Date: 6 December 2013 Course: American Presidency Group: Alexandra Mihai Laura Picioru Anca Pirnoiu Section: 2nd

Year American Studies M.A.

Inside the Presidential Debates: Their Improbable Past and Promising Future (Excerpt)
Newton N. Minow and Craig L. LaMay Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008

ANCA PIRNOIU INTRODUCTION President John F. Kennedy confined to the authors of this excerpt that he would not have won the presidential debate in 1960 if it werent for the televised session. Those debates were the first ever face-to-face encounters between major-party presidential candidates. They helped Kennedy gain popularity, for he was not as known as Richard M. Nixon, his opponent, who had been Vice President for 8 years. Even though those debates were popular at that time, today almost no one remembers what the candidates discussed about. The two opponents argued on the issue of Chinas intentions toward two small islands in the Pacific, namely Quemoy and Matsu, claimed by Nationalist Taiwan, a dispute that was quickly forgotten after the election. The matter came so briefly into discussion that no one noticed it, but the VP assured the audience that the civil war on those territories ended and the Communists moved out. However, the Kennedy-Nixon debates changed presidential elections forever, propelling them into the age of television. In 1960, 4 years had passed since the majority of American homes had a TV set and the debates were brought into peoples living rooms, a fact which enabled them to see, hear, and judge the candidates in a way that was never possible before. Then again, the experience stoked the public appetite for and the modern campaigns emphasis on the image and sound bite, because people who saw the debates on television thought Kennedy was the winner, while those who heard them on the radio gave Nixon as the winner. Don Hewitt, who produced the first debate in Chicago on CBS, mentioned that it was not important who won or lost the debate. That first debate launched Jack Kennedy onto the national scene. Nixon was the first to arrive at the television studio, looking unhappy, also by having banged his knee while getting out of the car, as Hewitt observed.

 On the other hand, Kennedy looked like a matinee idol, and when he was asked if he needed any makeup, he refused, and Nixon followed on his decision, stating that I cant have makeup because it will look like I got made up and he didnt. Apparently, Nixon went backstage for a bit of makeup after all, and Hewitt described him as looking like death warmed over. Four years later, when Nixon was made up to go out on the rostrum to introduce the Republican nominee, Barry Goldwater, Hewitt told him that if he would have allowed makeup four years before, it would have been Goldwater introducing him, a statement to which Nixon consented. Three years after the televised debates between Kennedy and Nixon, the former was assassinated and with him went the nascent tradition of televised presidential debates, with politics standing in the way. In 1960, Congress suspended Section 315 (the equal time law) of the Federal Communications Act so as to make possible the nations first presidential debate. Without this change, the law would have required every candidate of the office to be afforded equal time on television, and there were at least a dozen more candidates to go. President Kennedy signaled his intention to ask for another waiver, promising his friend Barry Goldwater that if he won the Republican nomination in 1964, they would go on a tour around the country and debate. In 1964, incumbent president Lyndon Johnson told the Senate that he did not want a similar suspension of the law, because he did not want to debate Goldwater. In 1968 there was no incumbent, and while VP Hubert Humphrey wanted to debate Nixon, the latter didnt, thus the equal time law was not suspended. In 1972, President Nixon told Congress that he would not debate his challenger, South Dakota senator George McGovern, making the law stay the same. Democrats controlled Congress and could have changed it, but they were horribly divided at that time. In 1975, with Nixon leaving office, the law changed without congressional action. The Federal Communications Commission revised its interpretation of the equal time law so as to make debates possible. In 1976, with the Watergate scandal and Nixons pardoning, President Gerald Ford entered the campaign far behind his challenger, Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, in the polls. Ford felt that he needed to debate in order to win back public support, thus making way for skilled and determined public officials from both major parties to work with citizens and civic groups to make the presidential debates happen. And so the tradition survived, starting from President Ford and Governor Carter, but it has not been an easy task to accomplish. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Act_of_1934 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Hewitt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McGovern http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/policy/political/candrule.htm http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/276362/Hubert-H-Humphrey http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/waiver http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/federal-communications-commission.shtml

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/jimmycarter http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/geraldford http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/lyndonbjohnson http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/johnfkennedy http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/richardnixon LAURA PICIORU TEXT PART I Broadcasting of political debates dates as back as the radio. 1928 - the League of Women Voters sponsored a series of nationally broadcasted debates that went on for ten months, but in which the debates were being held by journalists, scholars and politicians on behalf of the candidates. 1928 Mutual Broadcasting System launched the American Forum of the Air a debate program on public affairs, moderated by Theodore Granik, whose style of talk show was to interrupt candidates who were trying to avoid his questions. 1935 NBC Red brought the debate program called The University of Chicago Round Table. 1935 NBC Blue: a more formal debate program Americas Town Meeting of the Air, moderated by George V. Denny Jr.; each candidate was give 20 minutes without interruption to sustain their case. During the full hour of the program, questions were being asked by members of the studio audience, with a prize being awarded to the person who asks the best question. The show had 5 million listeners weekly, at the peak of its popularity. George V. Denny Jr. argued that the radio was a much better medium to inform the population on political matters, since newspapers are always editing the information so as to make favored candidates and parties look better. Limiting public access to genuine information, he says, is undemocratic. President Franklin Roosevelt shared this opinion, considering newspapers far too often to be ideologically driven; he took to radio with his fireside chats so he could communicate directly with the public. 1960 Richard Nixon, then Vice President, and John F. Kennedy, as Massachusetts senator, met in Chicago in September to do the first of four televised debates. It was the first time in US history when the nominees of major political parties joined in a face-to-face encounter to debate over political views. 60% of the adult population at that time, 77 million Americans, watched this first debate, which became the most famous political debate in history to that date. This Nixon Kennedy debate surpassed the 1858 meetings between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas who were opposing candidates for a seat in the Illinois Senate. The Lincoln-Douglas debates are seen as standards to which televised political debates will never be able to rise, critics say, as they are often considered high-stakes political theater with no real substance. Televised debates are seen as a sham by minority parties, unless they have candidates participating; both specialists and journalists tend to seek for a winner in the debate, regulating organizations question the legitimacy or the legality of debates. Contrary to all these, the citizens still watch the debates in large numbers for the simple fact that they want to see and hear the face-to-face encounter of the people for who they might be voting.

 Before the Nixon-Kennedy debates, newspapers doubted the success and rating of these televised debates. In Wall Street Journal: warning that the televised encounter would be rigged more for entertainment than for enlightenment. The New York Times: the debate would appeal most to voters who are influenced not so much by logic and reason as by emotional, illogical factorsthe candidates personality, whether he talks too much or too little, a desire to be with the winner or sympathy for the underdog, and many other far less rational factors. The fear is that they will not discuss the issues as much as put on a show. Jack Gould, television critic for the New York Times, criticized the decision to rely on a panel of journalists to ask the questions: What is very definitely wanted rather than mere questions and answers is a discussion between the two men For the candidates to agree that serious issues discussed in the great conference can be handled in one and a half or two and a half minutes is not an encouraging augury of the campaign to come. A Times writer compared the Nixon-Kennedy debate with the Lincoln-Douglas ones, and said that the first will never rise to the success of the latter. The press secretaries for Nixon and Kennedy complained, prior to the first debate, that the panel of journalists present at the debate included no one from the nations major print media, only network representatives. Among the many dissatisfied parts, Andrew J. Easter, independent candidate who sought Democratic nomination but did not win, sued both houses of Congress, FCC Chairman Frederick Ford, NBC President Robert Kintner, Vice President Nixon, and Senator Kennedy in federal district court to be included in the program. He claimed that the congressional action that made the debates possible was an unconstitutional abridgment of his right to participate, for it was allowing the networks to engage in discriminatory and unfair practices in silent unison. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Forum_of_the_Air http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._Ford http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireside_chats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Gould http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Kintner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Women_Voters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Broadcasting_System http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall_Street_Journal http://www.history.com/topics/stephen-a-douglas http://www.otrcat.com/university-of-chicago-roundtable-p-49047.html http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/Radio/TownMeeting/TownMeeting.html

ALEXANDRA MIHAI TEXT PART II The broadcast industry was not happy either with the debates. Many of the affiliates of the television networks were angered by the debates because of program preemptions and lost advertising revenue. The sponsorship issue was a critical one. The networks promised to provide a minimum of 8h of public-service without charge to the major-party candidates in 1960 in the end, the 1960 debates ran without interruption even for local station breaks. Trade magazine Broadcasting stated that the debates cost about $6 million overall, and their affiliations even more. The 1960 debates were not entirely free from instant polls and political spin. The 1 st debate (on Sept, 26) - the New York Times would report that the debate had done little to change voters minds. The same day, however, 10 southern governors who had previously been quite indifferent to Kennedys candidacy strongly endorsed him, citing his superb handling of Mr. Nixon and the issues facing our country. It has been also concluded that television was too superficial a medium for such a serious business as national politics. The New York Times: the program was considered a powderpuff performance and TV tycoons were charged due to preventing the candidates from fully engaging each other by their use of a panel of journalists to ask questions. The Wall Street Journal: those ghostly figures with their backs to the cameras were nothing but distractions. Even good questions would have derailed the conversation If instead the two candidates had been left alone to speak, to question and reply to each other, they would have inevitably pushed themselves to the hard questions about labor policy, taxes, civil rights, government spending or about the role of government in welfare legislation. The New York Mirror: the decision to have journalists ask the questions was harshly criticized, saying the debate was bad television, and whoever arranged the show either was overawed by the occasion and the personalities or he just did not know his business The questions asked by the commentators got the argument just about nowhere. In the future these fellows can be dispensed with. The Baltimore Sun: the great debate wasnt exactly great and it wasnt exactly a debate, but it was the best political program of the year. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: a stiff and formalized occasion but allowed that a real discussion of the issues did take place. The Seattle Times: both candidates handled tough questions with professional skill but seemed somewhat confined by the programs rigid format. There was too much emphasis on seeing to it that each candidate had the same number of seconds in which to speak. Henry Steele Commager (New York Times Magazine): televised press conferences in future campaigns could be a disaster and offered his view that neither George Washington nor Abraham Lincoln would have fared well in such televised press interviews. Norman Cousins (Saturday Review): the debates ran counter to the educational process. They require that a man keep his mouth moving whether he has something to say or not Thoughtful silence is made to appear a confession of ignorance. Londons Daily Mirror: a brilliant lesson from America on how to make an election come vividly alive.

 The News Chronicle suggested Britain copy the idea: Set rival leaders together on the same screen and the most partisan of viewers is forced to hear both sides of the question. Despite the problems, history records the 1960 debates a great success with voters. Though most newspaper editorials called the debate a draw, reports from viewers suggested that Kennedy had significantly increased his standing among undecided voters: 73.5 million Americans saw that first debate; 2/3 of the nations 45 million households with television sets tuned in to watch. One Detroit woman told the Wall Street Journal: I learned more about what each man stands for in an hour than I have in two months of reading the papers. A Jacksonville, Florida, real estate broker told the Journal: I always thought Kennedy was a kiddie, but he really came out last night. Id been leaning toward Nixon, but now I think Kennedys the boy. He has more brainsan amazing memory and hes a better speaker. One Dallas man said that Nixon looked sick. He looked as though hes really los t weight, and I kept noticing beads of sweat on his forehead. Kennedy looked better. On television, all four debates attracted audiences averaging 20 percent larger than the entertainment programs they replaced. At the conclusion of the final program, moderator Quincy Howe of ABC News said: Vice President Nixon and Senator Kennedy have used a new means of communication to pioneer a new type of political debate Surely they have set a new precedent. Perhaps they have established a new tradition. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_News http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baltimore_Sun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcasting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cousins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincy_Howe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New-York_Mirror http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times_Magazine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Chronicle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Review_%28U.S._magazine%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seattle_Times http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_Post-Dispatch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/127696/Henry-Steele-Commager

GLOSSARY

ABC News = the news gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Its flagship program is World News with Diane Sawyer; other programs include morning show Good Morning America, Nightline, newsmagazine shows Primetime and 20/20, and Sunday morning political affairs program This Week with George Stephanopoulos. American Forum of the Air = a public affairs panel discussion program, the first series of its kind on radio, aired from 1934 to 1956. Notable guests, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt (before he was president, journalist Dorothy Thompson, New York mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, U.S. Senators Harry Truman and Robert Taft, discussed a wide range of topics, from the New Deal to fascism. The series won a Peabody Award in 1940. Americas Town Meeting of the Air = broadcast weekly from 1935 to 1956, it was one of the most important public service projects of NBC. It attracted up to 3,000,000 listeners weekly, more than 1,000 discussion clubs were formed to listen to the broadcasts and to debate the issues raised, and transcripts of each program were widely distributed at modest cost to the radio audience, teachers and schools. Baltimore Sun = the U.S. state of Marylands largest general-circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Broadcasting = a television industry trade magazine published by NewBay Media. Previous names included Broadcasting-Telecasting, Broadcasting and Broadcast Advertising, and Broadcasting. Broadcasting was published biweekly until January, 1941, and weekly thereafter. Carter, Jimmy = Jimmy Carter aspired to make Government "competent and compassionate," responsive to the American people and their expectations. His achievements were notable, but in an era of rising energy costs, mounting inflation, and continuing tensions, it was impossible for his administration to meet these high expectations. Carter, who has rarely used his full name--James Earl Carter, Jr.--was born October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. Peanut farming, talk of politics, and devotion to the Baptist faith were mainstays of his upbringing. Upon graduation in 1946 from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Carter married Rosalynn Smith. The Carters have three sons, John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip), Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff), and a daughter, Amy Lynn. After seven years' service as a naval officer, Carter returned to Plains. In 1962 he entered state politics, and eight years later he was elected Governor of Georgia. Among the new young southern governors, he attracted attention by emphasizing ecology, efficiency in government, and the removal of racial barriers. Carter announced his candidacy for President in December 1974 and began a twoyear campaign that gradually gained momentum. At the Democratic Convention, he was nominated on the first ballot. He chose Senator Walter F. Mondale of Minnesota as his running mate. Carter campaigned hard against President Gerald R. Ford, debating with him three times. Carter won by 297 electoral votes to 241 for Ford. Carter worked hard to combat the continuing economic woes of inflation and unemployment. By the end of his administration, he could claim an increase of nearly eight million jobs and a decrease in the budget deficit, measured in percentage of the gross national product. Unfortunately, inflation

and interest rates were at near record highs, and efforts to reduce them caused a short recession. Carter could point to a number of achievements in domestic affairs. He dealt with the energy shortage by establishing a national energy policy and by decontrolling domestic petroleum prices to stimulate production. He prompted Government efficiency through civil service reform and proceeded with deregulation of the trucking and airline industries. He sought to improve the environment. His expansion of the national park system included protection of 103 million acres of Alaskan lands. To increase human and social services, he created the Department of Education, bolstered the Social Security system, and appointed record numbers of women, blacks, and Hispanics to Government jobs. In foreign affairs, Carter set his own style. His championing of human rights was coldly received by the Soviet Union and some other nations. In the Middle East, through the Camp David agreement of 1978, he helped bring amity between Egypt and Israel. He succeeded in obtaining ratification of the Panama Canal treaties. Building upon the work of predecessors, he established full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and completed negotiation of the SALT II nuclear limitation treaty with the Soviet Union. There were serious setbacks, however. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the suspension of plans for ratification of the SALT II pact. The seizure as hostages of the U. S. embassy staff in Iran dominated the news during the last 14 months of the administration. The consequences of Iran's holding Americans captive, together with continuing inflation at home, contributed to Carter's defeat in 1980. Even then, he continued the difficult negotiations over the hostages. Iran finally released the 52 Americans the same day Carter left office. CBS = is an American commercial broadcast television network, which started as a radio network; it continues to operate a radio network and a portfolio of television and radio stations in large and mid-sized markets. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. It is the second largest broadcaster in the world behind the British Broadcasting Corporation. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network", in reference to the shape of the company's logo. It has also been called the "Tiffany Network", which alludes to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of its founder William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBS's first demonstrations of color television, which were held in a former Tiffany & Co. building in New York City in 1950.The network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc., a collection of 16 radio stations that was bought by William S. Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System.[3] Under Paley's guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States and then one of the big three American broadcast television networks. In 1974, CBS dropped its full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation acquired the network in 1995 and eventually adopted the name of the company it had bought to become CBS Corporation. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which ironically had begun as a spin-off of CBS in 1971. In late 2005, Viacom split itself and reestablished CBS Corporation with the CBS television network at its core. CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, its parent. Commager, Henry Steele = an American historian who helped define Modern liberalism in the United States for two generations through his forty books and 700 essays and reviews. Congress = the United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Both representatives and

senators are chosen through direct election. Members are affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, and only rarely to a third-party or as independents. Congress has 535 voting members: 435 Representatives and 100 Senators. Cousins, Norman = an American political journalist, author, professor, and world peace advocate. Daily Mirror = a British national daily tabloid newspaper which was founded in 1903. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply The Mirror. It had an average daily circulation of 1,058,488 in January 2013. Its Sunday sister paper is the Sunday Mirror. Denny, George V. Jr. = the moderator of Americas Town Meeting of the Air, executive director of the League for Political Education, which produced the program. Denny moderated the program from 1935 to 1952 and had a major role in choosing weekly topics. Denny and the League wanted to create a program that would replicate the Town Meetings that were held in the early days of the United States. Douglas, Stephen = (April 23, 1813 June 3, 1861) an American politician from Illinois and the designer of the KansasNebraska Act. He was a U.S. Representative, a U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee for President in the 1860 election, losing to Republican Abraham Lincoln. Douglas had previously defeated Lincoln in a Senate contest, noted for the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Federal Communications Act = the Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal law, enacted as Public Law Number 416, Act of June 19, 1934, ch. 652, 48 Stat. 1064, by the 73rd Congress, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, 47 U.S.C. 151 et seq. The Act replaced the Federal Radio Commission with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It also transferred regulation of interstate telephone services from the Interstate Commerce Commission to the FCC. The stated purposes of the Act are "regulating interstate and foreign commerce in communication by wire and radio so as to make available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States a rapid, efficient, nationwide, and worldwide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges, for the purpose of the national defense, and for the purpose of securing a more effective execution of this policy by centralizing authority theretofore granted by law to several agencies and by granting additional authority with respect to interstate and foreign commerce in wire and radio communication, there is hereby created a commission to be known as the 'Federal Communications Commission', which shall be constituted as hereinafter provided, and which shall execute and enforce the provisions of this Act." On January 3, 1996, the 104th Congress of the United States amended or repealed sections of the Communications Act of 1934 with the new Telecommunications Act of 1996. It was the first major overhaul of American telecommunications policy in nearly 62 years. Federal Communications Commission = an independent federal agency reporting to Congress, the Federal Communications Commission regulates interstate and international communications through cable, radio, television, satellite and wire. The goal of the Commission is to promote connectivity and ensure a robust and competitive market.

Fireside Chats = a series of thirty evening radio addresses given by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944. Although the World War I Committee on Public Information had seen presidential policy propagated to the public en masse, "fireside chats" were the first media development that facilitated intimate and direct communication between the president and the citizens of the United States. Roosevelt's cheery voice and demeanor played him into the favor of citizens and he soon became one of the most popular presidents ever. On radio, he was able to quell rumors and explain his reasons for social change slowly and comprehensibly. Ford, Frederick = a Republican, he was appointed to the Federal Communications Commission in 1957, and after the chairman, John C. Doerfer, was forced to resign after allegations of conflict of interest, President Dwight D. Eisenhower named him to take over as Chairman of the FCC. Ford served in that role from March 15, 1960 to December 31, 1964. Ford, Gerald = when Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office on August 9, 1974, he declared, "I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances.... This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts." It was indeed an unprecedented time. He had been the first Vice President chosen under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment and, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was succeeding the first President ever to resign. Ford was confronted with almost insuperable tasks. There were the challenges of mastering inflation, reviving a depressed economy, solving chronic energy shortages, and trying to ensure world peace. The President acted to curb the trend toward Government intervention and spending as a means of solving the problems of American society and the economy. In the long run, he believed, this shift would bring a better life for all Americans. Ford's reputation for integrity and openness had made him popular during his 25 years in Congress. From 1965 to 1973, he was House Minority Leader. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1913, he grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He starred on the University of Michigan football team, then went to Yale, where he served as assistant coach while earning his law degree. During World War II he attained the rank of lieutenant commander in the Navy. After the war he returned to Grand Rapids, where he began the practice of law, and entered Republican politics. A few weeks before his election to Congress in 1948, he married Elizabeth Bloomer. They have four children: Michael, John, Steven, and Susan. As President, Ford tried to calm earlier controversies by granting former President Nixon a full pardon. His nominee for Vice President, former Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, was the second person to fill that office by appointment. Gradually, Ford selected a cabinet of his own. Ford established his policies during his first year in office, despite opposition from a heavily Democratic Congress. His first goal was to curb inflation. Then, when recession became the Nation's most serious domestic problem, he shifted to measures aimed at stimulating the economy. But, still fearing inflation, Ford vetoed a number of non-military appropriations bills that would have further increased the already heavy budgetary deficit. During his first 14 months as President he vetoed 39 measures. His vetoes were usually sustained. Ford continued as he had in his Congressional days to view himself as "a moderate in domestic affairs, a conservative in fiscal affairs, and a dyed-in-the-wool internationalist in foreign affairs." A major goal was to help business operate more freely by reducing taxes upon it and easing the controls exercised by regulatory agencies. "We...declared our independence 200 years ago, and we are not about to lose it now to paper shufflers and computers," he said. In foreign affairs Ford acted vigorously to maintain U. S. power and prestige after the collapse of Cambodia and South Viet Nam. Preventing a new war in the Middle East remained a major objective; by providing aid to both Israel and Egypt, the Ford Administration helped persuade the two countries to accept an interim truce agreement.

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Detente with the Soviet Union continued. President Ford and Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev set new limitations upon nuclear weapons. President Ford won the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1976, but lost the election to his Democratic opponent, former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia. On Inauguration Day, President Carter began his speech: "For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land." A grateful people concurred. Goldwater, Barry = (January 2, 1909 May 29, 1998) was a businessman and fiveterm United States Senator from Arizona (195365, 196987) and the Republican Party's nominee for president in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr. Conservative". Goldwater is the politician most often credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. He also had a substantial impact on the libertarian movement. Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal and fought through the conservative coalition against the New Deal coalition. He mobilized a large conservative constituency to win the hard-fought Republican primaries. Goldwater's right-wing campaign platform ultimately failed to gain the support of the electorate and he lost the 1964 presidential election to incumbent Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson by one of the largest landslides in history, bringing down many Republican candidates as well. The Johnson campaign and other critics painted him as a reactionary, while supporters praised his crusades against the Soviet Union, labor unions, and the welfare state. His defeat allowed Johnson and the Democrats in Congress to pass the Great Society programs, but the defeat of so many older Republicans in 1964 also cleared the way for a younger generation of American conservatives to mobilize. Goldwater was much less active as a national leader of conservatives after 1964; his supporters mostly rallied behind Ronald Reagan, who became governor of California in 1967 and the 40th President of the United States in 1981. Goldwater returned to the Senate in 1969, and specialized in defense policy, bringing to the table his experience as a senior officer in the Air Force Reserve. In 1974, as an elder statesman of the party, Goldwater successfully urged President Richard Nixon to resign when evidence of a cover-up in the Watergate scandal became overwhelming and impeachment was imminent. By the 1980s, the increasing influence of the Christian right on the Republican Party so conflicted with Goldwater's views that he became a vocal opponent of the religious right on issues such as abortion, gay rights, and the role of religion in public life. A significant accomplishment in his career was the passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, which restructured the higher levels of the Pentagon by increasing the power of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to direct military action. Gould, Jack = an American journalist and critic, who wrote influential commentary about television, he became the chief television reporter and critic for The New York Times in 1948 after several years covering theater and radio for that paper. His columns and reviews were widely read by decision makers in the fledgling medium of television, and Gould had many professional and personal relationships/acquaintances with prominent industry figures such as Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly. Granik, Theodore = founder-moderator of radio-TV's long-run panel discussion program, The American Forum of the Air. Hewitt, Don = (December 14, 1922 August 19, 2009) was an American television news producer and executive, best known for creating 60 Minutes, the CBS television news magazine, in 1968, which at the time of his death, was the longest-running prime-time broadcast on American television. Under Hewitt's leadership, 60 Minutes was the only news

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program ever rated the nation's top-ranked television program, an achievement it accomplished five times. Hewitt produced the first televised presidential debate in 1960. Howe, Quincy = an American journalist, best known for his CBS radio broadcasts during World War II. He left CBS in 1947 to join ABC. Humphrey, Hubert = (born May 27, 1911, Wallace, South Dakota, U.S.died January 13, 1978, Waverly, Minnesota), 38th vice president of the United States (196569) in the Democratic administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson and presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in 1968. A liberal leader in the United States Senate (194965; 1971 78), he built his political base on a DemocratFarmer-Labor coalition reminiscent of the Populist Movement. Johnson, Lyndon B. = "A Great Society" for the American people and their fellow men elsewhere was the vision of Lyndon B. Johnson. In his first years of office he obtained passage of one of the most extensive legislative programs in the Nation's history. Maintaining collective security, he carried on the rapidly growing struggle to restrain Communist encroachment in Viet Nam. Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, in central Texas, not far from Johnson City, which his family had helped settle. He felt the pinch of rural poverty as he grew up, working his way through Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now known as Texas State University-San Marcos); he learned compassion for the poverty of others when he taught students of Mexican descent. In 1937 he campaigned successfully for the House of Representatives on a New Deal platform, effectively aided by his wife, the former Claudia "Lady Bird" Taylor, whom he had married in 1934. During World War II he served briefly in the Navy as a lieutenant commander, winning a Silver Star in the South Pacific. After six terms in the House, Johnson was elected to the Senate in 1948. In 1953, he became the youngest Minority Leader in Senate history, and the following year, when the Democrats won control, Majority Leader. With rare skill he obtained passage of a number of key Eisenhower measures. In the 1960 campaign, Johnson, as John F. Kennedy's running mate, was elected Vice President. On November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson was sworn in as President. First he obtained enactment of the measures President Kennedy had been urging at the time of his death--a new civil rights bill and a tax cut. Next he urged the Nation "to build a great society, a place where the meaning of man's life matches the marvels of man's labor." In 1964, Johnson won the Presidency with 61 percent of the vote and had the widest popular margin in American history--more than 15,000,000 votes. The Great Society program became Johnson's agenda for Congress in January 1965: aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of crime and delinquency, removal of obstacles to the right to vote. Congress, at times augmenting or amending, rapidly enacted Johnson's recommendations. Millions of elderly people found succor through the 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act. Under Johnson, the country made spectacular explorations of space in a program he had championed since its start. When three astronauts successfully orbited the moon in December 1968, Johnson congratulated them: "You've taken ... all of us, all over the world, into a new era. . . ." Nevertheless, two overriding crises had been gaining momentum since 1965. Despite the beginning of new antipoverty and anti-discrimination programs, unrest and rioting in black ghettos troubled the Nation. President Johnson steadily exerted his influence against segregation and on behalf of law and order, but there was no early solution. The other crisis arose from Viet Nam. Despite Johnson's efforts to end Communist aggression and achieve a settlement, fighting continued. Controversy over the war had become acute by the

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end of March 1968, when he limited the bombing of North Viet Nam in order to initiate negotiations. At the same time, he startled the world by withdrawing as a candidate for reelection so that he might devote his full efforts, unimpeded by politics, to the quest for peace. When he left office, peace talks were under way; he did not live to see them successful, but died suddenly of a heart attack at his Texas ranch on January 22, 1973. Kennedy, John F. = On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die. Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety. Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, advancing in 1953 to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history. In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President. His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty. Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation. His vision of America extended to the quality of the national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society. He wished America to resume its old mission as the first nation dedicated to the revolution of human rights. With the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought American idealism to the aid of developing nations. But the hard reality of the Communist challenge remained. Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles, already armed and trained, to invade their homeland. The attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro was a failure. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign against West Berlin. Kennedy replied by reinforcing the Berlin garrison and increasing the Nation's military strength, including new efforts in outer space. Confronted by this reaction, Moscow, after the erection of the Berlin Wall, relaxed its pressure in central Europe. Instead, the Russians now sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away. The American response to the Cuban crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of the futility of nuclear blackmail. Kennedy now contended that both sides had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and slowing the arms race--a contention which led to the test ban treaty of 1963. The months after the Cuban crisis showed significant progress toward his goal of "a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion." His administration thus saw the beginning of new hope for both the equal rights of Americans and the peace of the world. Kintner, Robert = an American journalist and television executive, who served as president of both the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

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League of Women Voters = an American civic organization that was formed to help women take a larger role in public affairs as they won the right to vote. It was founded in 1920,[1] by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote. Catt was also the founder and at the time the President of the International Alliance of Women. The League of Women Voters began as a "mighty political experiment" aimed to help newly enfranchised women exercise their responsibilities as voters. Originally, only women could join the league; but in 1973 the charter was modified to include men. The league is a grassroots organization with chapters in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Lincoln, Abraham = the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crisisthe American Civil Warpreserving the Union, abolishing slavery, strengthening the national government and modernizing the economy. McGovern, George = (July 19, 1922 October 21, 2012) was an American historian, author, U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 presidential election. McGovern grew up in Mitchell, South Dakota, where he was a renowned debater. He volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Forces upon the country's entry into World War II and as a B-24 Liberator pilot flew 35 missions over German-occupied Europe. Among the medals bestowed upon him was a Distinguished Flying Cross for making a hazardous emergency landing of his damaged plane and saving his crew. After the war he gained degrees from Dakota Wesleyan University and Northwestern University, culminating in a PhD, and was a history professor. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1956 and re-elected in 1958. After a failed bid for the U.S. Senate in 1960, he was a successful candidate in 1962. As a senator, McGovern was an exemplar of modern American liberalism. He became most known for his outspoken opposition to the growing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He staged a brief nomination run in the 1968 presidential election as a stand-in for the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy. The subsequent McGovernFraser Commission fundamentally altered the presidential nominating process, by greatly increasing the number of caucuses and primaries and reducing the influence of party insiders. The McGovernHatfield Amendment sought to end the Vietnam War by legislative means but was defeated in 1970 and 1971. McGovern's long-shot, grassroots-based 1972 presidential campaign found triumph in gaining the Democratic nomination but left the party badly split ideologically, and the failed vice-presidential pick of Thomas Eagleton undermined McGovern's credibility. In the general election McGovern lost to incumbent Richard Nixon in one of the biggest landslides in American electoral history. Re-elected Senator in 1968 and 1974, McGovern was defeated in a bid for a fourth term in 1980. Throughout his career, McGovern was involved in issues related to agriculture, food, nutrition, and hunger. As the first director of the Food for Peace program in 1961, McGovern oversaw the distribution of U.S. surpluses to the needy abroad and was instrumental in the creation of the United Nations-run World Food Program. As sole chair of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs from 1968 to 1977, McGovern publicized the problem of hunger within the United States and issued the "McGovern Report", which led to a new set of nutritional guidelines for Americans. McGovern later served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture from 1998 to 2001 and was appointed the first UN Global Ambassador on World Hunger by the World Food Program in 2001. The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition

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Program has provided school meals for millions of children in dozens of countries since 2000 and resulted in McGovern's being named World Food Prize co-laureate in 2008. Mutual Broadcasting System = an American radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999, best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman. For many years, it was a national broadcaster for Major League Baseball. From the mid-1930s and for decades after, Mutual ran a highly respected news service accompanied by a variety of popular commentary shows. Toward the end of its run as a major programmer, it introduced the country to Larry King. National Broadcasting Company (NBC) = an American commercial broadcast television and radio network. It is headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center, with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago. NBC is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network", due to its stylized peacock logo, which was originally created for its color broadcasts. Formed in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. In 1986, control of NBC passed to General Electric (GE), with GE's $6.4 billion purchase of RCA. GE had previously owned RCA and NBC until 1930, when it had been forced to sell the company as a result of antitrust charges. After the 1986 acquisition, the chief executive of NBC was Bob Wright, who remained in that position until his retirement, giving his job to Jeff Zucker. The network is currently part of the media company NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast, which formerly operated NBCUniversal in a joint venture with General Electric from 2011 to 2013 (and before that, jointly owned by GE and Vivendi). As a result of the merger, Zucker left NBC and was replaced by Comcast executive Steve Burke. NBC has ten owned-and-operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates in the United States, some of which are also seen in Canada, along with NBC-branded international channels in South Korea and Germany. Archival footage from a majority of the NBC owned-and-operated stations is available for perusal and purchase through the NBCUniversal Archives. New York Mirror = a weekly newspaper published in New York City from 1823 to 1842, and again as a daily newspaper renamed The Evening Mirror from 1844 to 1898. New York Times = an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18, 1851. It has won 112 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other news organization. Its website is one of America's most popular news sites and most popular among all the nation's newspapers - receiving more than 30 million unique visitors per month. New York Times Magazine = a Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times. It is host to feature articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. News Chronicle = a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication on 17 October 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail. Its offices were in Bouverie Street, off Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8DP, England. Nixon, Richard M. = Reconciliation was the first goal set by President Richard M. Nixon. The Nation was painfully divided, with turbulence in the cities and war overseas. During his Presidency, Nixon succeeded in ending American fighting in Viet Nam and improving relations with the U.S.S.R. and China. But the Watergate scandal brought fresh

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divisions to the country and ultimately led to his resignation. His election in 1968 had climaxed a career unusual on two counts: his early success and his comeback after being defeated for President in 1960 and for Governor of California in 1962. Born in California in 1913, Nixon had a brilliant record at Whittier College and Duke University Law School before beginning the practice of law. In 1940, he married Patricia Ryan; they had two daughters, Patricia (Tricia) and Julie. During World War II, Nixon served as a Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific. On leaving the service, he was elected to Congress from his California district. In 1950, he won a Senate seat. Two years later, General Eisenhower selected Nixon, age 39, to be his running mate. As Vice President, Nixon took on major duties in the Eisenhower Administration. Nominated for President by acclamation in 1960, he lost by a narrow margin to John F. Kennedy. In 1968, he again won his party's nomination, and went on to defeat Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and third-party candidate George C. Wallace. His accomplishments while in office included revenue sharing, the end of the draft, new anticrime laws, and a broad environmental program. As he had promised, he appointed Justices of conservative philosophy to the Supreme Court. One of the most dramatic events of his first term occurred in 1969, when American astronauts made the first moon landing. Some of his most acclaimed achievements came in his quest for world stability. During visits in 1972 to Beijing and Moscow, he reduced tensions with China and the U.S.S.R. His summit meetings with Russian leader Leonid I. Brezhnev produced a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons. In January 1973, he announced an accord with North Viet Nam to end American involvement in Indochina. In 1974, his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, negotiated disengagement agreements between Israel and its opponents, Egypt and Syria. In his 1972 bid for office, Nixon defeated Democratic candidate George McGovern by one of the widest margins on record. Within a few months, his administration was embattled over the so-called "Watergate" scandal, stemming from a break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee during the 1972 campaign. The break-in was traced to officials of the Committee to Re-elect the President. A number of administration officials resigned; some were later convicted of offenses connected with efforts to cover up the affair. Nixon denied any personal involvement, but the courts forced him to yield tape recordings which indicated that he had, in fact, tried to divert the investigation. As a result of unrelated scandals in Maryland, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned in 1973. Nixon nominated, and Congress approved, House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford as Vice President. Faced with what seemed almost certain impeachment, Nixon announced on August 8, 1974, that he would resign the next day to begin "that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America." In his last years, Nixon gained praise as an elder statesman. By the time of his death on April 22, 1994, he had written numerous books on his experiences in public life and on foreign policy. Roosevelt, Franklin = the 32nd President of the United States (19331945). He served for 12 years and four terms until his death in 1945, the only president ever to do so, and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic depression and total war. A dominant leader of the Democratic Party and the only American president elected to more than two terms, he built a New Deal Coalition that realigned American politics after 1932, as his domestic policies defined American liberalism for the middle third of the 20th century. Roper, Elmo = a pollster known for his pioneering work in market research and opinion polling.

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Sarnoff, Robert W. = son of David Sarnoff, a pioneer in radio and television who had organized NBC in 1926. Saturday Review = an American weekly magazine established in 1924. Norman Cousins was the editor from 1940 to 1971. Seattle Times = a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper. Section 315 of the Federal Communications Act 1934 = Facilities for candidates for public office: (a) If any licensee shall permit any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station, he shall afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for that office in the use of such broadcasting station: Provided, That such licensee shall have no power of censorship over the material broadcast under the provision of this section. No obligation is hereby imposed under this subsection upon any licensee to allow the use of its station by any such candidate. Appearance by a legally qualified candidate on any (1) bona fide newscast, (2) bona fide news interview, (3) bona fide news documentary (if the appearance of the candidate is incidental to the presentation of the subject or subjects covered by the news documentary), or (4) on-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events (including but not limited to political conventions and activities incidental thereto), shall not be deemed to be use of a broadcasting station within the meaning of this subsection. Nothing in the foregoing sentence shall be construed as relieving broadcasters, in connection with the presentation of newscasts, news interviews, news documentaries, and on-the-spot coverage of news events, from the obligation imposed upon them under this Act to operate in the public interest and to afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of issues of public importance. (b) TELEVISION BROADCASTS. A candidate meets the requirements of this subparagraph if, in the case of a television broadcast, at the end of such broadcast there appears simultaneously, for a period no less than 4 seconds (i) a clearly identifiable photographic or similar image of the candidate; and (ii) a clearly readable printed statement, identifying the candidate and stating that the candidate has approved the broadcast and that the candidates authorized committee paid for the broadcast. (c) RADIO BROADCASTS. A candidate meets the requirements of this subparagraph if, in the case of a radio broadcast, the broadcast includes a personal audio statement by the candidate that identifies the candidate, the office the candidate is seeking, and indicates that the candidate has approved the broadcast. St. Louis Post-Dispatch = the major city-wide newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri. Although written to serve Greater St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the midwestern United States, and is available and read as far west as Kansas City, Missouri, as far south as Memphis, Tennessee, and as far north as Springfield, Illinois. It is the one and only remaining printed daily newspaper in St. Louis.

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Stanton, Frank = an American broadcasting executive who served as the president of CBS between 1946 and 1971 and then vice chairman until 1973. He also served as the chairman of the Rand Corporation from 1961 until 1967. Times = a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register (it became The Times on 1 January 1788). An American edition of The Times has been published since 6 June 2006. University of Chicago Round Table = program that ran between 1933 1955, uses the media of radio as a platform to answer big questions of the day. Topics include war time politics, civil rights, economics, great literature, psychology, nutrition, and more. The guests at the round table include a wide variety of intellectuals including senators, journalists, business owners, professors from the University of Chicago and other major universities. Waiver = the act of choosing not to use or require something that you are allowed to have or that is usually required; an official document indicating that someone has given up or waived a right or requirement. Wall Street Journal = an American English-language international daily newspaper with a special emphasis on business and economic news. It is published six days a week in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal. Washington, George (February 22, 1732 December 14, 1799) = was the first President of the United States (17891797), the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He presided over the convention that drafted the United States Constitution, which replaced the Articles of Confederation and which remains the supreme law of the land.

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