President-Elect Barack Obama will make his first public appearance in his new role tomorrow afternoon, in what the campaign is calling a “press availability” and not a news conference.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Paul J. Gough reports CBS and ABC confirmed they will carry the address, as did FNC and CNN. NBC and MSNBC confirmed to TVNewser they would air it live as well.
Writes Gough:
There’s not a lot of precedent in recent history for televised news conferences for the president-elect. It’s happened only three times in the past 20 years, in 1988 with George H.W. Bush, 1992 with Bill Clinton and 2000 for George W. Bush. The first two happened in a different media era, with more of a role for broadcast TV and only CNN as a cable news channel. In 2000, with a 37-day recount process, it was only a short time between Bush was named the president and the inauguration.