Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The media effect of the watergate scandal
Watergate scandal impact
Watergate scandal and america's trust
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The media effect of the watergate scandal
The United States’ government has played a large and very influential part in the countries’ growth and development. Public opinion of American politics has swayed in many ways since 1789, and was completely reshaped in 1972 when the Watergate Scandal made one of the most powerful political impacts in our country's history (Guernsey). The media had also changed how Americans perceive the government, controlling how much people know, and influencing their opinions. The Watergate Scandal of the 1970’s negatively affected the way American citizens viewed the United States’ government prior to, during, and after the catastrophe. Communication and transportation were very limited in the early years of the government up until the mid-1900s, thus denying constant and consistent news coverage. With such little knowledge, the American people were not aware of everything occurring in the government. This lack of information caused misinformation and default agreement with leadership to be common among the average citizens. During the Kennedy and Eisenhower presidencie's, after the United States were on the come-up from the Great Depression and from winning a world war, there was an actual period of trust of the government. According to polls between 1958 and 1964 three-quarters of Americans believed they could trust the government in Washington to do what was right. In 1974, 36 percent of Americans said that they still trusted the government (Schneider). Even up through the 1940’s and 50’s, privacy was considered and the internal side of politics was not covered by reporters. Now, it is a well-known fact that during Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency he had poliomyelitisnb. He tried to disguise it as much as physically possible, and di... ... middle of paper ... ...r since, nothing has been done to restore the trust that was lost during Nixon's presidency. With this newfound distrust, the media became extremely vigilant about reporting on anything that occurred in politics that would be of any interest to anyone and has played a deciding factor in the success and the failure of different political figures. An example of this would be President Bill Clinton's affair. Such extensive coverage of this public embarrassment was blown out of proportion relative to the size of other scandals of the past century that absorbed less media attention. Watergate turned an erosion of public confidence into a collapse (Schneider). Public opinion of government has been severely influenced by media and scandalous events since its creation, and "At the beginning of the sixties, people believed the government could be used to help people. By the
The documentary entitled, Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History, documents the political decisions and environment within the Nixon Administration from 1969-1974. The documentary specifically details and describes the environment and culture in which the Watergate scandal could occur and the events and abuses of power that lead to its occurrence. Setting the tone and the political climate of the Nixon Administration was the Vietnam War; making him a wartime President, a war that he inherited from his predecessor. The Vietnam War faced a lot of opposition from the general public, with massive protests and political demonstrations by the younger generations and overall general public. Nixon’s presidency was surrounded by this climate amidst the
As the United States developed into a world economic power, it also became a military and political power. Certain things led Americans to become more involved in world affairs, such as territorial growth. There were also consequences to the nation’s new role, like conflict between citizens and people of power. United States government and leaders had to learn the “hard way”, the challenges and negativity that they would face, such as loss of money and lack of control between certain nations, and the positive effects such as expansion of territory and alliances.
Richard Nixon was in one of the most controversial issues that the United States has ever seen. The Watergate Scandal is now well known throughout history today. This issue led to Nixon resigning only 2 years in his 2nd term. Did President Nixon make the right decisions? Can anyone really trust the government after a situation like this? Some Historians believe that this changed the course of history, and that we can never truly trust the government again. While others believe that Nixon didn’t make the right decisions; however, this should not change the way the people look at our government. The government and the people need to keep a strong trust.
Nixon’s run as an international crook finally caught up to him in 1972, when burglars were caught and arrested inside of the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate hotel complex in Washington. Nixon attempted to cover it up, but eventually he was found caught in his own web of lies, and was forced to resign in 1974 (Lecture 30, December 12). Nixon’s promises of a return to normalcy were shattered with these revelations. The confidence in the Presidency that he had hoped to restore was even lower than it was when he entered office. If the 1960’s were defined by political and social instability, then Richard Nixon did nothing but further the sixties into the 1970’s. The 1960’s truly ended with the pardon of Richard Nixon by President Ford in 1974. After doing so, Ford declared: “our long national nightmare is over”.
It is clear that while political scandal, primarily the 1974 Watergate scandal, played a large role in the rapidly declining confidence in government between 1968 and 1980, it is not the sole or even the dominant factor. The Watergate scandal only impacted on the Nixon era, and subsequently lead to measures that should have prevented further distrust in the government. Instead, the role played by the four presidents who held office in those years was the main reason behind the decline in confidence. The role of the presidents and their White House administrations encompassed political scandals, and also clearly influenced other factors such as the role
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the United States was experiencing disorder and hysteria as domestic and foreign issues; created stress and tension within the nation. In the late 1960s, when Richard Nixon was running for president, the nation saw the death of two influential people, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, brother of John F. Kennedy. Following the death of King, race riots broke out across the country. To add to the anger and tension, many students and young Americans began to protest the war in Vietnam. Nixon promised to restore order to the country if he were to be elected. Unfortunately for Nixon, the Democrats, who had control of both sides of Congress, were prepared to block many of Nixon’s initiatives. Thus, CREEP (the committee to re-elect the president) began its corrupt path towards getting Nixon into office, even going as far as to break into the Democratic Party's National Committee headquarters located in the Watergate office in the nation’s capital ("Watergate: The Scandal That Brought Down Richard Nixon"). The Watergate scandal, which led to the first resignation of a United States President, changed the political landscape of the nation through its impact on Americans' trust in the government and its employees, its effect on government ethics, and its influence on journalism and the rise in investigative reporting.
President Richard M. Nixon and his involvement in the Watergate scandal were broadcast nightly on the 6 o’clock news in the early 1970’s. Americans were engrossed with the scandal and each person held his or her own view of situation. Each broadcast or newspaper article created a mistrust of political and governmental leaders. In response to this mistrust, the Freedom to Information Act was strengthened by the United States Congress in 1973 (Chamberlain). Although this act was first placed into law in the late 1960’s, the Watergate scandal provided the incentive make this law stronger.
White collar crime is a term created by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 that refers to crimes committed by people of higher social status, companies, and the government according to the book “White-Collar Crime in a Nutshell” by Ellen Podgor and Jerold Israel. White collar crimes are usually non-violent crimes committed in order to have a financial-gain (Podgor and Israel 3). A very well known white collar crime that has even been taught in many history classes is the Watergate scandal. This is a white collar crime that was committed by government authorities. Watergate was a crime that shocked the nation.
Edwards III, C. George, Martin P. Wattenberg, Robert L. Linberry. “Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy”. Textbook.
The years leading up to the 1972 election were filled with new political tactics. Going into the election year, President Nixon seemed like he could never lose the second term election after successfully negotiating with Vietnam, Beijing, and Russia to improve international relations (Emery 4). Raising international toughness made Nixon seem like the most worthy person to stay president. Fred Emery analyses in his novel Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon, the president was also setting up the first summit meeting in history with Soviet Union Presidents (3). There seemed to be nothing capable of holding the seemingly responsible man back. However, this assurance came with massive consequences. The absolute certainty that Nixon would be reelected fueled the lies and abuse of power by the Nixon government (Emery 195). As the outlook of landslide winnings took over the White House, the moral reasoning, “the end justifies the means” became more prevalent. Nixon was obsessed with winning and being successful. Under his command his staff did whatever possible to ...
While Harding himself may not have come into the presidency planning to abuse the office, his cabinet did. In the Teapot Dome Scandal, the Harding administration caught flak for both giving out free handouts to political allies and for guaranteeing government contracts to businesses and corporations that supported Harding’s candidacy. Of all the illegal handouts however, the most notorious was that of Tea Pot Dome, a government-owned oil reserve that was leased to donors by Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall (Foner781) . This scandal, combined with Harding’s apathetic approach to social issues, left many Americans distrustful of the government and shameful of the true end to progressivism. This also caused many people to start to feel that the government was too friendly with big businesses, especially after these groups had grown back to power due to the industrial need during World War I. While there is no direct correlation, this may also have been the origin of the distrust people had with big businesses in the late 1900s, particularly that of the hippie movement. In total, while returning to normalcy, may have meant calmer times separate from war and progressivism, it also ended up meaning a return to the corruption of government from the gilded
John Dean sends a memo to John Mitchell in which he offers a plan for
The old proverb “the Pen is mightier than the sword” (Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy) still holds significance in protecting of public rights. Words such as freedom, and liberty engendered the idea for democracy. Such words formed into sentences and paragraphs enlightened the public to take action against tyranny and corruption. Freedom of the press is what ensured the general masses of their public rights. The exemplary case in which the freedom of the press played a role was the endeavors of Woodward and Bernstein to unravel the corrupted politics behind the Watergate Scandal. The movie All the President’s Men depicts the proceedings of the Watergate scandal, the scheme to attack the crux of democracy: “ the open election”. Also how the two journalists of the Washington Post progressed to unveil the relationship between the Watergate Burglary and the White House. On one hand, the movie represents the role of the media in its obligation to convey the truth to the masses. On the other hand, the movie reflects political corruption and conspiracy. The accomplishment of Woodward and Bernstein presents the importance of the interaction between the media, the government, and the general masses of society. The role of the media is not only to intervene between the State and the public, but also to take account of public ideas and to apply those ideas to new policies. Also, the media acts as a safeguard to prevent the corruption of the State. Thus, the Watergate scandal signifies the significance of the media as an intermediary between the government and the public mass.
As television exposed the truth of government, so did Journalists. Daniel leaking of the Pentagon Papers that explained in detail the Vietnam War, and the leaking of the information to the New York Times in 1971. Scandals like this played an active role throughout the late 1960’s and into the early 1970’s. This eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. The critical stand point of the journalists led to the marked contradictory of American politics that grew into turbulent during the 1960s.
There are many examples, both historical and contemporary, where any branch of the government can be soundly criticized for having failed to live up to that standard, or for having exceeded its proper mandate and authority. For purposes of this essay, we need only note the reality of such circumstances, without enumerating particular instances. Though I am often cynical with respect to the actual operation of the various branches of government, I am in general agreement with Dr. Patterson’s assessment that American government is the most successful in the modern world, what Ronald Reagan once referred to us as “the last best hope of man on