It seems to me the first to benefit from similar treatment was FDR, not only within the context of obscuring his physical disability, but also with regard to the "New Deal" and his prosecution of the war. The government in that time sponsored hundreds, if not thousands, of news reels seen by everybody (because then everybody went to the movies) that gave the impression of a unified front on Government policy even when it didn't exist.

Later Kennedy got much the same free ride - no, he didn't make a mess on the scale of Bush in Iraq, but the BOP was a serious mess in its own right. And his personal peccadilloes certainly went by with a wink and a nudge.