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THE 1960 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
When LBJ ran against John F. Kennedy for the Democratic nomination in 1960, there was an obvious contrast in age and style. JFK was youth personified\u2014that was his image\u2014and LBJ countered with his seasoned experience. His campaign slogan was \u201cA Leader to Lead the Nation,\u201d and he used that famous profile photo (the correct side) with a little gray in the temples. He worked that to his advantage, insisting that every now and then you needed someone with a touch of gray in their hair, a sign of maturity. His approach was \u201cKennedy is a young senator, but I\u2019m the Senate majority leader.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n KTBC covered the 1960 primary from the Texas perspective, especially when LBJ was having a function in Austin. There was an aura about The Man. Trailing after him with cameras, we knew we were a part of history being made.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our station was a very interested observer of the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles, when LBJ was selected as vice president. I wasn\u2019t there; I watched it on television. We knew the players on the Texas side. His trusted aide and the future governor of Texas, John Connally, was a key supporter and a leader in LBJ\u2019s effort for the nomination.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n LBJ and JFK hadn\u2019t been enemies, but they were combatable. (Bobby Kennedy despised LBJ until the day Bobby died.) To butcher an Ann Richards analogy, JFK was born on third base, and LBJ was born in the dugout. There was an enormous difference in their personalities, upbringing, culture, and geography. And yet they knew they had to come together to map a strategy for the Democratic campaign against Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After he was selected as the VP running mate at the July convention, LBJ took the Texas Capitol press corps to the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and I was fortunate to be invited. The White House press corps was also there covering the discussions. The two running mates considered the occasion an opportunity to get to know each other better in a casual setting and in a different light.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When I arrived, the Kennedys were throwing a football on a grassy lawn leading down to the waters of Nantucket Sound. It struck me as a summer home where everybody was on permanent vacation. The presidential candidate and the vice presidential candidate were wandering around the lawn, and the press was observing their every move.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The public scrutiny didn\u2019t seem to bother the Kennedys. They didn\u2019t appear to be posturing; they were being themselves, wearing sneakers, khakis, and open-neck shirts. Their press conferences were informal, un- like those in previous administrations and today, where everything is well scripted. When JFK approached the press corps to make a statement, he didn\u2019t wear a tie or a jacket, per tradition, usually just a golf shirt. He was open and direct about their plans: \u201cLyndon is going to work the South, and here are a few other things we\u2019ve decided on.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On one occasion, Jackie Kennedy very graciously came outside to say hello to the press. What a beautiful lady! She was pregnant with John Jr. at the time, and she was positively glowing. Like everyone else in the country, I was impressed with her. She wasn\u2019t trying to make headlines; she was simply an elegant and charming hostess greeting her guests. She understood the importance of good relations with the media.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There was a special moment for me when I was standing with both JFK and LBJ on the porch at the compound, and LBJ asked, \u201cNeal, you want to get a picture with us?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell, sure.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Vern Sanford, who was the Texas Press Association\u2019s executive director, was there with his camera. \u201cVern, come over here and take a picture,\u201d LBJ said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sixty years later, it\u2019s hard to believe, but I actually appeared in a photograph with LBJ and JFK. It\u2019s an absolute treasure\u2014the young Neal Spelce standing between two monumental figures in twentieth-century American history who would eventually serve as presidents of the United States. And there I am, shaking Jack Kennedy\u2019s hand and looking into the eyes of Lyndon Johnson.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Back at KTBC, everyone saw the photo and a joke went around the station: \u201cNeal, you certainly know who your boss is, don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n LBJ ASCENDING, 1961\u20131963\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Once LBJ became vice president, his Secret Service detail was in and out of the KTBC building in Austin all the time. We had some fun with them. I owned one of those retractable pointers that professors use, and I would get on the elevator with the agent assigned to elevator duty and pull out the retractable pointer like a walkie-talkie and speak into it\u2014\u201cSecret Service on the elevator, stand by\u201d\u2014and collapse the pointer and put it away. Their heads would jerk around. When I went into the lobby: \u201cIn lobby now. Secret Service clearly visible.\u201d I would do that every time there was a new agent, and I was lucky they didn\u2019t throw me to the floor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I had been to the LBJ Ranch for small events before he became vice president, but it was when he served as VP that the ranch became a folksy, comfortable gathering place for world leaders and a familiar geographical reference in the public mind, like Hyannis Port and Warm Springs, Georgia. And of course, when he was president, the ranch became known as the Little White House.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n LBJ loved hamburgers made at the Night Hawk, a beloved institution among Austin\u2019s most popular restaurants. The original place was located at the south end of the Congress Avenue Bridge and had been in business since 1932. Harry Akin was the owner and later elected as mayor of Austin, and he was an early supporter of LBJ. Every time the Johnsons hired a new cook, LBJ would phone Harry Akin and tell him, \u201cHarry, I have someone I want to send down there. I want you to teach him how to make those burgers like you make them.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n LBJ\u2019s favorite was the Frisco Burger, with its Thousand Island\u2013like special sauce on a buttered and toasted bun. After the cook was trained, LBJ would sit in his suite above the KTBC studio and eat Frisco Burgers the way they made them at the Night Hawk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Harry confided to me that LBJ was the one who told him to integrate the Night Hawk. He said, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to lead on this, Harry. We\u2019ve got to serve Negroes.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Harry had already been hiring minorities to work in his kitchen and as wait staff for many years, but serving African American diners was a bolder step during those volatile times. When he decided to integrate his restaurants, there was no muss, no fuss. He just did it. I don\u2019t remember anyone making a peep.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n During that same period, in the spring of 1960, African American students from UT and the historically black Huston-Tillotson College had begun to conduct sit-ins at the lunch counters downtown on Congress Avenue at Woolworth\u2019s, the Kress five-and-dime store, and other variety stores and department stores. In Austin, there were demonstrations on both sides of the integration issue, but by May of that year, thirty-two lunch counters and restaurants in Austin had voluntarily desegregated. It was a relatively quick and peaceful transition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n LBJ really did surprise people. As a southerner, he was able to push for social progress and accomplish many things that were not expected of him. Observers assumed that a northeastern liberal like JFK would lead the charge on progressive social issues, but it took a liberal southern Democrat to get things done. He achieved significant success because he\u2019d come up through the Senate and knew how to twist arms. Literally! I\u2019d seen him do it. He would lean over you with that large physical frame and tell you exactly what you needed to do or say.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With Lyndon Johnson serving as vice president and later as president, Austin was becoming more visible in the national consciousness. When- ever world leaders arrived, they\u2019d have to land at Bergstrom Air Force Base (now Austin-Bergstrom International Airport) outside Austin and then be driven or choppered out to the ranch in Stonewall, Texas, which is sixty miles away. The ranch had a small runway that could handle two- engine planes, but not the larger ones. Whenever LBJ or someone else was due to land, the Secret Service would rush out to the landing strip and chase the deer away so there would be no mishap while the plane was touching down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In time, Austin became an extension of the ranch itself, not only be- cause of the proximity, but also because the White House press corps would stay in Austin when there was a newsworthy event at the ranch. They usually stayed in the Driskill Hotel downtown, and besides their coverage of LBJ, they soon they began writing sidebars about the charming college town.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Previous presidents didn\u2019t have a colorful ranch. LBJ owned cattle and horses and an expanse of land along the Pedernales River. (The proper Texas pronunciation of that river is <\/span>PURR-de-NAH-liss<\/span><\/i>.) He provided deer hunting and exotic game. By Texas standards it was little more than a gentleman\u2019s ranch, but he had a ranch foreman to make it official\u2014and the barbecue was fantastic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n LBJ had great fun with his visitors. He enjoyed entertaining them. I could see him get a twinkle in his eye whenever he was about to pull a prank on the tinhorns. He loved to drive around his ranch and check on his cattle, and on a few occasions I went along for the ride. He owned a small German-made Amphicar convertible, lagoon blue in color, that could float and maneuver on water. But he didn\u2019t tell his guests it was an amphibious vehicle. They\u2019d get in the car and he\u2019d say, \u201cLet\u2019s go look at the ranch. I\u2019ll show you my cattle. I\u2019ve got this bull out here you gotta see.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Pedernales River flows through the ranch property and runs over a little dam, and although passengers can\u2019t see this from a car, the water is streaming over the top of a road. LBJ would drive along, talking about his property and pointing out its woodsy features to the visitors, and then he\u2019d suddenly head straight into the moving water. They didn\u2019t know he was driving on a little strip of road. At other times, he\u2019d shout that the brakes had failed and he\u2019d steer the car splashing into a small lake. While the terrified passengers were catching their breath, he would laugh and guide the amphibious car toward dry land.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BOTH SIDES JOURNALISM\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n When Barry Goldwater was running against LBJ in 1964, the Republican presidential nominee booked a campaign stop in Austin, in the heart of LBJ country. Goldwater was a pilot, and he flew his own plane, a fairly large DC-3. We reporters headed out to the old Mueller airport in East Austin, and when Goldwater rolled to a stop on the landing strip, we were out there with our cameras. His sup- porters were there, too. He pushed open the pilot window and stuck his head out and waved to the crowd. \u201cI\u2019m glad to be here,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I took off from Phoenix, they asked me if I\u2019d ever been to Austin and if I knew where it was. I said, \u2018No, I\u2019ve never been to Austin, but I\u2019m gonna fly east and when I get to a fairly good-sized city with only one TV tower, I\u2019m going to land.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Folks were amazed that I put that on the air because it was \u201ccritical of LBJ\u2019s family ownership of the KTBC-TV station.\u201d But I said, \u201cIt was a great quote.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In all the years I was working at KTBC as a reporter and then as news director\u2014making decisions about what stories to air and what not to air\u2014never once did LBJ or the Johnson family give orders to cover this and not that. There were newsworthy events at the LBJ Ranch, and we\u2019d go out there with reporters from all over the nation to cover a prime minister or some other visiting dignitary. That was news. But we were never told \u201cyou must come.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In one case, Walter Jenkins, one of LBJ\u2019s trusted aides, was arrested for a sexual liaison in a men\u2019s room in Washington, DC, and it was a serious scandal. Mrs. Johnson was very supportive of Jenkins, but in spite of her objection, President Johnson accepted the aide\u2019s resignation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I ran with the Jenkins story on the air, and the next day I received a call from <\/span>Time <\/span><\/i>magazine. \u201cSpelce, we\u2019re just checking around the coun- try to find out how this Walter Jenkins story was covered. How did you cover it in Austin?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe led with it at ten o\u2019clock last night.\u201d The caller said, \u201cYou did?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was the top news story of the day,\u201d I said, \u201cso we led with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They were trying to find out if KTBC had buried the story because it was negative toward LBJ and his family. Our coverage was indicative of how we handled the news at KTBC, even when it wasn\u2019t advantageous to our owner.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That objectivity had been instilled in me by the University of Texas School of Journalism and by Paul Bolton. He was a stickler for getting a story accurate before putting it on the air. Get it <\/span>first<\/span><\/i>, if at all possible, but get it <\/span>right<\/span><\/i>, and let people draw their own conclusions based upon what you report. Don\u2019t hide it, don\u2019t dodge it. If it\u2019s out there, it\u2019s out there, and it\u2019s your job as a reporter\u2014as someone who\u2019s conveying important information\u2014to present the facts. The topic doesn\u2019t matter. You want the viewers to say, \u201cWow, I didn\u2019t know about that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today, there are so many ways for individuals to get news. With the Internet and twenty-four-hour cable news, viewers can go anywhere and find whatever they want to find, with whatever stripe they may want to put on it. But back in the 1950s and 1960s, KTBC was the sole source for television news in Austin and we had a serious obligation to cover it accurately and make sure the facts were correct. I always tell folks, \u201cDon\u2019t rely on a single source. Whenever you\u2019re looking for news, broaden your scope. If you want to watch a left-leaning channel, watch a right-leaning channel as well, so you can balance your judgments and make up your own mind.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In today\u2019s world, that attitude is considered quaint and out of step with current realities. Sometimes I sound like a Pollyanna, even to myself, but that\u2019s the way I roll.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In my view, polarization is a problem in our society. Most people watch or read to reinforce their own worldviews. And although they\u2019re passionately engaged, they\u2019re missing something if they don\u2019t explore various websites and check other programs and read this blog or that article. I love to go to the online aggregator sites that represent different viewpoints and report on a variety of subjects. I encourage people to get a more complete picture, so whatever their position may be, it\u2019s either reinforced or questioned. It\u2019s important to challenge our assumptions and biases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now in my seventh decade as a reporter, I\u2019m often asked, \u201cWhat do you think about that story that broke today, Neal?\u201d I usually respond, \u201cI was fascinated by it.\u201d Not believing the story, necessarily, but fascinated by the news itself. After so many years in the business, I\u2019ve found a way of standing back and looking at things philosophically.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m intrigued by what the left does and what the right does and how everybody reacts to that. I don\u2019t get caught up in \u201cI\u2019m taking his side, and the other side be damned.\u201d I think it goes back to that journalistic train- ing. You\u2019re trained to walk into a situation, whatever it may be\u2014a city council meeting, a public hearing on rising water bills, a school shooting\u2014and analyze what\u2019s going on, what\u2019s newsworthy, what\u2019s most im- portant to your audience. And then you write the story. You don\u2019t get caught up in \u201cDon\u2019t quote this person, but quote this person.\u201d The pursuit of balance and objectivity has carried me forward throughout my long career.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n News analysts are everywhere now, but they\u2019re not really that new. I can remember back in the early days when Eric Sevareid would come on CBS as an analyst and commentator. Dan Rather told me one time, \u201cI envision what happens in Eric Sevareid\u2019s life. I can see him waking up, putting on his robe, padding to the front door in his slippers, and picking up several newspapers and reading through them. And then he gets on the phone and says, \u2018I think I\u2019ll talk about this today,\u2019 and calls that person and they go have lunch, usually with a martini. And then Eric comes to the office and sits down and writes his piece and records it and goes home. What a life!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dan was out there getting punched in the gut, stalked, and shot at, but there\u2019s Sevareid having a martini at lunch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To be fair to Eric Sevareid, he\u2019d covered the fall of Paris to the Germans in World War II and later parachuted into Burma from a crashing airplane, so he deserved those martinis, because he\u2019d earned his status as a commentator. I watched his analysis over the years, and I\u2019m not sure he ever took a hard right or hard left position. He\u2019d say, \u201cHere is this and here is this, too, and there\u2019s going to be a big battle over this, and we\u2019ll have to watch and wait and see.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A turning point in polarization may have come with the popular \u201cPoint-Counterpoint\u201d segment of <\/span>60 Minutes<\/span><\/i>, which aired from 1975 to 1979, a weekly debate between liberal Shana Alexander and conservative James J. Kilpatrick. It was famously satirized on <\/span>Saturday Night Live<\/span><\/i>, with comedian Dan Aykroyd (Kilpatrick) often replying to Jane Curtin (Alexander), \u201cJane, you ignorant slut.\u201d I\u2019m not sure if it was the humorous satire or the \u201cPoint-Counterpoint\u201d segment itself, but that formula exploded all over country, a harbinger of the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today there are entire teams of folks out there analyzing, pontificating, and arguing \u201cI\u2019m right, you\u2019re wrong.\u201d It\u2019s sometimes entertaining, but usually produces more heat than light.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After I left daily television, I was often brought back to analyze the voter returns during election night coverage. One evening during a state- wide race, I was sitting on the set with the anchor and co-anchor, and I had my yellow pad and pencil in front of me. As election returns came in, it was my job to announce that at 7:00 p.m., this candidate was ahead, and at 8:00 p.m., South Texas had not been counted yet and voting in Houston was heavy. That kind of thing. It\u2019s what computers do now, but all I had was a yellow pad and a number two pencil.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The anchor sitting next to me wasn\u2019t the brightest bulb on the porch, and when I said, \u201cWe\u2019d better keep an eye on this. The margin is narrowing, and it looks like the other candidate may win,\u201d he said, \u201cReally, Neal? He\u2019s been behind all night long. How can you say something like that?\u201d And I very calmly and quietly said, \u201cBecause of the trendline and votes that are still uncounted. South Texas is normally going to go in this direction, and they\u2019re not in yet\u2014and that could put this candidate over the top.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s the kind of pad-and-pencil analysis I did back in the day, and that\u2019s the way I like to watch election returns now. But the computers are so far ahead of everybody, they calculate results down to the minute and report, \u201cWe can now declare a winner in the congressional district northeast of Dallas.\u201d Not to mention, \u201cHey, California and the West Coast, the election is already over and we\u2019ve declared a winner. Your vote is superfluous.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Donald Trump election of 2016 is a great example of how analysis can go awry. All the ratings and data showed that Hillary Clinton was going to win. I\u2019d been watching a lot of television coverage, and I stayed up to speed on what was happening. Two or three days before the election, I made the comment, \u201cTrump can win this.\u201d I mentioned that to a pollster who was polling for Trump and the Republicans, and he said, \u201cThere\u2019s just no way.\u201d But I insisted, \u201cI don\u2019t think the polls are right.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m not claiming credit for predicting Trump\u2019s victory, but when I was seeing such large, passionate crowds at his rallies, I tried to figure <\/span>both sides journalism out, \u201cWho the heck are these folks who are so angry and engaged?\u201d And I realized that those folks were not being polled because they were \u201canti- media\u201d and \u201canti-polling\u201d\u2014\u201cI\u2019m not going to talk.\u201d Nobody looked at their numbers. But sitting back in my armchair and watching news coverage week after week, I could see what was taking shape. So when I made that \u201cbold prediction,\u201d I was dismissed, but it came to pass.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s the job of the reporter to analyze what\u2019s happening with a cold eye to the truth. Polling has become essential, for better or worse, to that highly competitive media world that has emerged over the past thirty years. Unfortunately, the polls sometimes drive public opinion instead of the other way around. I have examined polls, and even conducted polls when I ran my PR firm, and I know that you can direct the results by how you phrase the questions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When John Connally was running for governor of Texas for the first time in 1962, he was not well known and he was running against a sit- ting governor, Price Daniel, who was pretty doggone popular. One of Connally\u2019s tactics was to encourage his supporters to vote early. It was a unique idea at that time, and reminiscent of what candidates do today. His campaign would contact the <\/span>Austin American-Statesman <\/span><\/i>and other newspapers and say, \u201cI understand there are big crowds at the polling places right now, voting early. You ought to send a reporter out there and find out what\u2019s going on.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n