Put The Hearings in Perspective

 

One Hearing Won't Be the End of This

I remember thinking after the publication of Woodward and Bernstein's Watergate story, that this would change the outcome of the 1972 election. I also remember how disappointed I was when the public ignored the direct link between President Nixon and the Watergate break in. Nixon won 49 states. And it wasn't just the break in, it was the coverup. 

The Election Didn't Kill This Story

There was much more, including the Saturday Massacre.  According to sources cited in Wikipedia, the Saturday Night Massacre marked the turning point of the Watergate scandal as the public, while increasingly uncertain about Nixon's actions in Watergate, were incensed by Nixon's seemingly blatant attempt to end the Watergate probe, while Congress, having largely taken a wait-and-see policy regarding Nixon's role in the scandal, quickly turned on Nixon and initiated impeachment proceedings that would end in Nixon's resignation.

The Saturday Night Massacre was a series of events that took place in the United States on the evening of Saturday, October 20, 1973, during the Watergate scandal.^[1] U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox; Richardson refused and resigned effective immediately. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox; Ruckelshaus refused, and also resigned. Nixon then ordered the third-most-senior official at the Justice Department, Solicitor General Robert Bork, to fire Cox. Bork carried out the dismissal as Nixon asked.^[2] Bork stated that he intended to resign afterward, but was persuaded by Richardson and Ruckelshaus to stay on for the good of the Justice Department .^[3][4]

Then there were Nixon Tapes. At first he refused to release all the tapes. Later he was compelled. The tapes blew the lid off the case. A particular recording from June 23, 1972, became known as the “Smoking Gun” tape. This conversation between the president and his advisor H.R. Haldeman revealed that the president began actively participating in a cover-up of his campaign’s illegal activities less than a week after the Watergate burglary. Nixon was accused of obstruction of justice by the use of hush money and because he instructed various government officials to order other departments to thwart the investigation. Nixon never faced a formal impeachment or other legal proceedings because he resigned from the presidency and was pardoned by his vice president and successor, Gerald Ford. billofrightsinstitute.org  Nixon Tapes: The “Smoking Gun” Tape, 1972

There are issues and events that should go beyond the regular news cycle. The point is, the January Sixth investigation is only a part of a complex series of events meant to overturn the election and create a constitutional crisis. There's a lot more to the story. Public Media has the resources to follow this story over the long haul with it's news reporting, talk programming, round tables, public events, author interviews, blogs and podcasts. The facts matter. Our audience isn't willing to cast this story aside. We should not disappoint them.

1.  Andrews, Evan. "What Was the Saturday Night Massacre?". HISTORY. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
2. ^ "A Brief History Of Nixon's 'Saturday Night Massacre'". NPR.org. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
3. ^ "Bork: Nixon Offered Next High Court Vacancy in '73". Yahoo News. ABC News. February 25, 2013. Archived from the original on March 1, 2013.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b Noble, Kenneth B.; Times, Special To the New York (July 2, 1987). "Bork Irked by Emphasis on His Role in Watergate". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 13, 2020.