Bugs Bunny Wins Over JFK

I’m not a fan of web site databases and encyclopaedia where anyone can go on and write whatever they want, such as Walt Disney being born on the planet Wtsrpphg (incidentally, he wasn’t). I’ve yowped in anger at some of the misinformation in animation entries.

One of the readers on my neglected Twitter feed is named IBCF. A tweet came through from that account quoting a Wikipedia entry regarding John Daly, the former CBS news correspondent best known for hosting What’s My Line? who was also the news vice-president and main anchor at ABC. I was stunned at the Wikiquote, which is:

Daly resigned from ABC on November 16, 1960[14] after the network preempted the first hour of 1960 presidential election night coverage to show Bugs Bunny cartoons and The Rifleman from 7:30 to 8:30 pm while CBS and NBC were covering returns from the Kennedy–Nixon presidential election and other major races.

I’ve read a fair chunk on Daly, and I’ve read contemporary reports of his departure from what they used to call “the third network.” All the news stories I’ve read gave the same reason for his resignation. The footnote 14 above refers to a New York Times article of the following day. Allow me to quote it:

Mr. Daly’s resignation was submitted on Monday night after he learned that Mr. Goldenson [the head of the network] had hired Time, Inc., to become co-producer of four one-hour documentary programs for the “Close-up” series sponsored by the Bell & Howell camera company. Heretofore the series had been produced exclusively by Mr. Daly and his staff. Mr. Daly said Mr. Goldenson had violated the “traditional policy” that all news and public affairs programs be prepared entirely by the network and not by outsiders.

Nary a word about Bugs Bunny. (Incidentally “Monday night” was the 14th, not the 16th). Obviously, another made up entry by somebody on Wikipedia, right?

Not so fast.

I leafed through copies of a number of the New York newspapers immediately after the vote on November 8th to see what they wrote about ABC’s coverage. Surely news columnists would wag their finger and chastise a network if it postponed coverage of the story of the year for Yosemite Sam getting blown up on a ship. Remarkably (at least to me), at first glance there was nothing about cartoons. The columnists were falling all over themselves discussing the computers each network used to tabulate the votes. UPI declared ABC had the best screen arrangement for charts.

But there was one columnist who noted something else. Barbara Delatiner of Newsday mentioned on November 10th that Bugs had been on the air at 7:30 p.m. instead of Daly, reporter Don Goddard and tabulator Univac (perhaps it would have been appropriate, given the situation, to have employed Uniblab from The Jetsons, but I digress).

As it turns out, keeping Bugs and Chuck Connors on the schedule was not a last-minute decision. Newspaper TV listings in New York and Chicago for November 8th show ABC cutting away from its coverage of the vote to run the cartoon show, and editors would have needed time to get that information in print. And WABC-TV in New York even bought an ad in the Times promoting The Rifleman.



What of John Daly? Buried in the 11th paragraph of an Associated Press story of November 17th, was a reference to Daly’s annoyance about something other than outside producers infringing on his territory. The Wall Street Journal of the same date wrote its own story and included a quote.

Mr. Daly indicated there were other reasons for his resignation. He said he was unhappy about one aspect of ABC’s election night coverage. He opposed the network’s showing a “Bugs Bunny” film and “Rifleman” between 7:30 and 8:30 EST election night, thereby breaking into the election news, which had begun at 7 that night. “If you begin the coverage, you don’t leave it,” Mr. Daly said.

So, to sum up, is Wikipedia correct? Did veteran and respected newsman John Daly quit a cushy TV network anchor job because of Bugs Bunny? The answer—partly.

Bugs and his sponsors weren’t strong enough to keep him on the air on the West Coast (in Los Angeles, KABC coverage cut away at 4:30 for American Bandstand and Rin Tin Tin), but there was at least one other cartoon show that didn’t get the boot in favour of Kennedy and Nixon (or Huntley and Brinkley). Independent station KTTV in Los Angeles continued with its regular evening programming, meaning anyone not interested in Don Goddard and Univac could switch channels and watch a full half hour of The Huckleberry Hound Show. As Huck might say “Right smart little programming move there.”