MORE NOTES ON AMERICAN DECLINE

In 1962, Daniel Boorstin published The image:a guide to pseudo-events in America in which he argued that the creation of images in the media were overwhelming reality and that would have dire consequences for American society. In particular, the packaging of politics and politicians would harm our form of government.

The first major evidence of this image effect was the first Nixon-Kennedy televised debate in September, 1960, which most consider Kennedy won simply because of how he appeared on the TV screen.  Years later, Nixon was given a brief tutorial by Roger Ailes, then a producer for The Mike Douglas Show:

Well, as Mr. Ailes tells it, even admitted pornographers have some scruples, so instead of making Richard Nixon wait in the same greenroom as Little Egypt, he asked the candidate back to his office. "It's a shame a man has to use gimmicks like this to get elected," Mr. Nixon is supposed to have remarked to Mr. Ailes. "Television is not a gimmick, and if you think it is, you'll lose again," Mr. Ailes is supposed to have remarked to Mr. Nixon. And there the modern conservative movement — not the ideological entity but the telegenic one — was born.