President Nixon & Watergate
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On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested in Washington D.C. while attempting to place wiretaps in the office of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. During subsequent trials and a Senate hearing, it was revealed that these men were connected to the Republican Committee to Re-Elect the President. In addition, it was learned that some of President Nixon's top aides had been involved in the conspiracy to wiretap the Democratic National Committee. Furthermore, during 1973 and 1974, it became increasingly apparent that Nixon himself had been involved in the conspiracy. As a result of these disclosures, Nixon resigned from the Presidency on August 8, 1974. He was the first President in the history of the United States to resign from office. It can be seen that media coverage of the Watergate scandal played an important role in the way the case eventually turned out. This paper will discuss how the media helped to uncover the scandal and Nixon's complicity in it. In this way, it will be shown that the media play an important role in keeping the office of the Presidency accountable in a free society. Prior to the Watergate affair, Nixon had already developed an antagonistic relationship with the news media. As early as 1960 and his unsuccessful television debate with Kennedy, Nixon had become aware of the power of the media in either making or breaking a President. After 1968, when Nixon had become President for his first term, this dist
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ction was not taken in response to the threats of Nixon's aides but rather because the editorial staff at the Post did not want to make it seem as if they were supporting McGovern in his campaign. Although the Post continued to be suspicious of the re-election tactics of the Nixon Administration, the newspapers editors also felt that McGovern lacked an "aptitude for political leadership," and as a result, the negative coverage on the Watergate affair "virtually disappeared" (Kutler, 1990, p. 237). After the elections, and Nixon's victory, the Post resumed its reports on the case. In addition, Nixon and his staff began fighting harder against media coverage of the story. The first target in Nixon's war against the media was the Washington Post. Thus, by late 1972, "the licenses of the Post company's two Florida television stations had been challenged by Nixon's friends; its society reporter, Dorothy McCardle, had been frozen out of the White House; its chief competitor, the Washington Star-News, was being fed exclusives" (Spear, 1984, p. 191). Soon thereafter, Nixon began carrying out an assault against the news media in general. In February 1973, staff members from the New York Times, the Washington Star-News, and Time magazi
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Approximate Word count = 2966
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
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