Former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson on Sunday said that journalism has been on the decline since the Nixon era.
During a discussion on the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s resignation following the Watergate scandal on ABC’s “This Week,” Attkisson lamented the state of the media today.
“I think that we’ve gone backwards since that time when we really felt empowered as journalists,” she said.
She then dove into an account of what she thinks would have happened if Watergate had happened in 2014.
“I like to think as what would happen today during a Nixon type scandal, Nixon would basically refuse to turn over tapes to congress, his aides would refuse to testify to congress or would take the fifth or would lie to congress with fair amount of impunity,” she said. “Woodward and Bernstein will be controversialized on social media by special and political interests.”
“And then at the end, Nixon would go on a popular late night comedy show during which time he would humorously refer to his attackers as people that were political witch hunters who believe in Area 51 type conspiracies,” she concluded.
Watch the video via ABC:
She was only 13 when Nixon resigned.
I think a good template for whether she is right or not is what happens to Christie.
What a SOP in turning a defining historical situation into a convoluted swipe at Obama. The decline of the media’s role in our democracy took a big hit in the robber barons era and the supreme court’s infatuation with corporate people and money.
She forgets “the press” had largely turned the page on the break in at Watergate and accepted the government’s version of the events. Except for Woodward and Bernstein.
So what. I was only sixteen, and I agree with her. Not with the other silly stuff, but I’d say journalism has taken a dive since then. We’ve got a lot more people who see journalism as a pathway to fame, or some kind of scam rather than as a goal in itself.