The Significance of Television on American Politics

The Significance of Television on American Politics

In 1960, one fairly new facet of American life, television, and one very familiar aspect of American life since its establishment, politics, famously collided on a national stage in front of Millions of Americans. A young Democratic Senator from the state of Massachusetts named John Fitzgerald Kennedy went head to head with the well known Republican candidate Richard Nixon. The youngster, Kennedy, was thought to have a clear disadvantage being the less experienced of the two and also being a Catholic in a very protestant country, where you could argue Catholics were thought of as less significant than to other denominations of the Christian faith. With the odds against Senator Kennedy he looked to the new medium of television to push the balance of power in the other direction. Kennedy, the younger, more appealing of the two candidates, went into the now famous televised debate looking more relaxed than Nixon and also chose to apply make-up. Nixon, who later revealed he had a sore leg, looked very uncomfortable, had a five o'clock shadow, was sweating and chose not to put on make-up. The debate went on and depending on how the American voter decided to tune into the debate, they may have thought differently on the outcome of the debate. Americans, who listened into the debate on the traditional form of radio, would have said that the debate was even and there was no clear winner. But those Americans who looked at the debate on Television would have spoken of all of the negatives about Nixon's appearance and all the positives of Kennedy. This was a very important part of the election for Kennedy as word spread about Nixon's poor appearance on the first televised debate and would be a key part of how Kennedy would later go on to win the 1960 presidential election. This was a landmark moment in American politics and would totally change the way campaigns on all levels of Politics would run. In this paper, I will tell you the key players in today's television media, how television has impacted American politics and also the effect it has on the American people.

In recent times, both sides of the political spectrum have found ways in spreading their political ideals to the public on their own separate television networks. Both Democrats and Republicans have received negative and positive responses from both sides because of the somewhat unbalanced coverage that the networks that the liberals and conservatives basically run. Liberal coverage of political events tends to be covered by MSNBC, a branch of NBC (National Broadcasting Company). In recent years, MSNBC has been known for their backing of President Barack Obama. They seem to take a positive stance on all of his issues and defend him no matter what.

On the other side, you have Fox News, who personally I see as being completely unfair when it comes to politics. With that being said, their motto is "fair and balanced" which is kind of laughable when you look at how conservative the news network is. Fox News has some of the most conservative figures in the media signed on to their network as analysts, anchors, and as host. Controversial conservative figures such as Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee, and former Bush Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove. During the Bush era, Fox News was known for their heavy support of the Bush agenda, which is very similar to what MSNBC has done for the Obama agenda. With all of the negative things associated with Fox News, they are