The President's listening post: Nixon's failed experiment in government public relations

At the beginning of his first term, President Nixon engaged in an experiment to institutionalize and regularize a new channel for citizens to convey their views and ideas to the White House. He called it a President's Listening Post. The first one opened in Philadelphia to much hoopla and hopes in October 1969. Quickly, however, it became clear that the mechanism was not working as hoped. Trying to avoid political embarrassment, it was quietly shut down in early 1971. This article recounts the largely unknown experiment by the Nixon White House in presidential public relations.

► Most histories of presidential PR omit Nixon's Presidential Listening Post. ► Listening posts during Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign had been successful. ► President Nixon's 1969–1971 Listening Post experiment in Philadelphia failed. ► Two-way symmetrical PR is difficult to implement at a presidential level in the US.