>>Kennedy was a media created president, maybe the first one
Doubt that. I spent a year, morning till night, reading NY newspapers from 1775 to 1830. They were dense with detailed articles but the candidates were totally familiar to the average citizen.
Yes, of course. But the media then was partisan, and everyone knew which media outlets were with which party.
By saying Kennedy was a media created president, maybe the first one, I was trying to make the point that a ideologically united media created a president that the media wanted, and got him elected, vs what an informed population might have elected.
The media pretty much loathed Nixon, and loved Kennedy.
Did you see anything like that from 1775 to 1830, where the vast majority of the media favored on candidate over the other? We did not even have parties, as such, much before 1800, as I recall.
>>Did you see anything like that from 1775 to 1830, where the vast majority of the media favored on candidate over the other?
My reading was within the newspapers in which Henry Livingston might have published, so it wasn’t wide enough for me to make any generalized statement on that. All I would have seen is one paper for one person and another against. What I was most frequently fascinated by was the political infighting within the same extended family. For Henry to be working for his friend and cousin John Jay, he was working against his cousin Robert Livingston.
You make excellent points.