Richard Nixon

You might call it The Media versus America. The President of the United States held a press conference on Thursday. On that, everyone agreed. But after that? Words like “unhinged” a particular favorite to describe the event. Here’s a sample of the headline reaction.The New York Times: An Aggrieved President Moves His Surrogates Aside, The Washington Post: Debrief: In an erratic performance, Trump…

On Friday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Scott Pelley strayed into punditry as he observed that “the common denominator of Mr. Trump’s woes is the Constitution” and not the media because they didn’t cause the departure of Mike Flynn, halt his immigration executive order, or have Andy Pudzer withdraw as the Labor Secretary nominee.

Is it hasta la vista, baby, for the venerable White House daily briefing for the media? Way back there in 1955 James Hagerty, the press secretary for President Dwight Eisenhower, came to the conclusion that admitting television cameras to presidential press conferences  Ike held in the Indian Treaty Room of the next-door to the White House Old Executive Office Building (now named for Eisenhower)…

Appearing as a panel member on Tuesday's CNN Tonight, CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley repeated as if were fact the claim that Ronald Reagan's campaign in 1980 pressed the Iranian government to delay the release of the Americans held hostage to hurt President Jimmy Carter's reelection chances. Neither host Don Lemon nor fellow CNN presidential historian Timothy Naftali noted that a…

On Sunday's Reliable Sources on CNN, while introducing a segment about how to deal with a President Donald Trump when he "lies" about something, host Brian Stelter dubiously included a clip of former President George W. Bush from his April 2013 speech declaring that the U.S. had "prevailed" in Iraq as an example of Presidents telling "lies" alongside deliberate presidential deceptions like Bill…

NBC’s new drama Timeless brought us back to 1972 during the episode “The Watergate Tape” where we are told America is involved in a major conspiracy, and like a cancer, should be attacked.

NBC’s The Good Place aired the episode “…Someone Like Me as a Member” Thursday and put President Richard Nixon's infamous tapes in the same category with dictator Benito Mussolini's fascist speeches.

Students of the Watergate era (or those old enough to have lived through it) will recall the "dirty tricks" played by Richard Nixon's henchmen, most notably Donald Segretti. Segretti, who was hired by Nixon's deputy assistant, Dwight Chapin, was tasked with smearing Democrats, including senator and 1972 presidential candidate, Edmund Muskie of Maine. Among several "tricks," Segretti composed a…

In a discussion of modern electoral fraud, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Monday offered a journalistic slip: She admitted that the 1960 presidential election was “obviously” “stolen” from Richard Nixon. Talking about a “constitutional crisis” if Donald Trump does not concede the presidential election, Mitchell blurted, “How have we come to this point? Some of the better moments in American history,…

In a pre-recorded report shown on Friday's Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN, correspondent Gary Tuchman recalled examples of "dirty campaigning" in presidential elections going back 200 years, but, when he got to more recent elections, he focused on negative campaigning from the Republican side -- citing Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump -- while ignoring infamous…

Appearing as a guest on Friday's Wolf show, liberal CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley tagged Donald Trump as the "kingpin" of "dog whistles and innuendo about race," charging that the GOP presidential candidate is "looking for racist votes." He also worked in a dig at Richard Nixon as he accused the former Republican President of campaigning on the term "law and order" as a "clever way…

In a few months, Barack Obama will become the fifth post-World War II president to serve two full terms. The Washington Monthly’s Martin Longman thinks Obama tops the other four in terms of “popularity and moral credibility,” as indicated not only by the positive reception Obama got for his Wednesday-night DNC speech boosting Hillary Clinton, but by the public’s curiosity beforehand about what he…

Appearing as a panel member on Tuesday's special edition of Inside Politics, CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson warned that "a lot of people" believe that GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's invocation of "law and order" has a "racist undertone." Moments later, she went on to assert that the election is "all about race in a lot of ways," before backing off slightly by adding…

On Sunday's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, it was ironic enough that Daily Beast columnist and MSNBC analyst Jonathan Alter tried to indict GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump on "race" in the presence of career race-hustler and MSNBC host Al Sharpton, but, moments later, the liberal Alter made a point of praising Sharpton as having a "distinguished history as a street protester." That "…