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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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Session:         Page of 755

(really) candidate, talking about his program! He followed professional football and got a higher rating than football got, which is something. He had the highest rating -- he outrated “60 Minutes” that week. If you've got something to say, television is a damn effective way to say it.

This gets me off onto another note about news, and I won't go into it, but when Eric Sevareid used to come on and do a commentary on the “Evening News,” he didn't have any pictures supporting what he was saying. It was Eric talking. Well. Sure. Did the debates have something to do --? I know the debates did during the Kennedy/Nixon years.

Q:

No doubt about that.

Stanton:

No question about it. I think maybe I even talked about Mayor Daley --

Q:

You did.

Stanton:

They can be overdone, but editors will watch for one reason: because there's always a chance that they'll slip on a banana peel, and they'll have something unusual to report that they wouldn't have had otherwise. Or, there will be subtle changes in positions that show up in a debate that maybe the men and women at home won't recognize, but a sharp political editor will, and he'll have material for a whole series of articles.

Q:

Did you come up with the idea of instant analysis after the debates were televised, and what is the history of that?





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