Page 253 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

| Med a and Electoral Campa gns

the CheCkers sPeeCh
In 1952, vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon made television history in a half-hour
address to the nation that became known as the Checkers speech. The Republican ticket
included Dwight D. Eisenhower as the presidential candidate, and the campaign was
designed around a classic political strategy that denounced incumbent mismanagement
and corruption and called for a political turnover with a fresh start. It was therefore disastrous
when allegations of campaign finance corruption were made against the vice-presidential
candidate. When Republicans called on Nixon to drop out of the campaign, he appealed to
his party to let him explain himself on television. Nixon made an emotional appeal, telling
the story of how someone gave his family a little cocker spaniel dog that his daughters
named Checkers. He then stated forcefully that he would not give the dog back. The issue of
corruption was all but ignored, but at this historic moment, Nixon successfully used the new
medium of television to speak directly to the public, and he remained on the ticket. Nixon
went on to become president in 1968, and was later impeached because of the Watergate
scandal.

devices have drawn fire from critics who worry that in an age of mass media, it
may be getting harder, not easier, for the public to decide who can best represent
their interests, values, and vision for the future.
During elections, audiences come to know and recognize political candidates
primarily through the mass media imagery, interviews, and events that depict
them. Debates, conventions, campaign stops, and political advertisements reach
millions of viewers, and candidates have access to the public in ways unthink-
able before mass media. Television has been an especially important player since
the 1950s, heralding the most significant changes in the way elections are car-
ried out. As the broadcast medium brought sights and sounds into the homes
of the American electorate, pictures of candidates and advertisements provided
voters with new ways to choose their leaders. The successful 1952 campaign of
Dwight D. Eisenhower played to television audiences with skillfully stylized,
fast-moving ads. Democratic opponent Adelaide Stephenson understood less
about television formatting, and because of his lengthy speeches became known
as an “egghead.” Political strategists have learned over the years to carefully hone
their candidate’s speech and image, turning the media into a battleground for
electoral victory, while often losing sight of the issues. Elections now include tar-
geted, negative advertisements, zinger sound bites in televised debates, and lav-
ish convention spectacles, all part of stage-managed campaigns. Many complain
that contemporary electoral campaigns in this media age often seem to obscure
more than they illuminate about politics and the candidates they promote.

ThE ParTy ConvEnTions

Historically, conventions were contentious gatherings where party plat-
forms were debated and hammered out, and politicians vied for their party’s