If you are a connoisseur of media politics the 1960 presidential debates between John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Richard Milhous Nixon brought attention to the power of television and the declining importance of radio. The groupthink about the debates is that Kennedy won over the television debate audience while Nixon reigned over those who heard it on the radio. Was there such a disparate reaction to the candidates? Would Kennedy have lost to Nixon if the debates were not televised?
In looking at the Boston Globe's coverage of the debates and the election, the supposed dichotomous television and radio public reactions to the Kennedy-Nixon debates and the assumptions surrounding its impact on Kennedy and Nixon are simply myths quoted as facts. Most importantly, the so-called facts supporting this myth are based on Kennedy and Nixon's presidencies and not the debates themselves.
Unfortunately, it is a foregone conclusion to many historians, political operatives, political junkies and those in-between that Nixon lost the election because Kennedy beat him during the first televised debate on the image factor. Nixon looked tired. Kennedy was vibrant. Nixon seemed cranky. Kennedy was hopeful. Nixon was nervous and sweaty. Kennedy was confident and relaxed. Then in the same breath these same individuals proclaim that Nixon was the winner of the debate for those who tuned in via radio instead of television. Nixon is then described as strong versus Kennedy's hesitancy. Nixon was knowledgeable. Kennedy was a neophyte. Nixon's enunciation was clear. Kennedy's accent made it hard to understand him.
A whole cottage industry on the media-effect of the Kennedy-Nixon debate has sprung up since the 1960 election. Most interesting, the analysis that Kennedy won the televised debate and Nixon the radio version is like an urban legend that has been infinitely repeated until it became accepted gospel.
1960 Political/Cultural Climate & The Boston Globe
The 1960 presidential election was of importance to the American electorate because of the changing political and cultural landscape. At that time Americans had international concerns about the spread of communism, exemplified by then Soviet Union President Nikita Khrushchev. The Russians were believed to be interested in the destruction of democracy and the United States, not necessarily in that order. Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro had confiscated over $770 million of U.S. property in response to the U.S. embargo of their country. The Berlin Wall was under construction in East Germany. France tested its first atomic bomb, as they became a nuclear power along with the United States, the United Kingdom and the USSR.
Stateside the country was facing civil unrest over the enforcement of school integration as a result of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Also, then President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which provided voting rights protection and prohibited voting obstruction. The iconic image of the civil rights movement for the year was of four African-American students who decided to stage a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. Other signals of cultural change were the U.S. Drug Administration's approval of the first oral contraceptive and the publication of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about criminal injustice.
Many of the major city newspapers such as the Boston Globe covered the international events with as much intensity as they did local coverage. The Globe prided itself on its international coverage and had various foreign bureaus in Moscow, East Asia, the United Kingdom and Africa. Locally, the paper covered primarily the Greater Boston area, which included six counties and parts of Rhode Island and New Hampshire.[1]
The history of the Globe began in 1872 with a group of Boston businessmen and a $150,000 investment.[2] By 1960 the paper had more than 300,00 subscribers[3] that read its daily morning, afternoon, evening and Sunday editions.
The contents of the Boston Globe back then were about the same as the typical newspaper today. The paper had several sections such as the main/headline news, editorial, sports, style, entertainment and classifieds section. Interestingly, the style section had a subsection dedicated to its female readers titled "Women's Section."? These articles were normally about cooking, the latest fashions, conducting the proper dinner party, how to raise proper children and what you need to do to keep your husband happy. The sports section was pretty expansive with heavy coverage and action photo shots on professional sports, mostly the Boston Red Sox and college football. Since it was the year of the Summer Olympics Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) received a lot of newspaper coverage for his gold medal in boxing. The editorial and main pages were mostly in synch topically, whether the subject was on the Cold War, poverty, education or local corruption. As for the classifieds section it was easily several pages in length with more than twenty advertisements per page.
As for its readership, the newspapers' audience was primarily white; therefore its contents were directed towards that audience. Though 1960 was a year of pivotal civil rights issues, images or news about Blacks, beyond the sports section were generally absent from the Globe. The Boston Globe also looked much like the other large metropolitan papers in font-style and its use of photographs. The font was Times Roman photographs weren't too fancy, with many of the subjects caught in close-up facial or full-length body shots.
The articles themselves varied in size from blurbs, to several paragraph to investigative-length pieces. What is interesting is that a good portion of the articles carried over to a second page, even if some of them could have fit on one page. The paper looked and felt as if it was cramming as much news as possible so that its readers would be truly informed, even though they were sometimes publishing three daily editions.
Overview of the Candidates
At the time of the 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy was 43 years-old and in his second term as the junior Senator from Massachusetts, this after serving six years in the House of Representatives for Massachusetts' 12th district. Nixon at 47 was in his second-term as the Vice-President of the United States under President Eisenhower. Prior to his vice-presidency, Nixon had been elected to the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate from the state of California.
Kennedy, who graduated from Harvard, was young, handsome, intelligent and rich who happened to be married to an elegant and beautiful wife. He was viewed as someone on the rise, primarily due to his family connections, as a man with new ideas, though his Senate voting record sometimes didn't follow the party line. That is, when he actually was present to vote in the Senate. He had missed a lot of voting sessions due to ongoing back problems that were exacerbated by his World War II war wounds. Kennedy had gained national prominence by finishing second in the 1956 vice-presidential nominee balloting at the Democratic Convention. The following year he received a Pulitzer Prize for his book Profiles in Courage. Though by 1960 Kennedy had given the now-famous "?New Frontier' speech about new ideals and public service to "combat poverty, ignorance, [and] war,"?[4] his nomination was still viewed as "more of a triumph of organization and evaluation than of deep dedication."?[5]
Nixon's personal and political background was a bit less meteoric, but still noteworthy. He had worked at his family's grocery store while pursuing his undergraduate degree at Whittier College. He finished second in his class at Duke University's School of Law. Nixon was a practicing attorney when he signed up for the U.S. Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served in the Navy for four years where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander during World War II. Nixon first gained national attention due to his House Un-American Activities Committee work that helped convict alleged Soviet Spy Alger Hiss. He was only 39 when he was selected by Eisenhower to be his vice-president. In 1952 Nixon gave his famous "Checkers"? speech on national television in which he defended himself against influence-peddling allegations in order to remain on the ticket. As vice-president Nixon expanded the office's role beyond Congressional legislation into national security matters. A prime example of this was his unplanned 1959 "Kitchen Debate'"? with Khrushchev in which Nixon had "stood up to the bully."?[6] Along with his friendly wife and young daughters, Nixon had garnered a lot of prestige and goodwill with the Republican Party and the public by the time he ran for president in 1960.
Aside from the usual political party stances (conservative versus liberal) on policy issues the candidates agreed much more than they disagreed. For example, they both planned to combat poverty, support American farmers, strengthen the education system, build up the economy, and protect the civil rights of Negroes (the vernacular used at that time). Even Nixon had agreed that the differences between him and Kennedy were not so much in their goals, but in the means of achieving them. By the time the first debate rolled around Roscoe Drummond of the Globe said that the debates would hopefully "enable [the public] to appraise the candidates face to face"? so that we can look at their "divergent statements back to back."?[7]
Coverage of the Candidates
The Globe's coverage of the candidates was mostly even-handed, surprising given the fact that Kennedy was a Boston politician. The paper apparently made a point of providing nearly daily coverage of each candidate's campaign stops, policy statements, spousal comments with photos, and columnists"? comments in support of Nixon or Kennedy. The stories on each candidate would appear on the same page, opposite pages or in the main news section. For example, in mid-September the Globe had an article titled "Jack Tells Nation He'd Outdo Reds"? in which he criticized President Eisenhower's handling of Soviet President Khrushchev and how would deal with Russia and its president.[8] On the same page was another article, "Nixon Would Suspend Criticism of Defense: Asks Moratorium While Reds Swarming Here"? in which Nixon states that Kennedy is playing into the communists' hands by criticizing America's strategy against the Russians.[9]
However, there were times that the Globe's even-handed treatment of the candidates was absent. On occasion the paper referred to John F. Kennedy as "?Jack' not "?Kennedy' or "?Senator Kennedy.' Richard Nixon for the most part was referred to as "?Nixon.' Sometimes the use of his name with his title "?Vice President Nixon' appeared in the body of the article. There were a couple of times during the pre/post debate coverage in which the paper used the candidates' nicknames ("?Jack' and "?Dick')[10] in the same article.
The pre-debate articles showed separate photos of the candidates, set-up to face each other with the text of the column in the middle. Yet, the caption under the pictures could paint a slightly different picture. Nixon's photo caption describes him as a "master debater"? with Kennedy's caption stating that he's a "also a good talker."?[11] It would appear that the columnist, John Harris, for this particular article might have a slight bias. Another nickname usage example was in the evening edition of the paper after the first debate, which was titled "Jack, Dick Survey Soviet Economic Surge at Close of Historic Debate."?[12]
Also, in an editorial by Ralph McGill, a day after the debate refers to Kennedy as "Senator Kennedy"? while Vice President Nixon is called "Mr. Nixon."? Of note is in the first paragraph he calls the candidates "Messrs. Kennedy and Nixon."? However, for the most part the paper used the candidates' last name without their official titles throughout the Globe's campaign coverage. One can conclude that maybe some of the columnists showed their Kennedy preference, if not necessarily the newspaper as a whole. Regarding Nixon, neither the Globe nor its columnists seem to have favored or expressed disfavor with Nixon, as if they were abstaining from making an opinion.
The rest of the coverage of the candidates such as photos and inside personal stories were perfunctory at best. The candidates were usually photographed close-up, smiling, waving or shaking hands at various campaign stops. You could never tell where they were campaigning because the photos were focused so tightly on the candidates. Their facial expressions rarely changed from relaxed or serious, except when they were emphatic about something. Then you would see the candidate pointing their fingers or their lips pursed, caught in the middle of a statement. Maybe the photographs were so general in nature because they were via the Associated Press and not the Globe.
Of note is the fact that the Globe hardly spent anytime on the candidates' religious backgrounds, especially Kennedy's Catholicism. Nixon was a Protestant so his religion wasn't viewed as a problem. However, Kennedy Catholicism was considered a big issue because of American anti-Catholic sentiments. Many wondered whether he would follow the dictates of the people or the pope. Kennedy eventually felt compelled to state that:
I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party candidate for president who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for the Church on public matters "â?? and the Church does not speak for me.[13]
The day before the debate coverage the Globe printed an article by Samuel Lubbell, a syndicated columnist and public opinion analyst. Lubbell stated that if Kennedy would lose the presidential election "it will not be primarily because he is a Catholic."?[14] The article goes on to mention that Lubbell found "more persons shifting from their past voting habits because of religious considerations"? but that a "widespread feeling"? that Kennedy lacks experience in foreign affairs was hurting his candidacy.[15] Maybe another reason why the Catholicism issue was not addressed much in the paper was because its readers were mostly Catholic and saw this angle as irrelevant.
Though some at the Globe may have favored Kennedy for president prior to the paper's official endorsement of Kennedy, its coverage did not significantly reflect the newspaper's preference. Maybe the paper was adhering to journalistic objectivity in that they wanted to be a source of information and not just an assumed Kennedy supporter. Also, the paper may not have seen Kennedy as a favorite son given his tenuous connection to the Boston area. Kennedy had only lived in the Boston area up to the age of ten before his family relocated to New York. Afterwards he attended boarding schools and college outside of Massachusetts. Though Kennedy was a Massachusetts Senator, the Globe may have been sensitive to the idea that other journalists or the public would think that they were automatic Kennedy supporters, hence their balanced coverage.
Pre-Debate Coverage of the 1st Debate
When Kennedy and Nixon agreed to participate in the nation's first televised presidential debate it did not come with much fanfare, given its media significance. Besides it being the first televised debate it was also the first debate between presidential candidates since future presidential candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas' famous verbal duels in 1858 to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate.
The Globe's first article announcing the Kennedy-Nixon debate was published at the end of August 1960.[16] The article did not appear on the front page, and it was only seven short paragraphs in length. It mentioned that the first debate would last an hour; occur in Chicago on September 26th and the topic would be domestic affairs. Also, that there would be three other debates late September through October. As for any potential hyperbole, the article added that the debate would be "history's first face-to-face television and radio debates between major party nominees for President of the United States"? and that Lincoln and Douglas could have never "dreamed of the vast audience"? that Nixon and Kennedy will reach.[17] In addition, unnamed congressmen predicted that the candidates' appearances "may revolutionize political campaigning by substituting the living room for the county fairgrounds or the rear platform of a cross country train."?[18]
Read Full Article »