How Important Was Television and Newspaper Reporting in Uncovering the 1972-74 Watergate Scandal - Essay Example

?How Important Was Television And Newspaper Reporting In Uncovering The 1972-74 Watergate Scandal? The influence of media channels such as the television, newspapers, radio and others are strongly unavoidable in the present economic era. It is due to the fact that these mediums allow a mass population to be familiar with the ongoing events in the national and the international boundaries as well. These are also easily available and quite cheap to be afforded by a huge population. In addition, it encloses the remarks made by famous and experienced personalities which not only makes the source reliable, but also strongly influencing. Considering all these values and attributes of television and newspapers, these mass media were termed to be focused solely on integrity and act as a source of information to the local community. However, with due course of time, the media publication has emerged as a business to generate profit with larger customer base rather than focussing on its core value to provide information to the common audiences. Despite, these have been of great aid while uncovering a few noteworthy and significant facts regarding the society. One such remarkable incident in the early 1970s political history of United States was the infamous Watergate Scandal. The time frame of 1972 to 1974 is remarked to be the most significant and indeed the most remarkable in the political history of the US. It is during this period that the then president of the US democrat, Mr. Richard Nixon had to resign from his designation which was the only resignation of the US president in the political history till date. It happened during the mid of 1972 when political parties were on the mode to set their images for election programmes (Steven, 2006). According to the published reports, in 17th June, 1972 five men were recognised trespassing in headquarter of Democratic National Committee, recording and incepting the telephonic conversations and other communications. In 15th September of the same year, two other men were accused of being directly related to the conspiracy and the infringement of the central wiretapping laws. By the beginning of the next year, it was revealed that all the accused seven people were employed by the Campaign to Re-Elect the President (CREEP). The fact fuelled the probability of the involvement of superior government officials in this case. In the mid of 1973, one of the accused men of the five, wrote a letter to the trial judge, John J. Sirica addressing a cover up of the event (Alumni Chapter, n.d.). The cover up incidentally was published in different media publications including television and newspapers. Consequently, the investigation got stimulated revealing certain major facts regarding the then political environment highlighting the role of senior governmental officials. Worth mentioning the fact that media publications revealed a series of events demonstrating political corruptions by manoeuvring the investigation. The facts which were revealed by the investigation until 1974 stated that John Mitchell, the then Attorney General had a secret fund amounted to almost $700,000. This sum of money was intended to be expended against the Democratic Party in the falsification of letters, leaking untrue information to the press and also pilfering campaign files. It also stated that most of the American Corporations, including the Gulf Oil Corporation, American Airlines, International Telephone and Telegraph contributed large sum of money to the ‘Nixon campaign’. Moreover, the instance also revealed that Nixon had assured the Watergate intruders to provide them ‘executive clemency’ in case they were incarcerated. He also assured them to reward huge sums of money. A piece of evidence also exposed that $450,000 was paid to the intruders headed by the order of Erlichman, one of the superior White House supporters of Nixon. Several other facts were also revealed which demonstrated the pressurising of the ‘Nixon campaign’ on the FBI officials, CIA officials and other investigating officers to mislead the investigation. To be summarised, the meticulous event of Watergate unleashed a long procession of facts regarding the corruption of the government officials directly hampering the prestige of the economy in the global dais (Steven, 2006). However, the facts which were revealed soon after the publication of the cover up letter in newspapers, especially ‘The Washington Post’ and television, affirm that the ‘Nixon campaign’ was quite distressed to exterminate the case by any means. But the publications released by the media, i.e. television and newspapers accelerated the investigation. Moreover, it integrated the common people as well, which acted as a barrier to any kind of coercion from the end of the government officials. Therefore, the television and the newspaper media played a critical role in the case of Watergate Scandal in 1972-1974. The influential status of these mass mediums was also reasonably significant in this case. The role played by newspaper publications and television telecasts in the Watergate Scandal was in turn strongly influenced by their then status in the US society. Since its first launch, television has been a remarkable phenomenon in directing the perceptions of the mass audiences. Television was launched in the US market in early 1900s. Within few decades from its introduction, almost 88% of the American households were recorded as regular viewers. During 1970s the number of regular viewers increased to 96% which earned an amount of $3.6 billion demonstrating the impact of television medium on the US society (Ganzel, 2007). The television in 1970s acted on three networks chiefly, the CBS, the NBC and the ABC. The speeches made by famous political leaders, the judges, and the investigators along with other secret conversations between the principals of the scandal (the tapes) were televised by all these networks. Hence, the message was conveyed to almost every household and every common people of the nation within minutes. Another turning point of television during this period was the introduction of colour broadcasting which in turn stimulated the number of regular audiences, widening and strengthening the impact of television on the US society. Moreover, common audiences and the top level executors of the publishing industry started relating the television with politics during the late 1950s which by the early 1970s started attracting the political affairs of the economy stretching its significance in the realistic phenomenon (Stephens, n.d.). On the similar context, newspaper was officially introduced to the US society long before the television was launched in early 1700s. This fact depicts that the growth of newspaper publications until 1970s, had achieved a level of advancement and had the potential to reach a wider base of mass audiences. Moreover, the rules and regulatory norms were quite stable during the phase, rewarding the executors of the industry a certain amount of liberty to publish information. In other words, the barriers and the constraints which were faced by most of the early journalists and publishers were by then eradicated to an extent (Barber, 2011). Therefore, both television and newspapers had a strong influence on the common public during the period when the Watergate burglary took place. Television was at its growth with new innovations and stimulated coverage in terms of viewers and also networks. Accordingly, newspapers were at their boom in the region contacting a major proportion in the economy. Hence, the significance of television and newspaper in stipulating the proper investigation of the case was immense. During the period of early 1970s, the US economy witnessed certain unforgettable events such as the conclusion of the Vietnam War in 1973, the growth of women rights in the society and the continuation of the Cold War. However, recently after the publishing of the cover up letter in the television and newspaper media, common public turned out to be much more attracted towards the Watergate Scandal rather than any other event happening in the democracy of the United States. Inclusively, a few notable quotes are stated below regarding the impact of television and the newspaper media in uncovering the facts about Watergate Scandal. “Though exposure to Watergate-related television had no discernible impact on attitude toward Nixon for high interest individuals, it was the only significant predictor of 1974 Nixon attitude for persons with low political interest.”- By Kazee (1981). Source: (Kazee, 1981). “They worked together in investigating the Watergate Scandal, and letting the public in on the secret.”- By Eby and Haight (2004). Source: (Eby & Haight, 2004). “A mythology of the press in Watergate developed into an important national myth,”- By Michael Schudson Source: (Feldstein, 2007). With reference to the above quotations expressed by various analysts, researchers and journalists, it can be stated that television and newspapers played a vital role in unleashing the facts related to the scandal. It affected the common publics’ opinion largely which led to the downfall of the then president of the country, being the only incident in the political history of the US. Considering the situational facts occurring in the period of 1973, evidences reveal that television networks were quite busy with their coverage on the scenario of the last phase of Vietnam War. Incidentally, the cover up letter was written by one of the accused men who committed the burglary and was addressed to the trial judge, Mr. John. J. Sirica was disclosed in the media. And the situation became as such that all the news media were aimed at unleashing the secret of the scandal. Consequently, the event was also covered by television. One reason for which the media gained a huge success was that it was able to picturise the event audio-visually to almost 96% of the households in America. As stated by Liebovich (2003), television acted as the battleground for the fight of public opinion which restricted the ‘Nixon campaign’ to manipulate the data or facts of the coverage. It was live and real when telecasted (Leibovich, 2003). Furthermore, evidences also depicted that television networks were organising live news telecasts based on the scandal which continued longer than their usual hours. These telecasts not only publicised the speeches of Nixon regarding his involvement with the scandal but also televised the judiciary hearings to the drawing rooms of the viewers. Notably, between 17th May and 7th August of 1973 all the figures of Watergate which raked thirty-three by the time were paraded by the investigating seven-member commission. This incident was recorded to fill almost 237 hours of a televised coverage. Even the tapes covering the conversation between the alleged members of the Democratic National Committee were publicised in the then only audio-visual media, the television (Leibovich, 2003). Television also played an active role in generating a substantial amount of public opinion through the Television Election News Coverage Project (TENCP). In this programme the television reporters obtained the opinion of almost 1034 respondents in the national dais in 1972 based on the presidential election. This project report not only reflected the political interest of the public but also depicted their demand for a fairer governmental structure. Hence, the impact of television and the active participation of the media led to the conclusion of the Watergate Scandal (Kazee, 1981). Along with the television media, the newspaper media also played a critical role in illustrating the Watergate Scandal to the population of the US. Almost every national and international newspaper agencies were witnessed to cover the event. The images represented below shall be quite supportive to depict the role of newspapers in uncovering the event to an extent. It was during the year 1972 when the cover letter leaked and attracted numerous reporters striving to confirm their excellence. Two of the then reporters associated with The Washington Post, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were considered to be quite significant in bringing up the complete story in front of the public. They investigated the case with the assistance of their secret source that was later on known as the ‘Deep Throat’ (as the real identification of the source was unknown to the public). The facts which were leaked by the ‘Deep Throat’ described the surreptitious particulars of the scandal that soon got published in the most famous newspaper during the period, The Washington Post. This attracted other news publishers all around the country and the headlines of almost every newspapers focussed on the Watergate Scandal (Eby & Haight, 2004). The report published by Berstein and Woodward also fuelled up the investigation on the case of Watergate. For instance, the reporters published an article addressing the fact that during the entire process of investigation, the prime focus was on the seven alleged men who had committed the burglary. But the investigation was perpetually neglecting the underneath truth in order to identify the person leading the crime. The article was titled as “Still Secret- Who Hired Spies and Why” and was published in the month of January in 1973 (Bernstein & Woodward, 1973) It is worth mentioning that recently after the publication of this article the investigation was stirred and directed to identify the criminal heads of the burglary. Similarly, several other pieces of the investigation and the effects were highlighted in the daily newspapers. These articles not only emphasised on the results of the investigation but also played a vital role in directing it towards the principals of the Watergate burglary. It was previously mentioned that the newspaper industry until the 1970s had already reached its maturity and had the potential to communicate its words to the entire nation. Thus, the influence of newspapers was quite strong to stimulate the public opinion. Moreover, the newspaper reports during the period were mostly based on revealing the secrets of the scandal, illustrating the judiciary comments and the wordings of the political leaders. On the whole, analysts state that in real terms it was not only the jurisdiction of the legal system of the democracy but also the influence of reporters which resulted to the fall of the presidential career of the 37th president of the US, Mr. Richard Nixon (Feldstein, 2007). It is of no doubt that television and newspaper articles published during the period of Watergate crisis played a crucial role in directing the investigation and generating public opinions which led to the remarkable and the only resignation of the then president of the US. They were indeed quite effective in re-directing the focus of the US population from the case of the Vietnam War to the occurrence of the Watergate Scandal. The publications not only scrutinised the investigation procedure and results but also augmented the verdict of the case. In other words, the active participation of the media can be stated to strongly influence the conclusion of the scandal divulging several facts which portray the functions of the governmental heads. Nevertheless, there are also several critical reviews which emphasise on the unethical participation of the media in uncovering the Watergate Scandal. However, all these attributes came into existence after the recognition of the character ‘Deep Throat’ who was termed as one of the principal sources used by Berstein and Woodward during their investigation. It was none other than the second-in-command officer of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. W. Mark Felt. It was believed that the information leaked by one of the chief commanding officers and the one belonging to the investigation committee of the Watergate Scandal was in order to thwart the power of governmental bodies from regulating the investigation. But it was also remarked that the disclosure of the most confidential facts related to the most sensitive case of the period was an unethical behaviour of the professional and using the information for publicity by the news media was also dishonourable (Streissguth, 2006). Despite all these remarks and critics, journalists refer the period to be remarkable in the political history of the US and thus significant in the history of journalism. It can be stated that the role played by the media, i.e. television and newspapers were extremely crucial in rewarding the case an extra verdict. Consequently, it was the role played by the media in uncovering the true facts of the case which regarded journalism as the ‘Government Watchdog’ (Dautrich & Et. Al., 2009). References Alumni Chapter, No Date. A History of the Washington (DC). Washington Alumni 1950-74 vol2. [Online] Available at: http://www.flagshipkappas.com/Archives/WashingtonAlumni1950-74vol2.pdf [Accessed February 15, 2011]. 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