An Eastern Kentucky University faculty member is quoted in a recent BBC Radio piece comparing how Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and recently-elected Donald Trump deal with the media.
Dr. Pam Parry, associate professor and interim chair of the Department of Communication, talks in the segment about how Eisenhower employed actor Robert Montgomery as an adviser to sharpen his television presentation skills and noted that America’s 34th president held 193 press conferences during his eight years in office.
In her 2014 book, “Eisenhower: The Public Relations President,” Parry argued that Eisenhower was “this nation’s most transformative public relations president” and made “the greatest impact on the profession of public relations at a pivotal moment in its history.” She addressed the subject when she spoke in 2015 at the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas, a presentation that aired on C-SPAN.
The BBC program also included interviews with the president’s son, David Eisenhower, and with Dr. Joseph Loconte, associate professor of history The King’s College in New York City.
The complete interview can be downloaded at https://we.tl/UehNbFezFH.
This past fall, Parry received the Applegate Award for Excellence in Research from the Kentucky Communication Association. She is under contract to write a second book on Eisenhower.