MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO UNIVERSITY SATELLITE SEMINAR SERIES, THE: TELEVISION AND THE PRESIDENCY: ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL {LONG VERSION}
Summary
One in this series of seminars conducted by The Museum of Television & Radio. This seminar, held in New York, features a discussion of television coverage of presidential campaigns.
Museum president Robert M. Batscha opens the seminar and introduces a compilation of television clips from past presidential campaigns. Then he introduces the panelists: Michael Beschloss, historian; Gerald Boyd, assistant managing editor of The New York Times; Michael Deaver, deputy chief of staff during the Reagan administration; Tabitha Soren, MTV anchor and news reporter; and Dan Rather, "CBS Evening News" anchor. (Panelist biographies immediately follow this summary.) After opening remarks, the panelists respond to call-in questions from students throughout the country, during which they address the following topics, among others: the significance of television in presidential campaigns; the differences between print and television journalism; young people and their interest in presidential elections; the Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960; the qualities of a candidate that come through on television; the significance of alternative networks like MTV; campaign funding; the selection of topics that are reported in the mainstream news media; the struggle between a candidate's personal life, the public's right to know, and the battle for ratings; the information superhighway and its effect on presidential campaigns; the place of third-party candidates in media coverage; talk radio as a medium that can speak to many Americans; and the overall effect of television on the electoral process.
Biographies Michael Beschloss is a historian specializing in the presidency and international relations. He is the author of "The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960Ð1963" (1991); "Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev and the U-2 Affair" (1986); "Kennedy and Roosevelt: The Uneasy Alliance" (1980); and, co-author with Strobe Talbott, of "At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War" (1993). Beschloss is a senior fellow of the Annenberg Washington Program of Northwestern University, director of the Annenberg Project on Television and Foreign Policy, and chair of the Annenberg Task Force on Digital Libraries.
Gerald Boyd has been assistant managing editor for The New York Times since 1993, having previously served as metropolitan editor and a special assistant to the managing editor. He was Washington correspondent for the Times from 1983 to 1989, covering the 1984 presidential campaign, the White House from 1985 to 1987, and the Bush presidential campaign from September 1987 through the election. Boyd has won several publisherÕs awards at the Times and was a Nicman Fellow at Harvard College.
Michael Deaver is executive vice president and director of corporate affairs for Edelman Public Relations Worldwide and an analyst of the American political scene. Previously, he served as assistant to the president of the United States and deputy chief of the White House staff under the Reagan administration. Deaver was responsible for the Office of Presidential Scheduling and Appointments, the Office of Presidential Advance, the White House Military Office, and the Office of Public Affairs. He had served on Ronald ReaganÕs personal staff for nearly twenty years.
Dan Rather, anchor and managing editor of The "CBS Evening News" and anchor of "48 Hours," has interviewed every United States president from Dwight Eisenhower to Bill Clinton. In his over thirty-year career with CBS, he has also been a co-editor of "60 Minutes," White House correspondent, anchor of "CBS Reports," and chief of CBS News bureaus in London and Saigon. Rather has covered many defining moments of the postwar era, including the civil rights movement; the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars; the downfall of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe; and the struggle for peace in South Africa and the Middle East.
Tabitha Soren is an MTV anchor and news reporter, responsible for developing and writing news stories and conducting high-profile interviews. She was the news reporter for MTVÕs "Choose or Lose" 1992 election coverage, for which she interviewed President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and President George Bush. Ms. Soren worked at ABC News and CNN while in college and now hosts MTVÕs hourly news report and cohosts "The Week in Rock," a weekly magazine show dealing with music, pop culture, social issues, and politics.
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: November 13, 1995 7:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:38:29
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:41097
- GENRE: Seminars
- SUBJECT HEADING: N/A
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Robert M. Batscha … Moderator
- Michael Beschloss … Guest
- Gerald Boyd … Guest
- Michael Deaver … Guest
- Dan Rather … Guest
- Tabitha Soren … Guest
- John F. Kennedy
- Richard M. Nixon