Journalism in retreat? In the 1960s and 1970s, a Donald Trump would never have dared to show up anywhere near the Republican National Committee headquarters, not to mention the White House.
The Republicans would have given him a short shrift; Americans as one, would have turned their noses up and taken him for what he is: a comic relief from a travelling circus.
The issues were big and the men were mostly stately, if not noble, who almost always bore a scar of one war or the other.
The celebrity or popinjay kinds were not as yet conjectured to fit into politics or the White House. At least not until Ronald Reagan rode into the scene in the early 1980s. And at that, his was an image of a cowboy riding into the White House on a rescue mission. He was an exciting and welcome change after the debacle that was Jimmy Carter, regarded as the ‘softie’ peanuts farmer.
Today, 50 years after the epochal Watergate scandal, a Trump didn’t only make the White House as POTUS, he’s already running for a second term!
Exactly 50 years ago today, the American people, led by her media, legislature and judiciary, forced Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th President of the United States of America to resign in shame and ignominy. The first ever to so resign and the last till date.
The US press, (read media), led by the Washington Post and New York Times, among others, had literally stirred the soul of America to challenge what began as a presidential misdemeanour and snowballed into a national outrage leading to the eventual fall of the most powerful symbol of authority on earth.
This singular act called attention to the intrinsic powers of the mass media to hold government to account, drive change and ultimately imbue mankind with an increasingly better society.
It brought to a fresh significance, the power and magnitude of the media as the Fourth Estate of the realm and a significant part of the quad (executive, legislature, judiciary and the press).
Fifty years after the Watergate epoch, the media, aided by technology, has grown exponentially becoming as ubiquitous as the phones in our hands. However, what the media gained in becoming commonplace, it may have lost in terms of its ethical and moral stature.
WATERGATE: THE GATE OF ALL SCANDALS: The Watergate Scandal is the story of presidential powers at its highest height gone awry and brought crashing down in two years of tenacious news hounding and unrelenting pursuit of a singular issue. Watergate is about checks and balance, about the institutions undergirding democracy working in tandem at a critical moment to uphold the system and indeed, society.
VERY LONG STORY IN A NUTSHELL: Some buglers had been caught bugging the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Watergate Complex offices, Washington, D.C. USA.
What initially looked like a petty break-in, a chance arrest and a bit police beat news report soon grew into a scandal of presidential proportion. It turned out that the burglary was initiated and choreographed right from the office of the President of the United States of America. It was election year and President Nixon and his team, desperate for re-election, sought to eavesdrop on their key opponent in other to gain a dubious advantage.
As if to prove the inconsequence of the matter, the burglars were arrested on June 17, 1972, indicted by court on September 15, 1972 and on November 7,1972, President Nixon won re-election for second term by a landslide.
This would suggest that the Watergate matter was of no significance. But during the trial of the five felons, it began to come out that they were indeed running errands for the presidency. Then the big cover-ups began. One lie exposed and segued into another. From paying hush money to buying silence of burglars with hush money, to using the CIA to block FBI’s investigation and sacking of Watergate prosecutor…
Americans were chagrined that the White House could be so besmudged. This scoundrel of a president must go, they seemed to have determined.
Things began to cascade as the noose tightened around the president. Heads began to roll. Richard Kleindiest, (Attorney General), Harry Robbins Haldeman (Chief of Staff) and John Daniel Ehrlichman, Counsel and Assistant on Domestic Affairs), among others, resigned in one swoop. John Dean, a counsel and major Watergate actor was fired.
This “night of the long knives” marked the turning point in the scandal. (Dean was to directly implicate the president in his testimony on oath.)
The bottom literally fell out of the Nixon Presidency as these “bad men” formed the cabal and heart of the Nixon White House.
From this point, Nixon was a pathetic wreck each day that passed. He was alone and a lame duck fighting for his very life.
The Senate Watergate Committee was hard at work; office of the public prosecutor was activated and was revving up things; the House wasn’t quiet either, but a certain Judge John Sirica was the hero of the Watergate story.
About November 1973, exactly one year into Nixon’s second term, Watergate had snowballed into the biggest political scandal in modern history. Nixon was being advised to resign by his counsel. The series of obvious lies had become embarrassing not only to America, but the watching world.
And indeed, the world watched live televised Senate hearings of the scandal. American press led by the Washington Post were at their vicious best.
Two of the Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who started with an inconsequential crime newsbit, ended up with a historical monument.
Woodward and Bernstein were helped by a source they named ‘Deep Throat’ who supplied them a series of exclusive information and confirmation to stories. Deep Throat, revealed many years later to be Mark Felt, was an associate director in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at the period. EXPRESSO wagers that Watergate may not have happened without the leaks from Felt. His contribution was pivotal.
On August 8, 1974, President Nixon eventually resigned after stalling for over one year. Having been convicted all round, he faced imminent impeachment, trial and jail. His successor, President Gerald Ford granted him pardon one year after.
Watergate presents multifaceted lessons in history and to humanity. Like most other politicians, Nixon would never be associated with solidity of character. He was, however, brought to this sorry pass by vaulting ambition and over-bloated sense of self. He never needed to burglarise any office to win a second term as it became apparent.
He probably would have joined the pantheon of great presidents barring Watergate. He had ended the ill-tempered Vietnam war and pulled out American soldiers from the killing fields of Indochina. He opened a path to China and Soviet Union bringing a thaw to the freezing cold war. America was at peace again and prospering. Nixon was a natural orator with what may be described as cool charisma.
But for the Watergate, Nixon would have been recorded by history as great President.
Then he listened to advisers who suggested the wiretap of opponent’s offices…
Today, Nixon is annotated among the ignoble men who reigned in the White House. Even a Trump would probably take a place before Nixon.
TRUMP OR NIXON: But can Trump withstand any special scrutiny as was focused on Nixon? Would Trump have won Republican nomination in a more morally conscious age?
Coming home, would President Bola Tinubu have dared to contest presidential election in an atmosphere of concerted media focus; would he be president in a more ethically aware age?
Has the world lowered leadership standards so abysmally or is journalism in retreat?
Feedback: steve.osuji@gmail.com
•CREDIT: Key references for this article are from, Personal History by Katherine Graham and The Final Days, by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, among numerous other Watergate materials.
