A friend reminded me that John F. Kennedy was the first president to hold televised news conferences - the first being in 1961. Contrary to Eisenhower before him and Nixon after him, JFK thrived on the give and take with the reporters. His favorite foil was Miss May Craig of the Gannett Maine paper. She was then seventy-two years old, always wore a hat and he always called on her. One such session she peppered him with questions i.e. what was he doing about women's issues, employment opportunities, etc. JFK replied with a twinkle in his eye"Obviously, not enough, Miss Craig." - which created laughter and relieved any tension that might be in the room. Miss Craig had similar exchanges with FDR twenty years before and she was a veteran of WWII reporting as well. And Kennedy didn't need a teleprompter back then.
tjs
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