November 6
MEET THE PRESS DAY
Meet the longest-running series on network television: Meet the Press. The NBC public affairs program had its start back in 1945 when Martha Rountree and Lawrence Spivak created it as a radio promotion for the American Mercury Magazine. Two years later, originating from NBC’s Washington, D.C. studios, Meet the Press came to network TV.
It was on this day in 1947 that the program was first seen in the local Washington, D.C. market. Two weeks later, two stations on the network were added to the Thursday night show.
Martha Rountree served as the original moderator until 1953; then NBC newscaster Ned Brooks took over. Regular panelist Spivak served as moderator for ten years beginning in 1965. From 1975 to 1984, Bill Monroe, also a regular panelist, took over the moderator seat. He was replaced by Marvin Kalb, then Chris Wallace in 1987 and Garrick Utley in 1988. Tim Russert was moderator from late 1991 until his death in June 2008. Tom Brokaw filled in as interim moderator from June through the 2008 presidential election. David Gregory became moderator in early 2009, but after significantly declining ratings, Chuck Todd took over on September 7, 2014.
Although Meet the Press has changed time slots many times, including moving to Sunday afternoons in 1965, it has always maintained the same format. Simply stated, the moderator hosts a panel of reporters as they question a leading political figure. Virtually every major politician in the United States plus many foreign dignitaries have faced the journalists’ incisive questions. On the show’s 28th anniversary, U.S. President Gerald Ford faced the panel. It was the first time an incumbent president had agreed to a live appearance on Meet the Press.
In fact, every president since John F. Kennedy has appeared at some point in his career on the show, as has every vice president since Alben Barkley in 1952. In addition to presidents and vice presidents, Meet the Press has featured interviews with all the key players in each administration. Every secretary of state since John Foster Dulles and every secretary of defense since Robert McNamara has appeared on the program. As NBC has boasted for so many years, “if it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press,” and the political establishment apparently agrees.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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