Obama videographer: Official record or taxpayer-financed politics?

The White House has hired an official videographer, but won't say how much it's costing taxpayers. Some think the product looks a lot like a political ad.
UPDATED 17:55 PM EDT, AUGUST 8, 2012 | BY PHILLIP SWARTS
Why It Matters:
Being embedded in the White House gives a videographer access not available to any independent news outlet. The White House now has an official videographer, but it's unclear what the position is costing taxpayers and whether the position operates in the same non-political manner that has characterized the official still photographer.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave us the fireside radio chat. John F. Kennedy added the presidential photographer. Ronald Reagan launched the modern Saturday radio address. And now Barack Obama has created the official videographer, amping up the arsenal that presidents can summon to burnish their image.

Officials are mum on many of the details about the newest weapon in the White House messaging machine, declining repeated requests from the Washington Guardian to say how much the new operation has cost since it was started in 2010 or to identify the exact federal budget line it is being charged to.

But the videographer's early work -- a "West Wing Week" package summarizing Obama's work week complete with feel-good music and footage of enthusiastic crowds -- has some wondering whether taxpayers are footing the bill for what they say amounts to a political ad. Arun Chaudhary, who served as the first White House videographer, told the Washington Guardian in an interview that he was paid as a federal employee. But neither he nor his successor appear on the official White House staff salary list made public each year, in the Office of Personnel Management employee database, or in the General Services Administration contract database.

Whatever the budget implications, political communications experts say having an official videographer is a natural progression for a president who in 2008 created an unprecedented digital tether to voters via text messages, email, tweets and Facebook postings. The videos are also heavily laden with positive messages and images. Since January, two rallies on Pennsylvania Avenue that supported Obama's policies have been featured in the weekly videos, but there has been no footage in the videos of any protests against the president.

Many of the videos show the president holding a baby.

In contrast, the official White House photographer has on occasion produced images embarrassing to the president. A search of images in the Gerald R. Ford presidential library yielded a photo by official photographer David Hume Kennerly depicting Ford sprawled at the bottom of the steps of Air Force One.

The videos often use politically-loaded sentences, such as the president continuing "to put pressure on Republicans in Congress to prevent a tax increase on 98 percent of Americans next year."

Chaudhary said they were never meant to be campaign ads.

“It’s presenting the real article to people so they can make their own decisions about it,” he said. Sepp said this type of messaging isn't going to go away.

"There are many tools available to incumbents on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue for helping to portray their activities in a favorable light," he said. "I imagine given the increased use of social media...this sort of project will become commonplace."

Presenting behind-the-scenes, sometimes candid moments of the president could help him connect with voters this year, but Chaudhary said he thinks it’s Obama’s personality that’s driving both the “West Wing Week” and his campaign.

“The same things that make him such a good subject for these videos are the things that help him connect with voters," he said.

Chaudhary said he hopes the position of official White House videographer continues past Obama’s time as president. But he said the test will be how comfortable each president is with being taped most of the time.

“The real test will be once President Obama has a videographer who he doesn’t know personally,” he said.