There's no televised debate in 1960

[RightBehind]

In honor of the CNN special, people who listened to the debate said Nixon won. Those who saw it said Kennedy won. How much, if any, does this affect the mind's of voters if this could only be heard and not seen?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The only way that could be would be if television hadn't been widely available in 1960, which means no televised Checkers speech in 1952 and thus no Nixon as veep and no Nixon as the GOP standard bearer in 1960.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

The only way that could be would be if television hadn't been widely available in 1960, which means no televised Checkers speech in 1952 and thus no Nixon as veep and no Nixon as the GOP standard bearer in 1960.

Fair point, but there were no debates in 1964, 1968 and 1972 and television was there.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

The whole concept of the TV viewers preferring Kennedy and the radio listeners preferring Nixon is based on a single study done by a market research company after the debate.  While it's not wrong, there's not a whole lot of other evidence to back it up.  In short, I agree with what Ernest said, and I think he answered it perfectly.

The simple fact is that there were a lot of factors other than the first debate (and there were actually four of them) that won the election for Kennedy.  Kennedy's offer to the Kings after MLK was arrested boosted his black support enough to exceed the margin of victory, and any possible margin of fraud.  Kennedy also had the news media on his side, and they played it to his advantage.  Kennedy's strong support with Catholics and the recession of 1957-58 also worked in his favor.  While the first debate probably did have an effect on the outcome, it was not the only thing.  We tend to forget that elections are rarely decided by a single factor, and 1960 was no exception.

[Kingpoleon]

Is it a radio only debate, or is there no debate, as you quoting 1964, 1968, and 1972 imply?

[RightBehind]

I would have it as radio only.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

People forget that there were actually FOUR televised debates in 1960.  The first one is the only one that's remembered because it was the first ever televised presidential debate, and because of Nixon's nervous, jittery appearance that may have swayed some voters.  While it probably had some effect on the final outcome, it was far from the only factor.  The recession in 1957-58, Kennedy's strength with Catholics, and his staff's efforts to get MLK released from jail all helped him win, too.

As for the claim that television viewers preferred Kennedy, it was only by about one percent.  I read an article about this recently that did a good job of dissecting this claim.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10510978709368226#.Vy82XYf2a1s
http://faculty.las.illinois.edu/salthaus/Publications/media%20and%20politics%20encyclopedia_kennedy-nixon%20debates.pdf