Watergate

In June of 1972, a break-in occurred at the Democratic National Committee offices in Washington D.C. The building that was broken into was called the Watergate office complex and the men who broke in were paid by Richard Nixon's re-election campaign. The story did not break immediately, but two young reporters from the Washington Post caught on to the scandal. They soon discovered that it was part of a vast, secret, and illegal effort to sabotage the Democrats' hopes of defeating Nixon in the 1972 presidential election. The persistence of the two reporters and the Washington Post's leaders led to the uncovering of Nixon's entire twisted political agenda and his eventual downfall at the hands of the two other branches of government besides the Executive.

The Post seemed to know from the beginning that they were onto something. Not only did they place the original story about the burglary on the front page, but they also assigned two reporters to dig deeper. Bob Woodward was 29 and had graduated from Yale before attending the navy and then deciding to pursue a career in journalism. He joined the Post in 1971. Carl Bernstein was 28 and had dropped out of the University of Maryland. He joined the Post in 1966.

Over the course of the summer and fall of 1972, Woodward and Bernstein uncovered piece by piece the biggest and most deeply embedded political scandal in recent American history. They started by tying the burglary to staff members at the White House. Then they reported that the burglars had been paid with Nixon campaign funds. They discovered that the former U.S. Attorney General was also involved. They figured out that the goal of Nixon's secret maneuvers was to upset the Democrats' hopes of winning the election through dirty political moves and slander. The even tied funding of the espionage to Nixon's chief of staff.

Woodward and Bernstein worked tirelessly to get to the truth. They searched people out, went to their homes, spoke to them many times over, and they pushed them for facts. They even broke the law to get the names of jurors hearing the grand jury case against White House officials with regard to the burglary. The most important source of insider information was an anonymous source known as Deep Throat, named after the famous 1970s pornographic film.

By Employee(s) of Bryanston Pictures or a subsidary [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

As it turned out, Deep Throat was the second highest official in the FBI and he had a great understanding of the president's covert actions. The secret source only revealed his identity in 2005, at the age of 91.

Oddly, the Washington Post was the only major media outlet to run the stories. They suffered ridicule from other newspapers who claimed that they were overplaying the story. It didn't catch on like other stories at the time (i.e. Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement). CBS, at least, acknowledged the importance of the story, but other than that, most newspapers just repeated whatever the White House press secretary was saying. And despite the efforts by the Post to reveal Nixon's transgressions, he was still reelected in a landslide and much of the public was unaware of what had really happened at Watergate.

Executive editor Ben Bradlee and publisher Katharine Graham have been credited with forging ahead, even when running the Watergate Scandal in their newspaper led to vengeful action by the president. Much like Boss Tweed did one hundred years earlier, Nixon used coercion and power to hurt the Post financially and socially. At the same time, the Post had to respond to an inadvertent error committed by Woodward and Bernstein. They indicated that something had been said before a grand jury, when in reality it wasn't. Because of this, Bradlee and Graham were forced to defend their entire newspaper from both the political arena as well as other media outlets. Momentum was on their side though. The story just got bigger and bigger and soon Nixon displayed retaliatory behavior in public and tapes of him attacking the Post were released. Even so, stock in the Post dropped dramatically during this period.

By Daniel X. O'Neil from USA (Washington, DC, June 2011: The Washington Post) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

By September of 1972, the burglars were indicted and one of them eventually testified that much of what Woodward and Bernstein reported was true. The Senate joined the fight the next year, creating a committee to investigate charges of corruption. They, eventually impeached the president for his actions. Also in 1973, the Attorney General appointed someone to investigate the charges and Nixon was forced to deny a federal judge the opportunity to hear recordings. Nixon kept trying to avoid producing the tapes and had to resign despite his efforts.

Woodward and Bernstein, Bradlee and Graham, were all credited with shifting the tides of American history and helping to protect the sanctity of Democracy. Their story has been turned into a major motion picture with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford. Here's a link to the trailer for the film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fLdCZm7qgs

In no small way, these two young men brought down the most powerful man in the world.

During the decade before the beginning of World War II, American anti-semitism was at an all-time high. From schools to workplaces, people of all ages engaged in offensive behavior and used language that even would have offended George Carlin. This chapter of Mightier than the Sword describes a time in which the news media worked counter to society's progress. This represents a departure from many of the other chapters in the book, including the two other chapter described in this blog. This story is about Father Coughlin, whose weekly radio broadcast and magazine, spread rampant lies about jewish people and culture. And, to the detriment of news media's reputation, Father Coughlin was extremely popular at this time.

Couglin was born in Canada in 1891. He came from an Irish middle-class family. After receiving a Catholic education, he was ordained in 1916 and soon gained a reputation as a gifted speaker. Coughlin was placed as a pastor in a working-class suburb of Detroit. As a way to improve the dilapidated state of the town, he had the idea to use a weekly radio broadcast. So he started working at the local station, WJR. Soon his inspired talks landed him a spot on a nationally broadcast CBS station.

At first, Coughlin didn't express any anger towards jews. He actually started by speaking about economic and political matters. He blamed greedy bankers for having caused the Great Depression. He even accused President Hoover of being connected to those bankers. These sorts of flagrant attacks on the nation's wealthy and influential earned Coughlin a seat among the most popular radio show hosts of all time. And his timing couldn't have been better. Due to technological advances, the radio became common in most American homes.

Coughlin's sermons caught on in large part because his message was so lucrative to the millions of people who were suffering financially. Ironically, Coughlin received such generous support from his loyal listeners, that he was able to erect a mega-church in 1933.

After much success, Couglin had to deal with some naysayers as well. They accused him of using hyperbolic rhetoric and hateful messages that were misleading the American people down the wrong path. Because of these attacks, Coughlin lost his contract with CBS and was unable to find another station to hire him. However, due to his popular appeal and his financial clout, he was able to start his own station.

At this point, Coughlin had the opportunity to start a political movement, which became known as the National Union for Social Justice (NUSJ) in 1934. Naturally, NUSJ grew rapidly and was able to demonstrate its power early on by blocking the formation of a World Court. Coughlin believed the Court would be corrupted by evil, so he mobilized his followers to express their and his discontent. In the end, the Court was crushed, much to the dismay of FDR, president at the time.

As Coughlin spread his message to the masses, he began to become dissatisfied with FDR. At first, Coughlin agreed with the president's agenda, calling the New Deal "God's Deal." But in the mid 30s, he changed his description of the policy package to "a raw deal." Coughlin continued his assault in the form of print media when, in 1936, he started the magazine Social Justice.

Check out this video from 1936:

http://youtu.be/RzLMRAz5G_4

Coughlin was undoubtedly successful in his attempts to upend politics. Not only was he credited with ending the legislative careers of two congressman from Ohio, he also tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to get someone he supported elected president. When this failed despite his best efforts, Coughlin decided to take up a new theme for his radio show.

The subject of anti-semitism had been sprinkled throughout his earlier sermons and writings. He liked to associate jews with money and greed and he often linked them to the Great Depression as well as negative aspects of the media. He referred to jews as being a "problem" for America because they lacked patriotism and compassion, favoring wealth instead.

Even though many people and news organizations caught onto Coughlin's destructive crusade, his popularity hadn't begun to ebb at this point. In 1938, he started the Christian Front and began using military language to describe his goals.  More and more, his movement resembled a war against FDR. 

In 1938, he published in Social Justice a falsified jewish plot to destroy Christianity and to saddle Christians with debt by means of the New Deal. In this accusation, known as "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," jews apparently planned to take over the country through financial means. Coughlin even contended that jews were behind a world-wide Communist takeover and that they had precipitated the Russian Revolution in 1917.

Coughlin went so far as to defend the Nazis in Germany for fighting against Communism. This commentary earned him a spot on the blacklist of many prominent radio stations. Even Catholic leaders denounced his statements as outlandish, but his loyal supporters continued pushing for his words to be broadcast. And he continued supplying them. When accused of being like Adolf Hitler, Coughlin applauded this comparison.

Father Coughlin crossed a line in 1939 when he aroused his supporters to violence. So began a period in American history that in many ways resembled the realities of Nazi Germany. Jews couldn't walk the streets without being harassed and many jewish homes and institutions were vandalized. Public outrage against Coughlin and the Christian Front grew through the late 30s and early 40s. Members of his cult were arrested by the FBI. One of the final crazy things said by Coughlin was that jews were responsible for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  By this time, though, Coughlin had nowhere to share his words because no one was willing to broadcast his sermons.

Coughlin continued his anti-semitic writing, going so far as to accuse the jews of starting World War II. At this point, however, the US government assumed a role in his downfall. They uncovered evidence that he had conspired with the Nazis and forbid publication and syndication of his writings. Even the Catholic Church came out against Coughlin, eventually forcing him to drop all non-religious activities. Coughlin followed these instructions, returning to the Detroit suburb to live quietly until the end of his days in 1979.

This web page has a very interesting comparison between Glenn Beck, current conservative radio broadcaster and Father Coughlin:

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/compare-and-contrast-glenn-beck-and

The Tweed Ring

The Tweed Ring was composed of William Marcy Tweed and his fellow goons. They conned New York City taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars in the mid to late 19th century. Little did they know, they would be exposed by a series of political cartoons. First in Harper's by Thomas Nast, then in The New York Times through print. The joint bashing by two of America's most respected journals led to the eventual downfall of The Tweed Ring. Thomas Nast conveyed a serious amount of courage when he made the following:

Thomas Nast [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons


William Marcy Tweed was born in New York City in 1823. During his forties, he ascended the political ladder by joining Tammany Hall, an influential political group. Soon he held many major positions in public office and maintained his status by paying people off, amassing cronies, and providing massive kickbacks from taxpayer dollars. Tweed himself was known to spend a plethora of money. In addition, he held sway over the media by hiring reporters to spread good news about him and his gang. In fact, the gang was doing the opposite and nobody had the courage to stand up to them. Even if somebody had stood up to him, this would have upset other New Yorkers who recognized that Tweed was also very generous with his stolen money and helped push New York to great heights of business and industrial prominence, as shown in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YildL_ilQFY

This video is a clip from the Ric Burns documentary about New York.

Thomas Nast was born in Germany in 1840. His family came to America in 1846 and he soon developed an aptitude for artwork. In his early twenties, Nast joined Harper's as a political cartoonist. His drawings and social commentary appealed especially with with the common working folks who read the magazine. Nast's work is incredibly famous, even today. Take, for example, the portrayal of Democrats and Republicans as a donkey and an elephant, respectively, or, for the more sentimental... check out this depiction of Santa Clause:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A1881_0101_tnast_santa_200.jpg

Ulysses S. Grant credited Nast's work with ending the Civil War and even Araham Lincoln acknowledged his talent for arousing enthusiasm around political topics. Nast helped to create a caricature of William Marcy Tweed as Boss Tweed, a fat,  greedy and overly rich tyrant.

Up until the 1870s, the New York Times had been in the pocket of Tweed, receiving money through the connection of one of it Board Directors to the Tweed Ring. Not long after this Board Director died did The Times start running anti-Tweed material. Together, The Times and Harper's lambasted Tweed for his behavior. Tweed offered Nast a bribe to relocate to Europe to study art, but Nast refused. Then, Tweed tried to intimidate Nast into stopping his art, but that didn't work either. Tweed finally found an outlet for his anger by punishing Harper's publishing company, making sure that all of their textbooks were destroyed and that no school in the entire district used them. However, Tweed was never able to crush the behemoth New York Times and they, along with Thomas Nast, continued the assault on him.

The Times received insider information and exposed, in great detail, the corruption of Tweed and his cronies. They were relentless in their attacks on him, calling him slanderous names and launching accusations at him left and right. Soon, the Times story was picked up by other news outlets. Those who received lavish funds from the Tweed crew were critical, but the majority of respected journals nationwide supported the crusade of the Times. And public opinion showed growing support for the position the newspaper held. At the same time, approval of Tweed plummeted.

(That looks like Paul Karlich. Way to go, to the library, buddy, with a gun!!! ) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABooks_Wanted_logo_from_Harper's_Magazine_December_1898_issue.jpg

The Times went very far in their effort to reach the masses and communicate the great evil done by the Tweed Ring. That said, Thomas Nast's work was far more effective at reaching this population and his images, which became increasingly poignant and even violent, had an ever greater effect on his audience. Nast's work, along with a pointed editorial in the Times were largely influential in the defeat of Nast and his political allies in the city election of 1871.

Nast continued to haunt Tweed, even years after he was arrested. When Tweed escaped to Spain, it was a drawing by Nast that helped local police capture him. Tweed was deported to New York where he died in jail in 1878 at the age of 55. Harper's and the Times in general, and Nast in particular, were credited long after with wresting control of all three branches of government in New York City from the hands of one William Marcy Tweed.

This is a journey into sound!!!!!!!!!