“Good afternoon. Won't you be seated? I have several announcements to make.” And, with that began the first live televised news conference by a U.S. president on this day in 1961. For the occasion, John F. Kennedy discussed a range of topics including nuclear test ban negotiations, famine relief for the Congo, and the release of two American pilots by the Soviet Union. Under questioning from reporters, Kennedy also discussed U.S. nuclear disarmament policy, Cuban diplomatic relations, and messages he’d traded with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev about freeing the pilots. The broadcast—for television and radio—took place a week after his inauguration in the State Department’s auditorium in the Truman Building, and it’s considered the first live broadcast because Dwight Eisenhower beat him toTV, appearing as part of a taped (and edited) press conference in 1955. But, in a case of right-place/right-time, Kennedy made the most of the technology and the public appetite for news on this day in 1961, drawing a whopping 65 million viewers, according to the Kennedy Presidential Library. Photo of the Jan. 25, 1961, broadcast courtesy of the National Archives.
NCPA
