Frank Shakespeare, a former CBS executive who deployed his television skills on Richard M. Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign with a blitz of montage-style ads and on-air events that helped win the White House and underscored TV’s power as a political tool, died Dec. 14 at his home in Deerfield, Wis. He was 97.
The death was confirmed by Ed Feulner, founder of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, where Mr. Shakespeare served as board chairman from 1981 to 1985. No cause was given.
Mr. Shakespeare’s role as a Republican envoy covered decades, including heading the United States Information Agency while seeking a sharper pro-American edge to its broadcasts and other media. That included “The Silent Majority,” a 1970 news-style propaganda film produced by Mr. Shakespeare’s agency, that asserted widespread American support for the Vietnam War and…
