The Making of the President, 1968 and the Unmaking of Theodore H. White

In the 1960s, Theodore H. White was America’s most popular political reporter.  His book, The Making of the President, 1960, offered a vivid account of a presidential campaign.  It proved a best-seller that earned much critical praise.  In the process, White had created a new publishing genre, the “instant” history of a presidential contest.  Although reviews for his 1964 book were more respectful than enthusiastic, it sold well. 

The critical reception toward White’s 1968 volume marked a turning point for White, and for political reporting generally. White had long held a high, almost fawning regard for America’s political class.  “Teddy White likes politicians,” a friend wrote in 1965.  White refused to allow his misgivings about the Vietnam War and closeness to Robert F. Kennedy to color his treatment of President Lyndon Johnson.  And he was among those arguing that Richard Nixon had undergone a transformation, that there was “a new Nixon.”  “A man of courage and of conscience,” he wrote in 1969.  Such judgments were simply too much for many younger journalists reviewing the book.  White and many of his friends in the fourth estate did not take kindly to such criticisms. They revealed a new and sharp division among reporters about a journalist’s point-of-view and how objectively candidates should be covered.    

This paper draws on White’s extensive collection of personal papers at Harvard University.  

See more of: Critics of the Mainstream: The Collapse of Journalistic Authority in the United States, 1955–2000
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