University of Virginia Library

Nixon vs. The Media

providing this essential public
service to the viewer." Indeed,
the future of an innovative
fourth network, free from the
pressures of commercial
sponsors and ratings, appears
dim.

Many have asked what has
motivated this administration
to carry its antagonism against
the media to such extremes.
Presidents have always felt
abused by the media. But why
does this administration, and
Nixon in particular, have such
an acute vengeance?

Ben Bagdikian, former
assistant Managing Editor of
The Washington Post, offers a
new insight into the problem.
"It's not just the press this
administration has been
antagonistic towards. It was
antagonistic towards the entire
national government when it
came into office."

No Government Experience

"He came into Washington
with a group- Mitchell,
Klendienst, Erlichman – who
had no experience with
national government, or with
Washington. After 1962 Nixon
lost most of the people who
had surrounded him in politics.
Those who had any degree of
sophistication about national
politics dropped away. He had
some very serious losses in the
1960 campaign for President
and the 1962 campaign for
California governor."

"He ended up with second
level people who had no
experience with national
politics – who were very
doctrinaire, very ideological,
very conservative. They hated
the national government as
being the hotbed of radical
liberal democracy. They
genuinely distrusted the
government when they came
into office."

'Very Deep Distrust'

Bagdikian goes even
further, saying, "All the
accounts of taking over the
bureaucracy are a show of this
very deep distrust, if not
hatred for it. It also shows a
very deep distrust of the
Eastern seaboard, where the
strength of their opponents has
always been."

The press, he feels, is seen
as part of, "this old system of
radical, liberal, doctrinaire,
anti-conservative, anti-middle
American government."

"Now he has a tremendous
backing in the Presidency from
the country at large which
convinces him that he is right
because people agree with him.
But of course the
Congressional elections don't
reflect that."

"It's unclear yet,"
Bagdikian ventures, "Whether
people really accept the view
of Nixon and his ideas about
what the social values of the
country are and should be."

Regardless of what political
persuasion one has, the current
intrusion against the media
cannot be easily rationalized.
The attack challenges all
factions of the media, not just
one segment.

The battle promises to leave
permanent scars on the First
Amendment, and all those who
are protected under it.
Extensive legal means, such as
those being employed now,
will be difficult to erase or
reverse. Freedom of the press is
one of the fragile rights that
are easily abused but difficult
to defend. Nevertheless it is a
protection that must be
zealously guarded because in
the end, it is the public that
loses, not the networks or the
press.