Strike One

Tonight President Kennedy embarks on what may be the first mistake of the new frontier. The initial news conference of the new Administration will be televised live over all the major networks, and, although the television industry will not be asked to give up valuable air time for all of Kennedy's weekly sessions with the press (Eisenhower held them every two weeks at best), the prospect is that tonight's first will not be the last live telecast of a Presidential news conference.

In the communications trade, there is such a thing as "overexposure," and, as many performers have discovered it is more than an abstract concept. Kennedy's plans for frequent news conferences and television appearances raise the possibility of both tremendous Presidential propaganda and tremendous Presidential embarrasment.

Republican politicians normally foam at the mouth at any headline-grabbing opportunity but when they talk of demanding equal time if Kennedy televises many press conferences they really do have a point. The prospect of a weekly Jack Kennedy Show in "prime time" on all the networks must be frightening for any opposition. And as the Democrats should well know, there is a place in the American system for a responsible opposition to be heard.

In addition, the system has pitfalls for Kennedy himself. First, it is unwise for the President--whose pronouncements after all carry considerably more weight than those of a normal Meet the Press guest--to appear live on any television program where he has no control over what is to be said. Even an articulate man like Kennedy cannot always avoid the kind of slips that marred almost every Eisenhower conference. With millions of people looking on, there is no time for the hasty Hagerty correction before the mistake has had its effect. The news conference is a particularly ill-designed instrument to serve as a major element in Presidential policy and the Presidential image.

Second, Kennedy, in making his massive entrance into the television business, faces the familiar risk of "over-exposure." Constant appearance by the President discussing trivial issues (as a weekly press conference is bound frequently to do) will detract seriously from those occasions when he has something important (and prepared) to say to the nation. Any device can be weakened by overuse, and the Kennedy television fireside should appear only when there is some real reason for its use.

Kennedy will face so many difficult policy problems that he should have ample opportunity to make a fool of himself. He need not expose himself to further, inessential embarrassment through the vagaries of live televised press conferences.