The subject of this week’s “Look what I found in the WFAA Newsfilm Collection” is very appropriate given this last week of the inauguration and presidential politics in the media. The clips from the film collection are a series of interviews with former President George H. W. Bush.
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In 1970, after serving two terms in the U.S. House of representatives, Bush was asked by then-president Richard Nixon to run for the Senate against Democrat Ralph Yarborough. Yarborough, who had been a strong critic of the sitting president, did not end up with the nomination and the Democrats ran former Congressman Lloyd Bentsen instead. Bentsen went on to win the election by a margin of 53 to 47, and Bush was later appointed as the Ambassador to the United Nations and confirmed unanimously by the Senate.
The clips demonstrate different policy positions that were part of his platform and are typical of someone running for office, but the style of interview is what makes these interviews unique. In one clip, WFAA reporter Jerry Taff conducts the interview while driving after picking up the future president from the airport without any staffers around. It was a true one-on-one between the press and a candidate that you just don’t see today.
Featured image: clip from WFAA Collection, George H. W. Bush, 1970.
Thank you to Jeremy Spracklen, Moving Image Curator, Hamon, for this post.