by Ted Sherman

Created on: June 09, 2007   Last Updated: March 19, 2008

This question has both yes and no answers. On the yes side, John F. Kennedy was helped tremendously by favorable press coverage. In a situation similar to the way today's news sources get overwhelmingly worked up about celebrities while ignoring much more important news, the media latched on lovingly to the Kennedys.

The public adoration of the young Navy hero and his fashion-plate wife made an obscure Massachusetts Senator a household name by the time of the 1960 Democratic Convention. His Presidential campaign was a glamorous Hollywood and media-favored production, including active participation by many highly-visible stars, including Frank Sinatra, brother-in-law Peter Lawford and many others.

Unglamorous Richard Nixon, portrayed by the press as a glowering sourpuss, never had a chance. He learned his bitter lesson after his defeat, improved his image and relationships with the media, and won the Presidency in 1968. Unfortunately for him, the press ... led by Woodward and Bernstein ... was also instrumental in forcing his resignation in 1974.

Just 12 years before the Kennedy-Nixon campaigns, there was an equally glaring example of how the press anointed a Presidential candidate, but failed to get him elected. Harry S Truman, who became President in 1945 after the sudden death of four-term Franklin D. Roosevelt, was running to stay in office, but actually competing as a Presidential candidate for the first time. According the news media and pollsters, Truman would lose by a landslide. Thomas E. Dewey, the handsome New York District Attorney, was the picture-perfect candidate, while Truman was portraying as a disliked, incompetent accidental President.

On the morning after election day, some newspapers, including the Truman-hating Chicago Tribune, printed early editions with the headline: Dewey Wins!. Despite the strong support of the press, Dewey did not win.

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