Media Access to the Presidency: 1974-1977

These data were collected through a systematic study of the Ford Administration's White House central files, located at the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The collection catalogs the various requests for contact with the president which were made during his administration. To be included in the dataset, a given request had to be made by a professional journalist or news organization, specifically for a news interview with the president. Requests by private citizens, academics, authors writing books, corporations, and advertising agencies were not included. Similarly, requests for presidential photographs and brief recorded messages, as well as offers of free television time during the election campaign, were omitted.