Meet The Press

Show Information based on John Dunning's book "On The Air"

News talk; a press conference of the air (1945-1958).

Meet the Press grew out of a partnership between Martha Rountree and Lawrence Spivak. Rountree, a freelance writer, broke into radio around 1939. She had created the witty and spontaneous panel show Leave It to the Girls in 1945, and now, with American Mercury editor Lawrence Spivak, came up with an idea for promoting Spivak's magazine. She would produce a radio show, with Spivak as the permanent panelist representing the press. They would invite top newsmakers to be put on the spot, "without preparation or oratory," and thus "find out what they stand for."

Almost from the beginning, Meet the Press made its own headlines, and soon it was covered as a news event by both major wire services. Joining Spivak on the panel were noted American journalists. The mix was purposely volatile: two editors known for their opposition to the guest's viewpoint, one middle-of-the-road type, and Spivak.

Earl Warren, Harry Truman, Harold Stassen, Robert Oppenheimer, James Farley, and Sen. Joseph McCarthy were among those persuaded to sit in the hot seat. Often front-page headlines erupted from the show. Sen. Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi acknowledged on the air what had been common knowledge for some time - that he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. John L. Lewis announced a coal strike even before his union membership had been informed. Gov. Thomas Dewey declared himself out of the running for the 1952 Republican nomination, and pushed the stock of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who still had not declared his own intentions. Whittaker Chambers reiterated his charges against Alger Hiss, taking himself out from under the blanket of congressional immunity and daring Hiss to sue him.

Rountree's biggest problems were long-windedness of guests, evasiveness, and the dangers of blowups on the air. When Tex McCrary asked Fiorello La Guardia if he had ever used his position as mayor of New York to try and get reporters fired, La Guardia snapped, "That's a damned lie." It was staunch stuff for mid-1940s radio. Spivak's cardinal rule was "never take anyone who will withhold information - that's why the show makes front-page news so often." He and Rountree had reputations as news anticipators. They tried (and many times were successful) to book people who were "ripe for headlines." Then it became simply a matter of asking provocative questions.

The show was an early TV entry, going to NBC in 1947. It was a TV-radio simulcast beginning in 1952, when NBC picked up the radio half as well. The television show is still being seen.

MODERATORS: Bill Slater, Albert Warner, Martha Rountree, etc.

PERMANENT PANELIST: Lawrence Spivak.

GUESTS: Hot newsmakers in the political arena.

PRODUCER-CREATOR: Martha Rountree.

BROADCAST HISTORY:

Oct. 5, 1945-Aug. 18, 1950, Mutual. 30m,

initially Fridays at 10:30 but heard on a partial network until Dec. 1946;

Fridays at 10, 1947-49; at 9:30, 1949-50.

May 11, 1952-July 27, 1986, NBC 30m,

Sundays at 10:30, 1952-55; at 6 beginning in 1955;

various weekend timeslots after 1958.