Happy 40th Watergate

This weekend is the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in.

Charlie Pierce in Esquire on what it meant and what it means.


http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/watergate-40-years-later-9747335?hootPostID=43c085b4b5a25ce6375e5d955b88e9cb

The hearings were the best TV ever.

Looking back now, the grand unfolding saga that we call "Watergate" looks more and more like a kind of pageant, with distinct episodes leading to a dramatic climax. The bust of the burglars. The stubborn, preposterous diligence of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, keeping the story alive when almost nobody else wanted a piece of it, in the middle of a presidential campaign on which the story would have absolutely no impact.

 

The funny thing about Watergate was that even as it all unraveled, hardly anybody publicly expressed shock or disbelief that Nixon would DO such things -- only that he was dumb enough to allow himself to get caught.

 

I always wonder what would happen if something similar happened today.

 

An entire political party would say Woodward and Bernstein should be convicted of treason, and Fox News would make an hourly attempt to equate Nixon's behavior with that of ACORN or some other bogeyman. At least if the last 10 years are a guide anyway.

 

You forgot Fox News was founded and is still run on the premise that poor sweet innocent Nixon was railroaded.

 

Newsweek's Jonathan Alter did an essay on it a few years ago. Among the snippets . . .

"Those of who hoped it would end differently knew we were in trouble when former Nixon media adviser Roger Ailes banned the word 'Watergate' from Fox News's coverage and went with the logo 'Assault on the Presidency' instead. By that time, the American people figured both sides were just spinning, and a tie always goes to the incumbent.....and because both houses of Congress are controlled by the GOP, there were no 'Watergate' hearings to keep the probe going..."

And the blogosphere pounces on anything a reporter gets wrong as "proof" that everything they are reporting is wrong.

And Woodstein got a few things wrong before they got it right. Dunno if they would have had the chance today to recover from those missteps.

 

Sounds about right.

And they'd add a few "liberal media" references as well.

 

I read All the President's Men when I was 12 and it was the moment where I wanted to become a journalist... I found out when I was in college and at my first couple jobs that for most people may age it was the same deal, even if the end result became working for the toy section.

 

Amen, Mizzou. Now imagine being a student journalist in those heady times. Even the toy section seemed impressive.

 

I'm still amazed that Nixon made secret recordings of is Oval Office conversations. If he hadn't done that, he'd have survived this thing with ease.

 

That's the great thing about Watergate. Damn Dumb Nixon was so paranoid that everyone was out to ruin him, he ended up ruining himself.

 

I think that would be my reaction to just about any president we've ever had. I don't trust any one who not only wants to be president, but is also willing to do what it takes to <i>become</i> president.