John F. Kennedy was the first president to effectively use the new medium of television to speak directly to the American people. No other president had conducted live televised press conferences without delay or editing.
The fact of the matter is that the time when President Kennedy started televised press conferences there were only three or four newspapers in the entire United States that carried a full transcript of a presidential press conference. Therefore, what people read was a distillation…We thought that they should have the opportunity to see it in full. - Pierre Salinger, Press Secretary to President Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Interview
Although some worried about the risk of mistakes or injudicious statements by the president, and others thought the press showed insufficient respect for the dignity of his office, public response was extremely positive.
By November 1963, President Kennedy had held 64 news conferences, an average of one every sixteen days. The first, less than a week after his inauguration, was viewed by an estimated 65 million people. A poll taken in 1961 indicated that 90% of those interviewed had watched at least one of JFK’s first three press conferences. The average audience for all the broadcast conferences was 18 million viewers.
Though he helped to significantly enlarge the role of TV as a news medium, President Kennedy himself continued to be a voracious consumer of print journalism. In responding to a question about his reading habits during a December 1962 interview with representatives of the three major television networks JFK gave his overall view of the contributions, as well as the responsibilities, of the press in a free society.
Sander Vanocur (NBC): You once said that you were reading more and enjoying it less. Are you still as avid a newspaper reader, magazine—I remember those of us who traveled with you on the campaign, a magazine wasn’t safe around you.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes. No, no, I think it is invaluable, even though it may cause you—it is never pleasant to be reading things that are not agreeable news, but I would say that it is an invaluable arm of the presidency, as a check really on what is going on in the administration, and more things come to my attention that cause me concern or give me information. So I would think that Mr. Khrushchev operating a totalitarian system, which has many advantages as far as being able to move in secret, and all the rest—there is a terrific disadvantage not having the abrasive quality of the press applied to you daily, to an administration, even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didn’t write it, and even though we disapprove, there isn’t any doubt that we could not do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press.
Now, on the other hand, the press has the responsibility not to distort things for political purposes, not to just take some news in order to prove a political point. It seems to me their obligation is to be as tough as they can on the administration but do it in a way which is directed towards getting as close to the truth as they can get and not merely because of some political motivation.