Meet the Press: Guest Congressman John F. Kennedy (D-MA)

Meet the Press: Guest Congressman John F. Kennedy (D-MA)

Originally broadcast on NBC on Sunday, December 2, 1951 at 9 AM ET.

Plot: Four journalists have a question and answer session with the congressman.

Analysis: First, a confession. I do not actually have this program on DVD given the DVD, while available, is prohibitively expensive. Given it is available and the clip I was able to view matches what I downloaded on iTunes, I feel comfortable reviewing it this way in the interest of saving some money.

Second, does this not breach the politics rule? Yes, yes it does, but I had initiated the “no-politics” rule in the interest of keeping partisan politics from poisoning the blog. Given that this is just a straight discussion of the issues of the day and I can use this to have a civil discussion and historical analysis of what is going on in the world, to say nothing of a snapshot of a very famous individual, I just could not resist including this.

So, bottom line – if this lays an egg, I will call it a failed experiment and move on, never attempting it again. If, on the other hand, this is successful and does show how politics are covered in the early days of television, I will certainly do more Meet the Press and see what I can do about other television shows involving politics.

Some context for the interview: the 1952 elections were just under a year away with control of both the Presidency and Congress on the line, something the Democrats had had control over for twenty years, since the election of Franklin Roosevelt. Also, as previous Special Comments has covered, this was also a period of rising tensions due to the fear of infiltration of the United States government by members of the Communist Party. I will be discussing all of this in Special Comments at the end of the 1951 calendar year.

And finally, we have the congressman from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy.

You may have heard of him.

All kidding aside, at this point in his career, Kennedy was 34 years old and had been in the United States House of Representatives since the 1946 elections following his service in the United States Navy in World War II. Buzz in political circles at this point was Kennedy was thinking of challenging sitting United States Senator Henry Cabot Lodge for his seat in the fall of 1952, which was one of the reasons he was on the show.

The Bottom Line: It really depends on your interest in politics and the depth of your knowledge of current events in 1951 not just if you will enjoy the program or how well you can grasp it. Speaking for myself, I find it a fascinating snapshot of where we are in the period. Others may just shrug and put it out of their minds. I suppose it is all up to the viewer this one.

If you are interested in seeing it, your wallet may never forgive you. It is available with other Meet the Press episodes featuring future United States Presidents at http://ffh.films.com/id/15382/Meet_the_Press_Meets_the_Presidents.htm. Individual discs run about a hundred dollars with the entire collection being 1,400 dollars.

Now you can see why I opted for iTunes and paying $1.99 an episode. Is it cheating? Yes. Is it less expensive? Absolutely.

It is, after all, your money, your choice. I leave it to you, the viewer to decide.

Next time, back on the trail with The Cisco Kid.