John Dean says Nixon 'might have survived if there'd been a Fox News'

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

John Dean said he thinks former President Nixon might have survived "if there'd been a Fox News."

“There’s social media, there’s the internet, the news cycles are faster. I think Watergate would have occurred at a much more accelerated speed than the 928 days it took to go from the arrest at the Watergate to the conviction of Haldeman and Ehrlichman and Mitchell, et al.,” Dean — who served as Nixon's White House counsel — said during an interview with Politico's "Off Message" podcast.

“There’s more likelihood he might have survived if there’d been a Fox News.”

Dean also said during the interview that it was "wishful thinking" for allies of President Trump to think the investigation into Russia's election interference will be over soon.

He also addressed obstruction of justice.

“Everybody who got involved in the obstruction of justice at the Nixon White House didn’t have a clue what obstruction of justice was, including me. Later, after I read the statute and telling Haldeman and Ehrlichman, as well as Nixon in some tapes, it’s clear Nixon didn’t know anything about obstruction of justice,” he said.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/367014-john-dean-says-nixon-might-have-survived-if-thered-been-a-fox-news

[kentuck]

1. It's definitely a different world.

He may be right.

[Soylent Henry]

5. He IS Right

I don't doubt it for a second!

[certainot]

12. there would be no fox without talk radio so he got it wrong

until talk radio starts getting the blame it deserves we're fucked

[niyad]

2. yikes--what a disturbing thought. and yet, nixon seems almost sane compared to the

lunatic currently illegally squatting in the people's house.

[Turbineguy]

3. Might have?

But compared to Trump, Nixon was a great President.

Are the republicans going to tap Sarah Palin to replace trump?

[StevieM]

14. Trump is giving us a chance to see what a Palin presidency would have looked like. (eom)

[Eliot Rosewater]

4. What is already known about trump is far far worse than what took Nixon down.

Would the cons of that day allowed him to go on knowing he was a slime-ball, sure they would have but they were forced to be patriotic.


But at least they were capable of being patriotic, these guys these days, no way.

[Cosmocat]

28. YEP

Nixon was a nasty, angry and deluded man.

45 is 1,000 times worse.

As bad as he was, Nixon would not have holed up in the Oval Office kissing Russian ass.

But, I have said since he got elected, 45 isn't the problem, he is the symptom, and even the complete off the hook POS in congress aren't the problem.

The problem is that 1/3 of the country has literally lost its mind politically, and the "middle" 1/3 is hovering in a corner sucking its thumb, babbling "they are both the same ..."

[unblock]

6. watergate seems like a quaint little bending of the rules compared to this

by today's standards, one can only marvel that nixon felt so certain he would be impeached and removed that he had to resign.

donnie makes nixon look like jimmy carter in terms of morality.

[colsohlibgal]

7. Definitely Maybe

I can imagine the smoke screens, half truths and straight out lies they would have been spewing out to Shill for Tricky Dick.

[procon]

8. I worry that it's not just Fox News we have to contend with. nt

[kairos12]

9. Will be proven when Drumpt skates.

[L. Coyote]

10. Without propaganda and lies, Republicans would be history by now.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. Great cartoon

[SWBTATTReg]

13. I don't know...

with the news controlled by ABC, NBC, and CBS, this would be hard to envision a FOX news being successful back then (I'm sure that these news outlets would have fought tooth and nail against another news network)...interesting to debate though...

[StevieM]

15. I have little doubt that he is right. I expect two things to happen with Russia-gate:

First, I expect Trump to be proven guilty of serious crimes.

Second, I expect Republicans to refuse to accept the evidence.

[LiberalFighter]

16. When this is over they need to ban foreign ownership of American media companies.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

21. Agreed, except Murdoch is an American citizen.

[MyOwnPeace]

17. Another thing was different.................

members of Congress were doing what they were elected to do - and took an oath to do. Elected officials on BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE worked to keep the government clean - and honest.

Now the Pugs are working to keep the government their own - and keep themselves rich.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

22. No - I disagree

If anything, politics was dirtier. There was lots of slush money and dirty tricks were a thing. There was a difference (especially in the Senate); Senators were very willing to make deals across the aisle. Someone opposing a bill to build a highway might suddenly come around if a highway or federal courthouse was suddenly built in his state. Now the money men want scorched earth.

[Initech]

18. If Fox News had been around during the Revolutionary War, we'd still be under British rule.

They would have professed their love to the royal family and declared the founding fathers traitors.

[Ken Burch]

24. 1776 Ye Olde Foxe Newse news crawl

"Jefferson Linked to Isis...MPs accuse Valley Forge terrorists of treason...Hamilton Embarrasses Colonial Vice Governor at Declaration of Independence Talent Show..."

[Initech]

29. Hannity would be discussing why Paul Revere's strategy is a load of crap.

While Cavuto would be telling viewers why staying loyal to King George is good for business, and Geraldo, Tucker Carlson, and Ted Nugent would be finding ways to decry the new constitution as "fake news".

[Ken Burch]

31. Indeed. Nugent was already playing "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Jailbait" in the 18th Century.

Hasn't come up with a new lick since then either.

[Initech]

32. I was watching Stranger Things yesterday...

And there was a scene where one of the characters is driving recklessly while telling the female lead character she is worthless and nearly throwing the kids out of the car - while it's going at least 97 MPH. What song is playing on the radio? It's "Wango Tango" by Ted Nugent. And I was saying "never trust anyone who voluntarily listens to Ted Nugent".

[appalachiablue]

19. In 1970 Roger Ailes approached Nixon about a GOP TV, prototype for Fox.

http://gawker.com/5814150/roger-ailes-secret-nixon-era-blueprint-for-fox-news

[Algernon Moncrieff]

20. Dean forgets some things

1) There more newspapers in 73-74, and many were plenty conservative.
2) As Hunter Thompson wrote (I think more than once), Nixon could have continued to brazen it out, and most likely would not have been removed by the Senate.
3) To point #2 - Nixon's issue was legacy at that point. He didn't want to risk being the first President removed, but more importantly the world had changed dramatically since fall '72. The US economy had been booming; by '74 we were in deep recession. Gas was cheap and plentiful in '72; by '74, there were long gas lines after the Arab oil embargo. In fall '72, it looked to the American people like we'd have "peace with honor" in 'Nam; by '74, Nixon knew the truth - Saigon couldn't hold out and we couldn't help them.


Nixon could have held on, but he knew his already-tarnished legacy would get dramatically worse if he hung on. By resigning, he got to look to some like he put country first.

[Ken Burch]

23. As a party, we'd have been better off if Nixon HAD dug in and stayed in office

1) We'd have won even larger majorities in the '74 midterms, and probably been able to pass everything McGovern had proposed over Nixon's veto, which would dramatically have increased our popularity. We'd have been the party of heathcare, consumer protection, AND the party that repealed Taft-Hartley(we could have had Humphrey sponsor the repeal bill).

2) It would have been virtually impossible for the GOP to bar Nixon from attending and speaking at the '76 convention if he was still president, and they would not have been able to pull of the trick they achieved during the actual '76 campaign of pretending the scumbag had never been born;

3) As a result, we would likely have won the White House by a solid margin in '76, rather than just barely squeaking in (and, in reality, nearly blowing a thirty point lead, something that should have been impossible once we'd chosen a nominee) and whoever we nominated would not have made the mistake of putting low inflation before full employment as a domestic priority;

Balanced against that, however, is the possibility that Nixon might formed some sort of Pinochet-style junta and started executing people in RFK Stadium.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

33. Assuming we didn't get a junta, Nixon's successor would likely have not pardoned him

Nixon would have been tried - I'm of two minds whether that would have been a good thing, as it would have likely dragged the saga into the early 80s with appeals.

Or (since we are playing alternate history), maybe Nixon strikes a grand bargain in the fall of '74 to get out from under the impeachment - like offering the Dems universal healthcare and/or a robust housing initiative (remember -- baby boomers wanted houses, but the interest rates and getting the 20% down were a daunting prospect). Or, lame duck Nixon tries to get Golda Meir together with Anwar Sadat and try to parlay Middle East peace with opening China to buttress his image as a statesman. He might have also advocated for repealing the "natural born citizen" clause to allow Kissinger a shot at the top job.

But I agree with your basic premise - in a real sense, the Dems would have been better off.

[Ken Burch]

35. This is said with no disrespect to Jimmy Carter

He's an amazing man...but in hindsight, anyone who became president in 1977 was probably doomed. It was already known there was likely going to be a recession towards the end of that term, the Shah and Somoza were running on fumes, and OPEC was not satisfied with the price it was getting for oil.

Those four years were going to be a minefield for any sitting president.

[Ken Burch]

36. Weird thing is, if Ford had just said "the bastard wouldn't leave without a pardon..."

"...and in accepting the pardon, he admitted guilt", he'd almost certainly have been elected.

Then, the GOP would've got creamed in the '78 midterms and we'd probably have taken the White House in a landslide in '80.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

38. You are probably right

...and I'd have taken 4 more years of Ford if it meant not getting Reagan.

[Ken Burch]

25. Anybody else remember the night a couple of years ago

When a Fox News guest claimed DEAN was the mastermind behind Watergate?

[CanonRay]

26. I agree, and that's why there is a Fox News

[Yavin4]

27. Which is exactly why Roger Ailes, a Nixon aide, started Fox News

In 1967, Ailes had a spirited discussion about television in politics with one of the show's guests, Richard Nixon, who took the view that television was a gimmick.[7] Later, Nixon called on Ailes to serve as his Executive Producer for television. Nixon's successful presidential campaign was Ailes's first venture into the political spotlight.[8] His pioneering work in framing national campaign issues, capitalizing on the race-based Southern Strategy and making the stiff Nixon more likable and accessible to voters was later chronicled in The Selling of the President 1968 by Joe McGinniss.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Ailes

[Kathy M]

40. few articles may want to look at and keep in mind .....

"In the meantime, here is a brief historical note on how at the height of the Cold War the CIA developed it’s very own stable of writers, editors and publishers (swelling to as many as 3000 individuals) that it paid to scribble Agency propaganda under a program called Operation Mockingbird. The disinformation network was supervised by the late Philip Graham, former publisher of Timberg’s very own paper, the Washington Post. "

"Almost from its founding in 1947, the CIA had journalists on its payroll, a fact acknowledged in ringing tones by the Agency in its announcement in 1976 when G.H.W. Bush took over from William Colby that “Effective immediately, the CIA will not enter into any paid or contract relationship with any full-time or part-time news correspondent accredited by any US news service, newspaper, periodical, radio or television network or station.”

Though the announcement also stressed that the CIA would continue to “welcome” the voluntary, unpaid cooperation of journalists, there’s no reason to believe that the Agency actually stopped covert payoffs to the Fourth Estate.

Its practices in this regard before 1976 have been documented to a certain degree. In 1977 Carl Bernstein attacked the subject in Rolling Stone, concluding that more than 400 journalists had maintained some sort of alliance with the Agency between 1956 and 1972"
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/30/the-cia-and-the-press-when-the-washington-post-ran-the-cias-propaganda-network/

"After leaving The Washington Post in 1977, Carl Bernstein spent six months looking at the relationship of the CIA and the press during the Cold War years. His 25,000-word cover story, published in Rolling Stone on October 20, 1977, is reprinted below.

"In 1953, Joseph Alsop, then one of America’s leading syndicated columnists, went to the Philippines to cover an election. He did not go because he was asked to do so by his syndicate. He did not go because he was asked to do so by the newspapers that printed his column. He went at the request of the CIA.

Alsop is one of more than 400 American journalists who in the past twenty‑five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to documents on file at CIA headquarters. Some of these journalists’ relationships with the Agency were tacit; some were explicit. There was cooperation, accommodation and overlap. Journalists provided a full range of clandestine services—from simple intelligence gathering to serving as go‑betweens with spies in Communist countries."

the rest http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php

it is always a good idea to exercise critical thinking ... and to check emotion at the door

[Irish_Dem]

30. And a foreign power bankrolling him and spreading more propaganda. nt

[Cha]

34. Of course, he would have.. that was then and

this is fucking now. When a sexual perverted, idiot game show host gets rigged in by the fucking Russians, foxbrainwashes, jill stein's 3rd party LIES, the M$M, and james comey.

[JI7]

37. i'm not sure, i think Support for Trump has a lot to do with Obama and Demographic Changes in the

country.

many racists were "ok" with some minorities getting some rights or at least they were not openly opposed but it's much different when you start having a Black President, a Women who has a good chance of succeeding the black President.

a country where minorities and women are starting to do well and white men who previously did not have to compete with them now have that competition.

[Kathy M]

39. No , you are wrong in your assumption ......

May want to look at my previous post and start asking questions .....