The First Presidential Televised Press Conference… A Mr. Magazine™ Blast From The Past…
August 22, 2019
Are you looking for someone to blame or thank for the origination of the presidential televised press conferences? Well, search no more. It was President Dwight Eisenhower who was the first president to experiment with televised press conferences and he liked what he saw.
A news item in Tempo magazine from Feb. 7, 1955 under the heading: First of a Series (and boy, were they right)… read:
I hope it doesn’t prove to be a disturbing influence,”said Pres. Eisenhower, glancing at the batteries of lights and cameras. But when the experiment was over he was so pleased with it that he decided to make the televised press conference part of the regular schedule.
Now, you know the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would have said.
Mr. Magazine 
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