May 8, 1961: As the reception for Alan Shepard at the White House is breaking up, JFK asks FCC Commissioner Newton Minow if he should bring Shepard to the National Association of Broadcasters conference underway at the Sheraton Park Hotel. Minow thinks it’s a wonderful idea. 1/4

Minow joins Kennedy, VP Johnson, and Shepard in a car to the hotel. The president is in an ebullient mood, making jokes and basking in the moment after weeks of criticism. Everyone suddenly feels good about something the country had accomplished. 2/4

At the NAB meeting, President Kennedy introduces Alan Shepard as “the nation’s number one television performer…with the largest rating of any morning show in recent history.” He then enlists the broadcasters as important partners in the U.S. space program. 3/4

President Kennedy in his talk to the nation’s commercial broadcasters at the NAB convention: “The essence of free communication must be that our failures as well as our successes will be broadcast around the world. And therefore we take double pride in our successes.” 4/4

For a 2021 update on 95-year old Newton Minow, see this interview that was broadcast yesterday on the PBS Newshour noting the 60th anniversary of his famous “vast wasteland” NAB speech of May 9, 1961. https://www.pbs.org/video/viewers-like-newt-1620424312/