Viewpoints
Opinion

Deference to Media Waning Around the World

Deference to Media Waning Around the World
Former President Richard Nixon (1913 - 1994) gives the thumbs up as he addresses the White House staff upon his resignation as 37th President of the United States, Washington, Aug. 9, 1974. His son-in-law David Eisenhower is with him on the left. The Washington Post demonstrated the power of the media by doing reporting that helped force Nixon’s resignation. Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
|Updated:
“Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel” credited to former Indiana Congressman Charles Bruce Brownson circa 1964. 

It used to be vested wisdom that getting into a fight with the media was a sure losing cause. And never was that truism truer than during the 1972-74 Watergate political controversy when Washington Post investigative reporters in effect destroyed the Nixon presidency, forcing his resignation. It seemed at the time that a quarter of liberal arts graduates wanted to be journalists.