August 5, 2006

The President And The Press

Here's a speech that JFK gave to the American Newspaper Publishers Association, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, April 27, 1961. It's particularly interesting in comparison with his 1963 American University Commencement speech, because while JFK, in 1961, was still in the thrall of a Cold War mentality he shows abundant signs of breaking free: He hasn't quite gotten to the full-fledged radical idealism he ultimately found but you can see the wheels turning as he speaks. Though this speech starts out almost as though he'd taken a leaf from the "war on terror" playbook, which is very scary hearing it, as he works through his priorities he winds up at a completely different—indeed, opposite—conclusion than our robo-politicians find nowadays. Kennedy clearly operated at a much higher intellectual level, and even though he's passed away his words may remind us of how far we're being drawn backwards into pre-modern politics. Runtime of about nineteen minutes. Enjoy!