It might seem like a stupid question, but I stumbled across this while reading up on the histories of presidential press relations, and it's an intriguing footnote and possibly illustrative. Was it just a "pet" joke? Or an "FU" to the WP for some reason?
I had thought of McKinley as generally trying to cultivate positive relationships with the national press, so I'm guessing it was just a benign joke. But I can't actually find anything concrete.
Follow-up: If not the newspaper, did it have anything to do with the John Philips Sousa march, "The Washington Post"?
What are you reading/does anyone have good suggestions on what to read to get a better historical read of "the history of Presidential-press relations?"