White House Snow Job!Robert Anthony Snow was the White House press secretary for President George W. Bush from April 2006 to September 2007. Previously he was a host of the Fox News Channel.
Snow was born in Berea, Kentucky and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father Jim was a social studies teacher and assistant principal at Princeton High School, which Snow attended. His mother was a nurse. Snow lost his mother at seventeen to colon cancer.
Snow received his bachelor's degree in philosophy from Davidson College in 1977. He went on to teach physics and geography in Kenya. Later he returned to Cincinnati where he was a substitute teacher. He also worked as an advocate for the mentally and developmentally disabled in North Carolina.
Snow began his media career in journalism. In 1979 he was an editorial writer for The Greensboro Record, a newspaper in North Carolina and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia from 1981 to 1982. Following, he was the editorial page editor of the Newport News Daily Press (1982-84), deputy editorial page editor of The Detroit News (1984-1987) and editorial page editor of The Washington Times (1987-1991). He wrote commentary for The Detroit News from 1993 to 2000, and was a "Counterpoint" columnist for USA Today from 1994 to 2000.
In 1991 Snow worked in the White House as chief speechwriter and deputy assistant to the president for media affairs, for President George H.W. Bush.
In the mid-1990's, he was the primary guest host of
Rush Limbaugh's radio program, "The Rush Limbaugh Show."
From 1993 to 2000, Snow wrote a nationally syndicated column for Creators Syndicate. His articles appeared in more than 200 newspapers throughout the country. He has also appeared on the nationally syndicated radio and television programs The McLaughlin Group, The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, Face the Nation, Crossfire, and Good Morning America.
Prior to 1994, Snow was the host, writer, and correspondent of the PBS news series, The New Militant Center, as well as a frequent commentator on National Public Radio News. From 1996 until 2003, Snow was host of the Fox News Channel program Fox News Sunday. He also hosted the daily talk show The Tony Snow Show on Fox News Radio from 2003 to 2006.
In April 2006, Snow left Fox News to serve as White House press secretary for President George W. Bush. He was the president's third press secretary, following Ari Fleisher and Scott McClellan, and the first journalist in more than 30 years to serve in the role.
Snow announced his resignation from the job on September 1, 2007. When asked why he was leaving the post, he said "because I ran out of money." He added that "We took out a loan when I came to the White House and that loan's now gone. So I'm going to have to pay the bills." As White House press secretary, Snow was paid $168,000 a year. He said he planned to make money by giving speeches and writing books. Snow was replaced by Dana Perino, previously the deputy press secretary at the White House.
Snow distinguished himself from other press secretaries with his derisive responses to the press. His response to questions he could not answer was "bupkis," a Yiddish word meaning "nothing."
He belonged to a cover band, along with other Washington professionals, called Beats Workin'. He played the flute, saxophone and guitar, and was featured on a VH1 episode of "Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp."
Snow married Jill Ellen Walker in 1987. They had one son and two daughters. The Snows also had several pets including three dogs, three guinea pigs and a cat.
Snow was diagnosed with malignant colon cancer in February 2005, after which his colon was removed and he underwent six months of chemotherapy. In March 2007 it was reported that the cancer had returned and spread to his liver and elsewhere in his body. He died on July 12, 2008. President George W. Bush attended his funeral, which was held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC.
Tony Snow Poll Results
This poll ran from March 5 to 11, 2007.
| Mondo Stars Poll Results
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"Climate change has been a top priority for President George W. Bush."
True
   123/10%
False
1119/90%
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| Votes: 1242 |
On February 7, 2007, the White House released an open letter contending that "climate change has been a top priority since the president's first year in office." The letter was part of a concerted effort to assert that President George W. Bush always has been concerned about global warming.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said: "Perhaps folks have not taken notice of the fact that this is an administration that's been keenly committed both to environmentalism and conservationism from the start."
In June 2001, Bush declared that the United States was withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations plan to control carbon dioxide emissions. He said the plan was "fatally flawed in fundamental ways."
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