Richard Nixon’s press secretary in the fall of 1972:
I personally feel that this is shabby journalism by the Washington Post…I think this effort on the part of the post is getting to the point, really, of absurdity…
I don’t know what their motivation is. I have personal observations about what their motivation may be. You have a man who is the editor over at the Washington Post by the name of Ben Bradlee. I think anyone who would honestly want to assess what his political persuasions are would come quickly to the conclusion that he is not a supporter of Richard Nixon.
I read the other day where Mr. Bradlee was giving a speech and he said the Nixon administration is committed to our destruction — referring to the press — that this administration is committed to the destruction of the free press.
There has been nothing as long as I have been press secretary where we have ever involved ourselves in a program of the destruction of the free press. We respect the free press. I respect the free press. I don’t respect the type of shabby journalism that is being practiced by the Washington Post, and I have stated that view to you.
The Obama White House in the fall of 2009:
“WhiteHouse.gov Plays Media Critic: Calls Krauthammer’s Washington Post Column ‘Wholly Inaccurate’”
But will today’s Washington Post defend the Critic-In-Chief from the Ditherer In Chief with as much ferocity as they did Woodward & Bernstein 37 years ago?
I m not a fan of the sleazy Richard Nixon—-but he would have never been pushed out of office by the Washington Post and its allies had he been a Democrat. The fact that he was a Republican was the biggest crime in their eyes. Ben Bradlee was a personal friend of “Jack” Kennedy and even gave him advice on running his 1960 presidential campaign. This was also the case of Post owners Katherine and Donald Graham. Please note that there seemed to be little outrage when the Kennedy administration illegally harassed political enemies and had the FBI spy on Martin Luther King, Jr. Barack Obama’s critics are usually far more even handed. Charles Krauthammer possesses a proven tack record of treating Republican and Democrat administrations with a noticeable degree of fairness and consistency.
David Thomson: Agreed. Nixon was slimy and mostly self-interested (kinda reminds me of Obama); but there’s no way the WaPo will apply the same standards to the current administration.
As the years go by and more information is accumlated, some of it, hearsay…what is beginning to be understood is that the POST went after Nixon, and through the Vietnam War, Johnson too.
Bradlee hated both presidents..LBJ for diverging from the Great Society to fight a foreign war…and Nixon, because he was Nixon: the anti-Alger Hiss; in the seventies, Hiss was still the darling of the left.
Bradlee also had figured out the LBJ, maybe with Nixon and Hoover moved Kennedy out. More and more evidence is coming to forefront showing anti-Kennedy crime figures felt they had to kill him if they were to survive.
Read Waldron and Hartmann’s book…it’s all there…except of course, that’s not the kind of history the POST was ever investigate. Doesn’t fit their worldview or liberal agenda.
WaPo editorial page seems to be going through a bit of soul-searching this year about Obama’s plans and tactics, which of course in a non-election year is a no-risk strategy, where you can voice your concerns at a time when nothing can be done about them, while pulling back and supporting the normal conventional big media positions as we get closer to the 2010 midterms and the 2012 general (the Post could surprise me, but I think of some of their recent editorials in the same way I think of Maureen Dowd’s columns for which she won the Pulitzer in 1998, slamming Bill for his sleaze until the Starr investigation report came out, then running to the other side of the street to trash the special counsel, less the Democrats come out losers in the fight).
“Bradlee hated both presidents..LBJ for diverging from the Great Society to fight a foreign war…and Nixon, because he was Nixon: the anti-Alger Hiss; in the seventies, Hiss was still the darling of the left.”
Ben Bradlee graduated from Harvard University. He probably could not stand the fact that neither Johnson nor Nixon ever attended an Ivy League school. Bradlee would have likely continued to support the Vietnam conflict—if John F. Kennedy was still in the White House. It should be added that Bradlee even wrote a number of books favorable to him. Kennedy would have had to merely find a couple of fall guys willing to go to prison for a few years. That would have put a stop to any further investigation.
We might as well enjoy kicking the Washington Post while it can still be done. The paper is in deep financial trouble. Its top executives only recently had to close all of the Post’s satellite offices throughout the United States. Will the paper still be around by the time of the elections of 2012 roll around? The odds are not good.
Yeah, Nixon was bad, but hey. Didn’t he win 49 states in that election? It’s not like the US was torn between him and McGovern. It’s not like the Dems provided a reasonable alternative.
Nixon should have apologized and offered to redo the election
Always remember that the Woodward-Bernstein scoop was a coup by Mark Felt who was #2 at the FBI and hated Nixon because he passed him over for L. Patrick Gray. Felt engineered the Watergate scandal and convinced Woodward-Bernstein-Bradlee to keep his identity secret all those years. Beria could not have done a better job of killing the “Prince.”
Ben Bradlee graduated from Harvard University. He probably could not stand the fact that neither Johnson nor Nixon ever attended an Ivy League school.
I think that you’re right about that. Nixon was, I think, admitted to Harvard, and possibly even offered a scholarship, but his parents couldn’t come up with even the money that they still needed (transportation to and from Cambridge, etc.). He certainly didn’t attend an Ivy League school. Something like that went on with W. He, of course, held degrees from two different Ivy League schools, but he still wasn’t one of the beautiful people, the way the Clintons and Obamas are.
The Insane Clown Posse (a/k/a BO & da boyz from Chi town) vs. The Hammer is not a fair fight. He out IQs them by about 200 points.
Nixon went to Duke Law School and I think was #2 in his class. Not too shabby.