JFK HAD BETTER RAPPORT WITH THE PRESS THAN TRUMP
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) President Donald J. Trump has obvious issues with the press. He has attacked the press in general and select reporters in particular multiple times during his tenure in the White House.
That was not the case with President John F. Kennedy. On May 9, 1962, JFK responded to a reporter's question concerning his own treatment by the press.
He said...
"I am reading more & enjoying it less*...and so on, but I have not complained nor do I plan to make any general complaints. I think (the press) is doing their task as a critical branch and I am attempting to do mine...We are going to live together for a period and then go our separate ways."
Another newsman asked the President to comment on his remark during the steel crisis in which he quoted his father's derogatory view of businessmen.
JFK replied...
"The statement (in the newspapers) quotes my father as having expressed himself strongly to me. I quoted what he said and indicated that he had not been....wholly wrong. But that's past. Now we are working together, I hope."
Both answers were followed with laughter from the press corps.
*JFK's comment was a take on a 1960s television Camel cigarette commercial sponsored by R.J. Reyonolds Tobacco Company of Winston-Salem, NC which asked the question, "Are you smoking more and enjoying it less?"
SOURCE
"Are You Smoking More and Enjoying It Less?," Joel's Library, www.whyquit.com/
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) President Donald J. Trump has obvious issues with the press. He has attacked the press in general and select reporters in particular multiple times during his tenure in the White House.
That was not the case with President John F. Kennedy. On May 9, 1962, JFK responded to a reporter's question concerning his own treatment by the press.
He said...
"I am reading more & enjoying it less*...and so on, but I have not complained nor do I plan to make any general complaints. I think (the press) is doing their task as a critical branch and I am attempting to do mine...We are going to live together for a period and then go our separate ways."
Another newsman asked the President to comment on his remark during the steel crisis in which he quoted his father's derogatory view of businessmen.
JFK replied...
"The statement (in the newspapers) quotes my father as having expressed himself strongly to me. I quoted what he said and indicated that he had not been....wholly wrong. But that's past. Now we are working together, I hope."
Both answers were followed with laughter from the press corps.
*JFK's comment was a take on a 1960s television Camel cigarette commercial sponsored by R.J. Reyonolds Tobacco Company of Winston-Salem, NC which asked the question, "Are you smoking more and enjoying it less?"
SOURCE
"Are You Smoking More and Enjoying It Less?," Joel's Library, www.whyquit.com/
Camel Advertising Sign
Times Square, NYC
June 1948
Photo by Willem van de Poll
Nationaal Archief Image
