Tim Jones: Debate made, changed history
Much of what you've come to expect — and loathe — from politics was born 48 years ago today, under the hot glare of Klieg lights in a downtown Chicago TV studio.
John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon became the first presidential nominees to appear jointly on live television, in what was billed as a debate. An estimated 70 million Americans — roughly 40 percent of the population — tuned in to witness what turned out to be a prime time event that married politics and television.
"That's the night that politicians looked at us and said to themselves, 'This is a hell of a lot better than marching in a parade ... and sitting on the back of a train to campaign,' and we [in television] said, 'Wow, this is a gold mine, a bottomless pit of advertising dollars," said Don Hewitt, who produced and directed the first Kennedy-Nixon presidential debate in 1960, at WBBM-TV.
With the presidential debate still scheduled for Friday night in Oxford, Miss., the Kennedy-Nixon debate is remembered as the seminal event that redefined politics for a new age. But on that night, as recalled by Hewitt, then a 37-year-old producer at CBS News who later would gain fame as the creator of "60 Minutes," making history was front and center.
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had debated for the U.S. Senate 102 years earlier. There were three presidential primary debates — in 1948, 1952 and 1956—but this would be the first televised general election debate, the biggest thing since Lincoln and Douglas.
Hewitt, in an interview, said he was "kind of awed" standing in the TV studio between Kennedy, then a Democratic U.S. senator from Massachusetts, and Nixon, the Republican vice president from California.
"When he arrived, Nixon had a staphylococcus infection, so he wasn't in the best of health. ... He looked like death warmed over," said Hewitt, now 85. "Kennedy looked like a Harvard undergrad, perfectly tailored and sort of overwhelmingly handsome."...
Read entire article at Chicago Tribune
John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon became the first presidential nominees to appear jointly on live television, in what was billed as a debate. An estimated 70 million Americans — roughly 40 percent of the population — tuned in to witness what turned out to be a prime time event that married politics and television.
"That's the night that politicians looked at us and said to themselves, 'This is a hell of a lot better than marching in a parade ... and sitting on the back of a train to campaign,' and we [in television] said, 'Wow, this is a gold mine, a bottomless pit of advertising dollars," said Don Hewitt, who produced and directed the first Kennedy-Nixon presidential debate in 1960, at WBBM-TV.
With the presidential debate still scheduled for Friday night in Oxford, Miss., the Kennedy-Nixon debate is remembered as the seminal event that redefined politics for a new age. But on that night, as recalled by Hewitt, then a 37-year-old producer at CBS News who later would gain fame as the creator of "60 Minutes," making history was front and center.
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had debated for the U.S. Senate 102 years earlier. There were three presidential primary debates — in 1948, 1952 and 1956—but this would be the first televised general election debate, the biggest thing since Lincoln and Douglas.
Hewitt, in an interview, said he was "kind of awed" standing in the TV studio between Kennedy, then a Democratic U.S. senator from Massachusetts, and Nixon, the Republican vice president from California.
"When he arrived, Nixon had a staphylococcus infection, so he wasn't in the best of health. ... He looked like death warmed over," said Hewitt, now 85. "Kennedy looked like a Harvard undergrad, perfectly tailored and sort of overwhelmingly handsome."...