September 26, 2005
Debates Posted by Frederic D. Schwarz at 03:30 PM EST In today’s home-page article, “Kennedy vs. Nixon, Round One: An Upset,” Alexander Burns repeats the commonly cited point that television viewers thought Kennedy won the 1960 presidential debate and radio listeners thought Nixon won. Mr. Burns attributes this to JFK’s “superior handling of the new medium of television.” But couldn’t it just be the demographic difference between people who had televisions and people who didn’t? In addition, a correction: Mr. Burns says that vice-presidential debates began in 1988. In fact, there were vice-presidential debates in 1976 and 1984, though not in 1980.
| 
