On the Media; 1994-05-08; Part 1; Nixon and the Press; Getting it Wrong

[Announcer]: With the death of Richard Nixon, there were waves of media reports about the former president more than at any time since Watergate. In its May 2nd cover story, Time magazine called him, quote, the most important figure of the postwar era. Is this hyperbole? How has the press treated Nixon? Did it kick him around, as he charged back in 1962? Nixon and the Press, from the Checkers speech to his resignation, from his so-called rehabilitation to the media's deathwatch, to the funeral and the follow- the-pack post-mortems on his career. We'll look into it on this hour of ON THE MEDIA with Time magazine's longtime Washington reporter Hugh Sidey, Nixon biographer Roger Morris, and sociologist Todd Gitlin. That's right after this news. Stay tuned. [Laura ?Carnoy?]: From National Public Radio News in Washington, I'm Laura ?Carnoy?. President Clinton is expected to announce a change in policy toward Haitian refugees later today. White House aides say the U.S. will no longer send Haitians back to their country without an asylum hearing.

But people will still be repatriated if immigration decides they're not political refugees. Aides say the president believes that's the best way to prevent thousands of Haitians from fleeing. South Africa is getting ready for the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president. Some 5,000 dignitaries from around the world will attend the ceremonies. Coretta Scott King is already there, as is U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown from Cape Town. NPR's Renee Montagne reports. [Renee Montagne]: Parliament meets here in Cape Town tomorrow to officially elect Nelson Mandela as president. Dozens of the new South African flag were being draped across City Hall today. There, Nelson Mandela will deliver his first presidential address to a crowd expected to grow to 200,000 or more. Then the celebration moves to the opposite end of the country. On Tuesday, in Pretoria, Mandela will take the oath of office. The inauguration will be attended by, among others, 42 heads of state, royalty from Africa and Europe, Vice President Al Gore and First Lady Hillary Clinton, and 150,000 South Africans who managed to get first come, first served

tickets that were issued at locations around the country last week. After Nelson Mandela is sworn in, in the morning, the day will be given over to partying. The thousands of dignitaries will be treated to a lunch and the public will be treated to a show put on by some 3,000 performers in Cape Town. This is Renee Montagne. [Laura ?Carnoy?]: The five-day-old civil war in Yemen is apparently getting worse. There are reports that Northern forces are nearing the Southern capital of Aden and the South is accused of using Scud missiles in the conflict. The fighting comes just four years after North and South Yemen united to form one country. Mike Theodoulou reports for the CBC. [Mike Theodoulou]: The marriage of convenience between the two Yemens is now exploding. The roots of the conflict are economic and religious as much as political. There is deep personal animosity between the Northern leader, General Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was president of the United Yemen, and his one-time vice president, the Southern leader, Ali Salem al Beidh. They never trusted each other and their armies never united. al Beidh insisted the more populous North was determined to dominate the South rather than share power. Also, Northern Islamists did so well in last year's elections

that General Saleh was forced to give them more say in running the country. This angered the Southern Socialists, who argue they were now outnumbered two to one. General Saleh is determined not to let the South break away. It has most of Yemen's proven oil reserves. Their fate could determine the outcome of the conflict if this becomes a protracted civil war. [Laura ?Carnoy?]: Mike Theodoulou reporting. The state of Hawaii got bigger today after the U.S. Navy returned the island of Kahoolewe to the state government. The military used the island as a target site during the Second World War. It'll be some time before the 45 square mile square island is habitable. This is NPR. [Richard Hake]: This is WNYC. It's 12:04, 58 [degrees] and cloudy in Central Park. Good afternoon. I'm Richard Hake. More problems with the state budget. The governor says state lawmakers are not sticking to promises agreed upon in the tentative budget. Cuomo says they added nearly $200 million to spending, which would leave a $500 million gap next year. The New York Times reports that the governor will veto such a package.

The state budget is now five weeks late. An elderly man has been shot and killed by a bicyclist in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Police believe that an attempted robbery may have been the motive for the shooting. There are no suspects at this time. The victim was found dead at the scene. He was on his way home from the grocery store. A fire at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx left a patient with burns over 80 percent of her body. Officials say the woman set a mattress on fire while smoking. A third firefighter has died resulting from injuries suffered in the March fire in a Soho apartment building. Captain John Drennen of Staten Island was clinging to life since the fire with fourth degree burns over half of his body. The spiritual leader of the Lubavitch sect of Hasidic Jews is in better condition this morning. This after suffering from pneumonia. 92 year old Rabbi Menachem Schneerson has been on a respirator at Beth Israel Medical Center since his stroke. He's still in very critical condition and some of his followers believe he is the Messiah. In sports today, Boston will take on the Yankees up at the stadium.

The Mets are in Saint Lewis. In the NBA, Chicago plays the Knicks. The forecast: it'll be cloudy today. We could get some peeks of sun. There could also be some showers this afternoon, maybe even a thunderstorm. Highs around 65 degrees. Chance of an evening shower tonight, then gradual clearing with a low around 50, mostly sunny tomorrow. Nice day, warmer. Two highs in the mid 70s. Chance of showers, though, tomorrow night. Currently in Central Park it's 58 degrees. We have cloudy skies. The winds are from the west at eight miles per hour. This is WNYC, New York Public Radio you're listening to ON THE MEDIA. The time is 12:06. [Alex Jones]: When former President Richard Nixon suffered a severe stroke and then died, the news media went along on one of its familiar frenzies. But this particular press frenzy has been a peculiar one indeed. First, as he lay dying, the coverage tended to emphasize what might be called the bad Richard Nixon. His role in Watergate was re-examined in the whole sorry tale was disinterred at length. His most important single attribute seemed to be his status

as the only American president to be forced to resign from office. And then he died. And that prompted a whole new flurry, more like an avalanche, of coverage. But this time, the spin was very different. During the deathwatch, columnists, obit writers and former Nixon friends and enemies of all sorts had apparently been searching for a new and fresh way to view his long political career. And the result was that the press coverage seemed to abruptly shift from bad Nixon to good Nixon. Nixon, who had open China, who had been a master at foreign policy, who'd been diligent and resourceful enough to resurrect himself after his disgrace. There was teary coverage of every moment of his final trip to Yorba Linda with Amazing Grace in the background. He was treated like a presidential hero, like a great president and a great man. The question is, where was the balance? Once again, there seemed to be only one story out there, and that everyone was doing variations on the same theme.

And then when some implacable Nixon enemies began calling attention to the positive coverage there followed another wave of more critical coverage. Yes, he had bombed Cambodia. Yes, he had tapped telephones. And that backlash may well have prompted yet another backlash to the backlash, if you will, as we have now begun debating whether the press was fair to Nixon during his life and at his death. No doubt there will be further waves of coverage on this most controversial of presidents. But today, we are in a reflective mode. They're going to talk about whether the press during his long career has been fair to Nixon and why the coverage at the time of his death seems so bizarre. I'm Alex Jones, and we'll be looking into Nixon and the press in this hour of ON THE MEDIA. Was Richard Nixon a hero or a scoundrel? A statesman or a political opportunist? And what role did the press play in reporting on a public figure who claimed the press kicked him around? But who, one of my guests says, was a, quote, product of the press. My guests are Hugh Sidey, Washington contributing editor for Time magazine.

Mr. Sidey has reported on, and known well, many presidents over the past 40 years. He's speaking to us from his home near Washington. Mr. Sidey, Hugh Sidey, thank you for joining us. [Hugh Sidey]: Thank you for having me. [Alex Jones]: Roger Morris, he served on the National Security Council under both Presidents Johnson and Nixon. He teaches at the University of New Mexico. And he is a Nixon biographer whose first volume on the former president Richard Milhous Nixon, THE RISE OF AN AMERICAN POLITICIAN, 1913 TO 1952, was published by Henry Holt. And on the phone from his home in San Francisco, Todd Gitlin, professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He's author of THE SIXTIES: YEARS OF HOPE, DAYS OF RAGE and a columnist for The New York Observer. His last book, just out in paperback, is a novel, THE MURDER OF ALBERT EINSTEIN. Todd Gitlin, Roger Morris, we're very happy to have you with us, too. [Todd Gitlin]: Thank you. [Roger Morris]: Thank you. [Alex Jones]: Todd Gitlin, let me start with you. What do you make of the coverage of Richard Nixon at the time

of his death? [Todd Gitlin]: Well, I agree with your description. There was something extremely strange going on. And I was reminded of something I had thought, not long after Watergate, that the great self-congratulation about having brought the president down and having sought neither fear nor favor, all that self-congratulation that, so much of which was deserved, and some of which wasn't, had actually led the press into a dead end, because they were actually extremely uncomfortable with the, with the ferocity of their attack. They were actually as, as Jeff Stokes, who used to write for The Village Voice, used to put it, they were actually more comfortable being stenographers, and lapdogs and watchdogs, and they felt they had known sin. And I think that the press compensated for that when it brought us a kinder and gentler Ronald Reagan.

And I think they did it to Nixon in his death that they are actually extremely nervous at the thought that the country doesn't get the glorious leadership it deserves. And they needed to bring us a statesman like Nixon to correspond to the land of the free and the home of the brave. [Alex Jones]: Roger Morris, as as Mr. Nixon's biographer, do you think that he was treated correctly? I don't know that fairly is the right word. Do you think it was appropriate the way his, his death and funeral were covered? [Roger Morris]: Well, I thought it was a rather disgraceful episode of amnesia. Frankly, I think much of the coverage was, as Todd just said, celebratory and and therefore a misrepresentation of history. I think as a cultural matter, we are rather loathe as a people to come to grips with the seedier and seamier side of our history when we bury our statesmen. Nixon, of course, was not just a dead president, not just

a former office holder. He was the emblem and the maker of an entire era in American politics. To come to grips with him in a truly honest and fundamental way, I think, was to face up to a number of elements in our political life, which we were somewhat reluctant to do. So I think there was a lot of avoidance going on here. And I agree with Todd. It was an effort in some sense to rescue the image of America and of its leadership, which has suffered so, so grievously now for so long. But it certainly wasn't an accurate historical portrayal of what he was or what we were as a people. [Alex Jones]: Do you, did you follow it pretty carefully at the time of his death? [Roger Morris]: Yes, I did. I was involved in it, to some extent. I was doing an average of four or five, six interviews a day on radio and television, both here and abroad, around the illness and then around the death. And I was almost invariably surrounded in those interviews by Nixon apologists and by those who were

remembering only the bright side and even the bright side, I thought was was somewhat qualified. So I think there was a distortion, but it's natural. And in the long run, I think it matters not at all. Nixon will be remembered for for the more than ample documentation he left behind. And it's there that you will find the real Richard Nixon. Historians will find him in the 21st century, a very different figure from the one extolled at Yorba Linda. [Alex Jones]: Well, did you find in your, in your dealings with the press during this period, that any, any major news organization was particularly good or particularly bad, or were they all pretty much doing the same thing? [Roger Morris]: I think they were all pretty much the same. I did encounter a kind of generational lapse as I saw it. I was dealing with an awful lot of people who had no direct experience with the Nixon era. They're much younger, producers and and editors and reporters, people who had no real taste or feel for what had gone on at that time. And that's simply a generational problem. But they were also clearly uneducated in the history of the era.

They had not encountered it in textbooks or in literature either. And that was a, that I thought was a sorry vacuum. [Alex Jones]: Hugh Sidey, you covered the presidency from Eisenhower, really, to the present. Do you think now, looking at things, that the press was too nasty to Richard Nixon at the time of his great undoing at Watergate and too nice to him at the time of his death? Or what do you think? [Hugh Sidey]: Well, I don't see that this is so unnatural, to be totally honest with you. The fact that Mr. Morris suggests that he was interviewed six times every day, which suggests that perhaps there was the negative side. I read stories, of course, about the funeral, wrote one myself. Pointing out the kind of drama, a sense of sadness, of leaving this combative figure after 50 years on the stage. But the fact was, it seemed in virtually everything I saw, at least a reference to past sins, and that I think at the end of 50 years,

when you look back, the landscape gets a little more level and perhaps where we see it a little clearer. Mr. Morris was at the center of Watergate as I was. It was a bitter time leaving us terribly scarred emotionally. And yet, the last 20 years of Richard Nixon's life, he spent in his own kind of inept and clumsy way. But nevertheless, sincerely, I think he admitted he had made misjudgments and botched the whole thing, reconciling with enemies, moving around the world, trying to do good, writing nine books and that sort of thing, that's worthy of adding up on the score at the end of his time. So I didn't find this excessive. I think it has happened at a different pace and rhythm with John Kennedy. And we're in the process with Lyndon Johnson. It's perhaps taken a little longer, but the same kind of ebb and flow takes place and reassessment.

So I guess I wasn't shocked or didn't feel it was that distorted. [Alex Jones]:John Kennedy seems to have come in for, I mean, as an example. Of course, at the time of his death, the circumstances were different and it was a particularly awful moment. He was a sitting president. [Hugh Sidey]: Well, you asked about...the part of the question that I didn't answer, was: Did I think we were unfair at some point along the way? I certainly do. But the other part of that is, was it encouraged? And it happened because the problems on the other end. But as one who covered the 1960 campaign very closely, there is no question that the writing press, that we reporters were terribly tilted towards Richard Nixon, or towards John Kennedy. And that came out, of course, of the campaign before Alger Hiss, Checkers speech... there was a feeling among us that Nixon was evil then, and we played on that. And I think at times we were just terribly

unfair to at least the substance, the debates in that campaign. [Alex Jones]: I think it's fair to point out that most of the major newspapers and news organizations in the country were editorially for Nixon anyway. [Hugh Sidey]: You're talking about the publisher's office as... [Alex Jones]: That's true. [Hugh Sidey]: contrasted with we people on the ground. [Alex Jones]: Well, it's the publishers' offices reflected in the editorial pages, which is not the same either. But it's not a silent voice, is all I'm saying. Let me ask you, Hugh Sidey, when you look at, when you step back from what has happened just in the, I mean, leaving - almost leaving - Nixon aside, what about the sort of sense that we got that we were reading the same story, and that there were no real, I mean, Roger Morris notwithstanding, sort of by surrounding Roger Morris by people of a different voice, by including the negative part of the Richard Nixon story, you know, in the latter two-thirds of an article and making the fundamental top of the article and the headline. one that was more reverential.

Did the press, did the press distort this moment in a way? [Hugh Sidey]: Well, I suppose that's true. But I confess that I thought I read rather diligently through this time and listened to the broadcasts, and every lead that I remember had, right up there, the fact that he was the only president forced to resign and that he had disgraced himself in Watergate and had been a controversial figure for half a century. And then indeed they went on to describe the morning and that which seemed perfectly natural. I must confess that even though I would agree that there were these subtle changes in the kind of the coverage, that I didn't find it that severe. [Alex Jones]: Todd Gitlin, would you agree? [Todd Gitlin]: Not at all. I - of course, everyone knows about Watergate. But what we did not see is a recognition and an acknowledgement of Nixon's far greater crimes than the third-rate burglary.

I read the astounding five pages of recollection in The New York Times by John Herbers. And I saw one phrase alluding to Cambodia. I saw nothing alluding to the overthrow of a democratically elected government in Chile. I watched all three networks broadcast the night of his death. I saw nothing about either Cambodia or Chile. I saw nothing about the unnecessarily slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and tens of thousands of American troops on Nixon's watch. I find many people know that Watergate was a crime, but they think that Watergate was a crime that popped out of nowhere. They don't. And this is especially true. I had the same experience as Roger Morris. Younger people think that at moment one, before 1972, [197]3, [197]4, Americans trusted their government. We lived on Main Street. We had the benign supervisors we required. And then at the moment after, we suddenly found scales

falling from our eyes because we discovered that governments lie. Now, many of us, many millions, certainly by the time Nixon was elected, a majority understood that the government did lie because the government had lied them into this atrocious war. Instead of reminding us and telling those who need to know because they didn't know before, that Nixon died with a great deal of blood on his hands, we were told that he was the statesman who had averted bloodshed. This is a historical lie of significant proportion. [Alex Jones]: We're going to - we're going to take a break. And when we come back, we're going to be talking about Richard Nixon, about the different moments in his life and the different kinds of press coverage he got. Because Richard Nixon is a fascinating study as far as Nixon in the press is concerned, because he was really in his own way, a master at dealing with the press and the press relationship with him was much more complicated than it might seem on the surface of things.

We also want your calls on the subject of Richard Nixon in the press and how the press handled the subject of his death and handled the presidency period really at 267-9692. That's 267-WNYC. We'll be back right after this. [Maria Hinojosa]: I'm Maria Hinojosa. Next time on Latino USA, we visit Miami South Beach, where a new kind of music is brewing. Musician Nil Lara mixes Cuban and Venezuelan sounds with alternative rock, creating yet another style of Latino music. Musician Nil Lara next time on Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and Culture, Sunday night at 9:00 on WNYC AM 820. [Announcer]: You're listening to ON THE MEDIA on WNYC, New York Public Radio. The forecast for this Mother's Day: cloudy. There is the chance of more showers this afternoon, maybe even a thunderstorm. Highs around 65. Chance of an evening shower tonight, then gradual clearing with a low around 50, mostly sunny tomorrow.

Warmer highs in the mid 70s. Right now, it's 58 and cloudy. This is WNYC, New York Public Radio. [Alex Jones]: I'm Alex Jones, we're back with ON THE MEDIA, my guests talking about Richard Nixon and the Press are Hugh Sidey, Washington contributing editor for Time magazine, who's been covering the presidency since the Eisenhower administration; Roger Morris, who was the National Security Council under both Presidents Johnson and Nixon, who teaches at the University of New Mexico and is the author of the Nixon biography RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON: THE RISE OF AN AMERICAN POLITICIAN, 1913 - 1952; and Todd Gitlin, professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of THE SIXTIES: YEARS OF HOPE, DAYS OF RAGE, and also a columnist in The New York Observer. Roger Morris, take us back, if you will, to the rising days of Richard Nixon and Richard Nixon's sort of elemental relationship with the press, as you understand it, in its sort of gestation period.

[Roger Morris]: Well, it's one of the great ironies of this discussion, because Richard Nixon was really very much the product of the press in Southern California. He enjoyed extraordinary support financially and, in terms of the coverage, editorially, as well as news coverage from The Los Angeles Times, which was really, and in many ways, his godfather politically as he ran for Congress in 1945-46... [Alex Jones]: It was a very different newspaper than the one it is now. [Roger Morris] Very different newspaper, very reactionary. It was very instrumental in local Republican politics. And Richard Nixon was one of its of its clients in that sense. But it wasn't just the L.A. Times. It was the entire array of small newspapers and the old 12th District. So, so collusive was arrangement that they wouldn't even accept paid-for advertising by his opponent, Jerry Voorhis, on several occasions. And their, their coverage was just extravagant in its praise of Nixon and in its one-sided bias in reporting the campaign and debates and all the rest. That continued in 1950 when he went on to win the Senate race

against Helen Gahagan Douglas in a similarly smearing and libelous campaign, really one of the - one of the more disgraceful episodes in modern American politics. And then he enjoyed not only press supported in Southern California, but throughout the state in the north as well. Helen Douglas, I think, was endorsed by something like nine papers in the entire state of California, Richard Nixon by 70 some. He got big money from the publishing industry in California. And then again, in 1952, when he ran as vice president under Dwight Eisenhower, he enjoyed very good press indeed. He had the support of editorial writers and news coverage. It was the press, in fact, that that rescued Richard Nixon. Interpreted the national response to the Checkers speech as being so positive, had tremendous... [Alex Jones]: Explain the Checkers speech, if you would to someone who might not know? [Roger Morris]: Well, the Checkers speech followed, of course, the revelation of a secret Nixon fund

of private contributors in California who had literally contributed extra money to his expenses as a politician, paid for his trips back and forth from Washington, paid for other campaign and, in some cases, personal expenses. And it was something of a scandal at the time and really upset the the Eisenhower campaign in '52 and for a while was a national preoccupation. Nixon went on television and in a famous speech explained his finances,,,, referred to his children's dog, Checkers, from which the speech drew its name. It was a rather maudlin but very effective and politically brilliant appeal to the American suburban middle class of the postwar period. And the press fell into line. And that continued very much through his vice presidency under Eisenhower. Hugh Sidey is quite right that the press found a more favored candidate in John Kennedy. And there was a distinct bias in the 1960

coverage and it continued to some extent through the 1960s. But Richard Nixon always enjoyed his share of good coverage and, at the important decisive moments at the inception of his career, more than just his share. He was really launched in several ways by the press. Now, there was one moment of disillusion in all of this when he was involved in the national sensation of the Hiss case as a young congressman in 1948- 49. There, he did come in for criticism by The Washington Post and The New York Times and a few other newspapers. But even then, even with that criticism, he enjoyed lavish praise in the nation at large. And, if one goes back and looks at at Richard Nixon's press clips over the years, really almost until his election as president in 1968, they're very good indeed. [Alex Jones]: Well, if you would, briefly go inside his head. How did he feel about the press at this point in his career? Did he look at them as manipulatable?

Did he look at them as toadies or idiots or enemies or what? [Roger Morris]: Well, he used the press very effectively. He began with a very powerful patron in the press, a political columnist named Kyle Palmer. And at the Los Angeles Times, it was said in California, one had to go by and kiss the ring of Kyle Palmer before running for office as a Republican. Richard Nixon did that. He was quite deferential to the Chandlers and to the powers that be in the California media. He later cultivated a number of important relationships with the national media within the old New York Herald Tribune and with Walter Annenberg and other moguls of the postwar period. I think Richard Nixon was very astute in his use of the press. He cultivated them very carefully. His entire office operation as a young congressman and senator, and later, very largely as vice president was was really targeted at his press relationships. And they did a very good job indeed. So that he knew how to play to the press.

He was, I think, taken aback and somewhat astonished at the reaction to the Hiss case and to what the press saw as demagoguery and a smear campaign on his part. But, for the most part, he he was able to use them and was very effective at it. [Alex Jones]: Alger Hiss, in case some of you don't know, was accused of being a communist, especially, well, essentially a spy, and was convicted of that. There are, is a continuing debate even existing today as to whether or not he was. Interestingly, just a few months ago, some of the documents from the Soviet Union that were exposed indicated that he may well have been a spy. Anyway, Hugh Sidey, take up the story, if you will, and take us inside the White House in the '50s when, when...here Richard Nixon is a guy who is used to having you know, he is expending energy on the press, who's used to a good press, more or less, who is used to being able to get his way with the press.

Why did the press corps turn against him? And was that true in the White House? [High Sidey]: Well, I confess here again, I guess that I am, I view that history a little different than Mr. Morris. I am certain that he is correct about California equation there. I wasn't out there and I didn't study it like he did. And I'm sure that's right, that he had great favoritism there. But I confess that when I entered this town, Washington, in 1957, and once again, let's make a distinction between those who covered Mr. Nixon and wrote about him and those who owned the newspapers and did editorials, magazines, that sort of thing. It was generally negative. It was distrust that came from the Alger Hiss trials, the whole Un-American Activities Committee, the campaigns out there. And what I saw about Nixon when I came here was that he was a power to be reckoned with. He had been a senator, of course.

He was then vice president. And you had to write about him and you wanted to find out what went on inside. But it was a very difficult and very unusual arrangement. He simply was not available like other people. And the only times that he really dealt with me was when he was going to get something back. [Alex Jones]: It was always quid pro quo. [Hugh Sidey]: That's right. It was a deal that had to be made. I saw that. But nevertheless, we went along. [Alex Jones]: Did he punish you for... [Hugh Sidey]: It was an uncomfortable relationship. It just - the idea of him using the press, I think perhaps he tried and that, but at least our segment of the press was never at that time, in my opinion, totally seduced. It was hostile. It was negative. It was questioning. And then we had these difficult times with him in 1958. I traveled on his Convair. Oh, it must have been six weeks. He was out in the off-year election campaigning and we bumped around the skies of this

country all the way up to Alaska, which was still a territory. And we lived with Richard Nixon, Pat Nixon. Sometimes the girls joined us and we landed at every little out-of-the-way place and rallied for the congressman. And that was a disastrous year. I forget how much they lost. He didn't, but he was the only guy out there. But, here again, was this rather enigmatic figure that was curtained off in the front of his airplane from the rest of us. And back there, there were people traveling. I remember Phil Potter, particularly the Baltimore Sun and others. And I would say that the hostility and the disrespect ran at the ratio of about nine out of ten of those traveling press with him. [Alex Jones]: I want to get a caller on who has just called in to correct something that I said, and I'm glad he did. Reuben in Queens. [Reuben]: Yes, Alger Hiss was never convicted of spying and in fact, none of the post-Cold

War disclosures by the KGB have connected him with spying. He was convicted of perjury in his testimony before Congress. [Alex Jones]: And his testimony before Congress regarded his involvement in the Communist Party as I... [Reuben] Pardon? [Alex Jones]: It involved his involvement with the Communist Party? [Reuben]: Yes. Well, it involved... [Alex Jones]: I mean, that was the issue. [Reuben]: It involved the accusation made against him by Whittaker Chambers. [Alex Jones]: Right, right. I guess, I just...I guess, when I said spying, what I meant was it was in the context of the witch hunt, the anti-communist, you know, effort to.... [Reuben]: Well, it's an important distinction. [Alex Jones]: I think you're exactly right. And I very... [Reuben]: And he was never, he was never convicted of spying. It was never proven to this day... [Alex Jones]: Well, I thank you. [Reuben]:...that he spied. [Alex Jones]: Thank you for calling and correcting me. And I appreciate it very much. [Reuben]: You're welcome. [Alex Jones]: Thank you very much. We welcome your calls to 267-9692. We're talking about Richard Nixon in the Press. And we'd like to know, especially, what you think of the way the press covered Richard

Nixon over the years and at the time of his death. And how you think that might have had an impact on the way presidents are covered, especially since Watergate. How other presidents have covered what the impact has been. Todd Gitlin, when you sort of did your analysis of the '60s, Richard Nixon was for eight of those years out of power. He came in in 1968, of course. I don't know exactly how you define the '60s. A lot of people think the '60s actually is, from what, [19]65 to 75? [Todd Gitlin]: Well, I'm an old-fashioned chronologist. So I I just went by the zeros, but in any case... [Alex Jones]: We'll just go by the zeroes for the moment. Where do you see Richard Nixon in his sort of wilderness years, when he had been defeated by John Kennedy and was out there trying to keep his place in the Republican Party, in national leadership around. How did he - how did he try to do that, or do you have any sense of it? [Todd Gitlin]: Well, the press was complicit in the invention of the new Nixon. It's quite right. I think Hugh Sidey is quite right that on a national scale, especially

around the period when he sulked off the stage in 1962, having proclaimed that the press wouldn't have Nixon to kick around anymore, that he he went into his wilderness and the press was, I think for the most part, happy to see him off. But when he came back, they were actually extremely interested in him, quite sympathetic. They liked the idea of a man reinventing himself. This is a great American tale, of course. And I think it is an important distinction here between the loathing that many reporters may have harbored for him and the degree to which they were, at the same time, willing to let him set the agenda for how important stories were going to be covered. So, for example, and crucially, it's well-documented that when Nixon decided that the war had to be so-called "Vietnamized" in 1969 and gave a speech to that effect, that the press coverage, especially television, which was of course here was the most influential of the war in Vietnam, changed to suit.

And there's a memo from one of the network news heads, which has been republished in a number of books, including my own, saying that the story, quote unquote, is now we are on our way out of Vietnam. And the search was for stories that suggested proof, signs, even trivial instances of Americans leaving Vietnam. And what they were doing in that sense was was spraying Mr. Nixon's Teflon on because we were not on our way out of Vietnam. That was a deceit. What we were doing was getting American ground troops out of Vietnam and conducting the war from the air, more brutally and more lethally than before. And I think that's actually an example of the way in which Nixon outfoxed the press. The press is very good at trivial antagonism, but at the higher levels at which policy is made about what's noticeable and what's not noticeable, I would agree with Roger Morris that Nixon was actually quite effective.

[Alex Jones]: Patrick in Bloomfield, New Jersey, what's on your mind? [Patrick]: Well, I've listened to the dialog that's been going on now, and I've tried to do my best to be objective in terms of listening to the various reports about Nixon's life. And I must say that I seem to get this continuing sense of falling into this, that the media in general falls into a trap in terms of the fact that they try to distinguish between a print media, television, and radio. Let me let me just give you an example of what I'm talking about. I very - 20 years ago, I paid very close attention to the Watergate hearings. Hearings - not filtered through, okay, either reprints in newspapers, but looking at them live, realizing that the camera, you know, is focusing on what what it wants to show me, so to speak. And what I'm trying to say is that if the focus, if Nixon's life, comes down to bad press, are we not missing

the point? And how do you avoid that? [Alex Jones]: I guess I don't think Nixon's life comes down to bad press. But, I mean, the press is the at least initial chronicler of his, of his, of his tale as it was going along. It has been the first out of the box to give an evaluation of his life at the time of his death. Do you think that the press, do you have an opinion about whether that's been done well or not? [Patrick]: Well, I think it's been absolutely distorted. And I say it's distorted. I understand respect for a former president. In addition to nothing bad should be said of the dead, so to speak. But I also think, too, there has to be balance. And I think the difficulty with the coverage on Nixon is that it's almost a knee-jerk reaction. I've heard comments, and not so much from the news media, but from people in general who say that while other presidents did it and you know, because, you know, the press worked on him, you know, we

got a distorted look about him. We found out things that other presidents did. It gives the impression that the actions of Nixon were not potentially as bad as they were, but they became bad because the press reported them. And it's just - it's a wacky way of looking, of looking at a political life. I mean, the press didn't make Nixon bomb Cambodia or invade Cambodia or bomb North Vietnam or try to cover up the Watergate burglary or send the CIA to kill Allende in Chile. I mean, those are independent actions of an individual. One last thing. I apologize for the time. Stephen Ambrose wrote a wonderful book about Nixon and the second volume I think covers from 1962 to 1972. And for anybody really wanting to find out about Nixon, they ought to read the book. Here is a man who worked hard as hell for six years to become president

in 1968. And, you know, one of the first things he is does in the mornings on his first administration day, he makes a little list of all the negative comments that came out on him in the press the previous day. And he writes little notes in the margin. Get this guy. Find out about this guy. I mean, obviously, there was a problem there unrelated to the press. [Alex Jones]: Patrick, we're gonna get back and talk about that, that time when Richard Nixon was first elected. When we get back from a break, we also want your calls, 267-9692. Patrick, thank you for your call. We'll be back with you talking about Nixon in the Press in just a moment. [David Alperin]: This week on NEWSWEEK ON AIR: Men, women, and computers, how the genders differ in their uses and abuses of the information highway. I'm Newsweek's senior editor, David Alperin. [Warren Levinson]: I'm AP network news correspondent. Warren Levinson. Also this week, new power to the Palestinian; school desegregation, 40 years after Brown vs. Board of Education; columnist Murray Kempton; and prime suspect Helen Mirren. Join us for NEWSWEEK ON AIR, Sunday at 1:00 p.m.

here on WNYC AM 820, New York Public Radio. [Announcer]: And you're listening to ON THE MEDIA on WNYC, New York Public Radio. The forecast will have some clouds, also some sun, maybe even some showers this afternoon. Seems like it doesn't know what it wants to do. Highs around 65. Chance of an evening shower tonight, gradual clearing, low around 50, mostly sunny tomorrow. Warmer, too, highs in the mid 70s. Right now, 58 and cloudy. This is WNYC New York Public Radio. [Alex Jones]: I'm Alex Jones, and we're back with ON THE MEDIA. We're talking about Nixon and the Press with Hugh Sidey, Washington contributing editor for Time magazines, covered presidents since Eisenhower; Roger Morris, who wrote a distinguished biography of Richard Nixon entitled RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON: THE RISE OF AN AMERICAN POLITICIAN 1913- 1952; and Todd Gitlin, whose new book, THE MURDER OF ALBERT EINSTEIN, is just out in paperback. He's also author of THE SIXTIES: YEARS OF HOPE, DAYS OF RAGE.

Roger Morris, why did Richard Nixon, in 1968 - the winner - why did he... why did the press so afflict him? And was the press just treated the way everyone of his perceived enemies was treated? Or was the press singled out for some special treatment? [Roger Morris]: Well, I think it's difficult now to to recapture that moment. Henry Kissinger once described Nixon at the inauguration in January '69 as a spent marathon runner. And there is a very real sense in which he comes to office exhausted by his quest for it. My experience then inside the White House was that the Nixon press was, on the whole, rather good. There were disturbing stories, of course, about the foreign policy in Southeast Asia that led him to the wiretaps and contributed to the enemy's list and all the rest. But, for the most part, the coverage of the first Nixon administration was, on balance, quite positive. They were, they were very worried about their detractors, but their detractors were in the minority. And - and let me say, there was always a tendency with Nixon to

rather ignore or to subordinate the deeper and longer- term consequences of what he was doing. Richard Nixon was revolutionizing American Party politics after 1968 in the American South, building the Republican Party to what we know today is a new and, in some ways, I think, an ominous force in American political life. He transformed the Electoral College map in a way that no Democrat could run again quite as they had for four decades before. That revolution in American politics, I think, was never adequately covered. He also began, in very real ways, the trend away from the New Deal, the retreat from the progressive period, the first 40-45 years of American history in this century that culminated in the Reagan and Bush years. And he is, in larger historical terms, a very, very important figure. None of those trends quite got the same attention or

the same treatment in his first presidency, his first administration, as the more sensational aspects of foreign policy. And then later, of course, the Watergate scandal. Yet I think, in the long run, they're they're equally important. [Alex Jones]: Roger Morris, how do you judge the mainstream press's coverage of Nixon during this first, you know, first term? [Roger Morris]: You know, I think on balance, judging it now in terms of what we've seen since then, it was - it was really no worse and, I have to say, no better than the press's coverage subsequently of Gerald Ford or of Jimmy Carter or of Ronald Reagan or George Bush. They were somewhat more supine, I think, in the Reagan years for a variety of other reasons. But, but I think the press was superficial where it tends to be superficial. I think it was tough and somewhat the lynch mob that Nixon thought it was when those moments were convenient for the press; there was a, there was a

herd mentality, both in the evasion of stories and later in the sort of lynch mob attitude of Watergate. I think that one of the ironies here is that Richard Nixon did have reason to fear the press in his final years in the White House, did have reason to believe they were enemies. I knew reporters at The Washington Post and The New York Times and elsewhere who despised Richard Nixon in personal and political terms. I know what Hugh Sidey is talking about in terms of the personal distaste that wasn't always translated into coverage. There was a lot of reluctant gnashing of teeth over the coverage of Nixon. But I think on the whole, it was no better, no worse. What you had, as your caller pointed out, was a political figure who was extraordinarily paranoid, who was more than routinely sensitive about his coverage and of course, reacted with constitutional abuses, quite...[end of recording].