Presidential Media Firsts

History loves to keep track of Presidential firsts.  Calvin Coolidge was the first President to make a radio broadcast. First president to appear on black & white television? FDR of course. And Obama had the honor of giving the first presidential Tweet in 2010, but on the @redcross instead of his own account.

This week another media first occurred when Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced his bid for president via video on his Twitter account. His message also made him the first person to throw their hat into the ring for the 2016 Presidential Election.

The move to jump ahead of the rest of the pack and get his name out there via social media has sparked a positive consensus in the mainstream media. On the other hand, there have also already been some actions that have been considered missteps by his campaign.

For instance, the Senator failed to secure tedcruz.com. Instead it belongs to another Ted Cruz who uses it to simply post this message: The other point of contention seems to be that some people don’t like Cruz’s logo. The intention seems to be some sort of flame or torch superimposed with the American flag. Unfortunately the end result has inspired opinions ranging from a burning upside-down flag to an American version of the Al Jazeera logo.

I’m sure that as election season proceeds ad nauseam for months on end, we will see many presidential media firsts. We will also see any number of manufactured scandals and conflicts among the candidates as they continue to jump into the race. No doubt the media, both new and traditional, will be right there with them, tweeting and posting every word and photo. For the next eighteen months.