's blood-soaked victory was ephemeral. The system that had sustained the defeated South moved westward and there established a foothold. It was a natural fit. Settlers from the East had for decades been pushing into the West, where the seizure of Mexican lands at the end of the Mexican-American War and treatment of Native Americans cemented racial hierarchies....
-
-
Disappointing book that wasted such potential.
- By Amazon Customer on 08-07-21
-
The Divider
- Trump in the White House, 2017-2021
- By: Peter Baker, Susan Glasser
- Narrated by: Michael Quinlan
- Length: 28 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The inside story of the four years when Donald Trump went to war with Washington, from the chaotic beginning to the violent finale, told by revered journalists Peter Baker of The New York Times and Susan Glasser of The New Yorker—an ambitious and lasting history of the full Trump presidency that also contains dozens of exclusive scoops and stories from behind the scenes in the White House, from the absurd to the deadly serious.
-
-
An expertly guided tour through history.
- By Cocoabelle on 09-24-22
By: Peter Baker, and others
-
Reaganland
- America's Right Turn 1976-1980
- By: Rick Perlstein
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz, Jonathan Todd Ross, Jacques Roy, and others
- Length: 45 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over two decades, Rick Perlstein has published three definitive works about the emerging dominance of conservatism in modern American politics. With the saga's final installment, he has delivered yet another stunning literary and historical achievement. In late 1976, Ronald Reagan was dismissed as a man without a political future: defeated in his nomination bid against a sitting president of his own party, blamed for President Gerald Ford's defeat, too old to make another run.
-
-
This Book is Censored by Audible
- By Nathan D. Backlund on 09-07-20
By: Rick Perlstein
-
The Presidents
- Noted Historians Rank America's Best - and Worst - Chief Executives
- By: Brian Lamb, Susan Swain, Douglas Brinkley - introduction, and others
- Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann, Grace Angela Henry
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The complete rankings of our best - and worst - presidents, based on C-SPAN's much-cited Historians Surveys of Presidential Leadership. Over a period of decades, C-SPAN has surveyed leading historians on the best and worst of America's presidents across a variety of categories - their ability to persuade the public, their leadership skills, their moral authority, and more. The crucible of the presidency has forged some of the very best and very worst leaders in our national history, along with everyone in between.
-
-
Too Much Praise
- By veronica d on 02-05-21
By: Brian Lamb, and others
-
Unfreedom of the Press
- By: Mark R. Levin
- Narrated by: Jeremy Lowell, Mark R. Levin - introduction and epilogue
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unfreedom of the Press is not just another book about the press. [Levin] shows how those entrusted with news reporting today are destroying freedom of the press from within - not through actions of government officials, but with its own abandonment of reportorial integrity and objective journalism. With the depth of historical background for which his books are renowned, Levin takes you on a journey through the early American patriot press, which proudly promoted the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
-
-
Great Thought Provoking Book
- By JP on 05-22-19
By: Mark R. Levin
-
Collision of Power
- Trump, Bezos, and the Washington Post
- By: Martin Baron
- Narrated by: Liev Schreiber
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marty Baron took charge of The Washington Post newsroom in 2013, after nearly a dozen years leading The Boston Globe. Just seven months into his new job, Baron received explosive news: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, would buy the Post, marking a sudden end to control by the venerated family that had presided over the paper for 80 years. Just over two years later, Donald Trump won the presidency.
-
-
An Excellent Reminder Of Why We Need Journalists
- By C. Rosen on 12-12-23
By: Martin Baron
-
The Fight of His Life
- Inside Joe Biden's White House
- By: Chris Whipple
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Now prizewinning journalist Chris Whipple takes us inside the Oval Office as the critical decisions of Biden’s presidency are being made. With remarkable access to both President Biden and his inner circle—including Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and CIA Director William Burns—Whipple pulls back the curtain on the internal power struggles and back-room compromises.
-
-
A "Fair and Balanced" look at the first two years
- By Kristin V. Johnson on 04-20-23
By: Chris Whipple
-
Front Row at the Trump Show
- By: Jonathan Karl
- Narrated by: Jonathan Karl
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We have never seen a president like this...norm-breaking, rule-busting, dangerously reckless to some and an overdue force for change to others. One thing is clear: We are witnessing the reshaping of the presidency. Jonathan Karl brings us into the White House in a powerful book unlike any other on the Trump administration. He's known and covered Donald Trump longer than any other White House reporter. With extraordinary access to Trump during the campaign and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Karl delivers essential new reporting and surprising insights.
-
-
Reads Like a Thriller
- By Phil Oakley on 04-04-20
By: Jonathan Karl
Critic reviews
"Harold Holzer has brought us a sweeping, groundbreaking and important history of the conflict between American presidents and the press, and it could not arrive at a more crucial moment." (Michael Beschloss, NBC News presidential historian and New York Times best-selling author of Presidents of War)
"Harold Holzer's fascinating new book beautifully narrates the long history of contention between the press and the White House, but it does more than that. Presidential politics were born at the dawn of popular newspaper writing, and the fighting, seducing, and conniving on both sides has continued ever since. Presidents and reporters can't really exist without each other, and Holzer, a historian of the presidency with the eye of a reporter, expertly explains why." (Sean Wilentz, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln)
"Harold Holzer is a master in telling us exactly what we need to know - no more, no less - on a critical and obsessive relationship spanning 200 years. With a gimlet-eye, Holzer shows how some of our best presidents - from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Barack Obama - were the most resistant to press scrutiny." (Jonathan Alter, New York Times best-selling author of His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life)
What listeners say about The Presidents vs. the Press
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Majestic Mom
- 12-18-20
Riveting !!
Beautifully written and methodically researched, this is a page turner. I absolutely loved it. And the reader was perfect!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- brad b.
- 10-05-20
Remarkable
The story covers some of the early presidents frustration and dealings with the press. It goes into more detail about how the presidents from FDR forward have sought to work with and manipulate the press, and when the press has allowed itself to be manipulated in order to either protect the image of the president, or maintain access. The narrator is also excellent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- yanks45a1
- 10-27-20
I didn't know
I didn't know how Washington did not like the press or how the Mass Media changed after Richard Nixon. They are attackers and not helpers "of the people" but now see themselves "as the news." The Mass Media, including Twitter and other online sources use " alternative facts" or word things for their advantage to sell " themselves." Trump took Nixon hatred and attacked with his "right wing" army of press and "disinformation" for his own advantage and letting the "right wing" attack for their own advantage to sell themselves and promote "themselves" for political and financial ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````.Sorry, my cat Fursey did that.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!