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Thursday, May 14, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
U.S. News journalist talks book, reporting 

White House 
reporter highlighted 
how pop culture 
affects the presidency

By ALAINA WYGANT

Daily Staff Reporter

May 7, Kenneth Walsh, a White 
House correspondent for U.S. News & 
World Report, spoke at the Gerald R. 
Ford Presidential Library and Museum 
about his book “Celebrity in Chief: A 
History of the Presidents and Culture 
of Stardom.”

Walsh has written from the White 
House during the tenure of five differ-
ent presidents — most recently, Presi-
dent Barack Obama. His blog, “Ken 
Walsh’s Washington,” and column, The 
Presidency, provide coverage of the the 
president.
At the event, Ford Museum Direc-
tor Elaine Didier praised Walsh for his 
unique style of reporting.
“Ken’s colleagues say that he is an 
old school journalist who knows how 
to find secrets, and then knows which 
ones can be told and which ones must 
be kept longer or even forever,” Didier 
said.
In his book “Celebrity in Chief,” 
Walsh examined how past presidents 

have interacted with American popu-
lar culture. During his remarks at the 
event, Walsh discussed how he believed 
President George Washington was a 
pillar in molding the role of president.
“His feeling was that the president 
should be accessible,” Walsh said. “He 
set that precedent that the president 
should not be beyond the public.”
Walsh also highlighted some of the 
key moments reporters have witnessed 
in the White House over the past cen-
tury including Elvis Presley’s visit to the 
White House during the Nixon admin-
istration and Marilyn Monroe’s birth-
day performance for President John F. 
Kennedy.
Walsh said the American public 

often correlates presidential success 
with celebrity status instead of consid-
ering the substance — such as policy 
making and managing foreign and 
domestic affairs — that defines the 
presidency.
“That’s all people want is a little taste 
of the substance because they don’t 
have the patience to learn much more 
about things,” Walsh said. “Sadly, I 
think that’s true.”
Walsh said President Obama tries 
to connect with audiences on a deeper 
level by going on talk shows such as 
“Jimmy Kimmel Live” and the You-
Tube show “Between Two Ferns with 
Zach Galifianakis.” He said these are 
behaviors that future presidents will 

need to mimic.
“President Obama is trying to reach 
out to people through those different 
venues and find ways to communicate 
with them,” Walsh said. “I think this is 
what presidents are going to have to do 
for the foreseeable future. They’ve got 
to go where the voters are and where 
they’re paying attention.”
Overall, Walsh said he believes peo-
ple will be less isolated from political 
affairs if they engage with politics more.
“Maybe people would get angry and 
start fighting each other if they engaged 
more. But they don’t,” Walsh said. “And 
so, that’s one of the reasons we’re so 
polarized — it’s because we’re not talk-
ing to each other.”

“The music kind of created a 
sense that there was something 
going on, and brought you through 
those parts of the visualization 
where things are fairly uniform, 
and gave a sense that something 
was about to happen,” Tarlé said. 
“When things started to happen, 
the music tied it all together and 

gave audio cues to what you were 
seeing.”
Tarlé said in the future he would 
like to see this project displayed in 
a museum.
“I would like to take this to a 
museum somewhere and get it put 
it up as an installation...I think that 
would be a very good way to carry 
this forward,” Tarlé said.
As for Tuesday’s viewing audi-
ence, Tarlé said his favorite part 
was watching the reactions of the 

younger attendees.
“There were a bunch of little 
kids that were watching this just 
getting really excited … I loved 
their reaction,” Tarlé said. They’re 
just looking at the thing and getting 
captured by it. It shows that science 
can be presented to people of all 
ages if you do it right.”

night of their stay.
“During that meeting, manage-
ment pointed out that the student 
group had not completed their pre-
payment arrangement as is typical 
for larger groups and that the addi-
tional money was due,” the resort 
said. “Treetops’ management had 
also discovered significant, but 
non-malicious damage occurred 
after this first night and discussed 
the University of Michigan’s stu-
dents’ behavior with their leader-
ship.
In a statement to the Daily, 
Sigma Delta Tau’s national chap-

ter said the sorority was unaware 
of any pending lawsuits from the 
resort, and still maintain the find-
ings of their previous investiga-
tions.
“We are not aware of any liti-
gation involving the Chi Chapter 
of Sigma Delta Tau at the Univer-
sity of Michigan or its women,” 
the sorority wrote. “Through our 
investigation, we have found the 
women were not responsible for 
the damage incurred at Treetops 
Resort. We have also been made 
aware of multiple reports that 
management and security guards 
of The Treetops Resort and Spa 
did not step in to stop any of the 
actions while they occurred that 
weekend.“

In their statement, the resort 
said the lack of action against indi-
viduals contributed to their deci-
sion to pursue its own legal action 
was the lack of cooperation by the 
Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity.
“Contributing to the decision to 
pursue its own legal action is the 
fact that to date, only three stu-
dents are being charged and Tree-
tops is not aware of the University 
of Michigan or the Greek organi-
zations taking any other action 
against any individuals,” the resort 
said. “Apparently, authorities have 
been impeded by the refusal of 
the students to identify those spe-
cifically involved in the vandalism 
further suggesting that the dam-
age was a group effort.”

Otsego prosecutor Michael Rola 
issued 30-day misdemeanor charg-
es against Business sophomores 
Joshua Kaplan and Zachary Levin. 
The pair turned themselves in to 
the Ann Arbor Police Department 
on March 25. Matthew Vlasic, 

who was an LSA senior at the time 
of the ski trip, was arraignedon 
charges of malicious destruction of 
property.

TREETOPS
From Page 2

pean, Iberian or Japanese litera-
ture, the core Great Books 191 and 
192 courses for freshmen require 
students to read and analyze Greek 
and Roman texts and the Bible, as 
well as 13th- and 14th-century Ital-
ian literature. Homer, Sophocles, 
Plato, Saint Augustine, Dante and 

others are among authors read in 
these courses.
Professors both within and 
outside the Classics Department 
acknowledged the need for stu-
dents to receive a comprehensive 
background in literature from 
across the globe. But they disagree 
about how Great Books could or 
should achieve that.
While some scholars say works 
from China, Africa, India and else-

where should be read alongside the 
Roman classics, Classical Studies 
Prof. Ruth Scodel, who teaches a 
Great Books course, felt it is unre-
alistic to expect one course to 
comprehensively explore multiple 
cultures and literatures.
“Everyone should read books 
from around the world,” Scodel 

SIMULATION
From Page 1 

GREAT BOOKS
From Page 2 

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