Consequences of Muckraking and Wartime Journalism PDF

Consequences of muckraking Exposés about corporate monopolies enforcement of the Sherman Anti- trust Act Revelation of distribution of wealth constitutional amendment creating federal income taxes (1909)  Workman’s compensatio...

Consequences of muckraking Exposés about corporate monopolies enforcement of the Sherman Anti- trust Act Revelation of distribution of wealth constitutional amendment creating federal income taxes (1909)  Workman’s compensation laws (by 1915)  Mother’s pension laws (1908-1913)  Direct election of U. S. Senators and changes in state laws Muckraking crusades facilitated the enactment of reforms Wartime  WWI, WWII, Cold War generated feeling of patriotism and increased support for government by public  From 1917 to 1970 media competition was stabilized; objectivity and deference to authority became primary journalistic norms Muckraking in wartime  Teapot Dome Scandal (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), 1922  Exposés on race relations and farm labor (by Carey McWilliams, The Nation), 1930s and 1940s  Examination about the activities of Senator Joseph McCarthy, 1954  Misconduct of Eisenhower aide Sherman Adams (by Drew Pearson), 1958  Investigation of the plight of the migrant workers (in Harvest of Shame, by broadcast journalist Edward D. Murrow), 1950s  Country government corruption in Georgia, the Ku Klux Klan, FBI violations of civil liberties, and horrible conditions at the Milledgeville State Hospital in Georgia (by Los Angeles Times Washington correspondent Jack Nelson)  Exposé about the dangers of pesticides (in Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson) Between 1960 and 1970  The silence of investigative reporting continued because with the popularity of the President Kennedy and the victory of Lyndon Johnson in 1964, national political legitimacy prevailed. The economy was also in a good condition. Also, the number of newspapers declined in the 1960s, and broadcast media continued to de- emphasize news coverage. Rebirth of investigative reporting  1969 – Seymour Hersh, freelancer and anti-Vietnam War activist, investigated allegations against the Army officer Lieutenant William L. Calley, Jr., and found that Calley was responsible for the deliberate murder of at least 109 Vietnamese civilians in the hamlet of My Lai. For his formidable examination of U. S. Army brutalities at My Lai, Hersh won a Pulitzer Prize in 1970 The Pentagon Papers  March 1971 – Neil Sheenan (reporter, NYT) found an access to leaked government documents about the history of the Vietnam War. In its Pentagon Papers series, NYT proved that top government officials had repeatedly lied to the American public in explaining reasons of the Vietnam War. Sheenan questioned American foreign policy, by portraying government officials as villains and hundreds of Vietnamese civilians as victims. The Nixon administration tried to prevent the publication of the Pentagon Papers, by obtaining court orders. But the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the newspaper, and the NYT and Sheenan received the award of their efforts by winning the Pulitzer Prize. 1972 – The Watergate Scandal  Vietnam War – the public was outraged, and was against it  The Pentagon Papers revealed by the NYT increase the general outrage  The Washington Post took the lead  Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein  The Watergate Hotel  Headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington  Re-election of Richard Nixon  Involved: FBI, CIA, Dept. Of Justice, White House, U. S. Administration Watergate – Brief Timeline of Events 1968  November 1968: Richard Milhous Nixon, the 55-year-old former vice president who lost the presidency for the Republicans in 1960, reclaims it by defeating Hubert Humphrey in one of the closest elections in U.S. history.  1970  July 23, 1970: Nixon approves a plan for greatly expanding domestic intelligence-gathering by the FBI, CIA and other agencies. He has second thoughts a few days later and rescinds his approval.  1971  June 13, 1971: The New York Times begins publishing the Pentagon Papers – the Defense Department’s secret history of the Vietnam War. The Washington Post will begin publishing the papers later in the week.  September 9, 1971: The White House “plumbers” unit – named for their orders to plug leaks in the administration – burglarizes a psychiatrist’s office to find files on Daniel Ellsberg, the former defense analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers. Watergate – Brief Timeline of Events 1972  June 17, 1972: Five men, one of whom says he used to work for the CIA, are arrested at 2:30 a.m. trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex.  June 19, 1972: A GOP security aide is among the Watergate burglars, The Washington Post reports. Former attorney general John Mitchell, head of the Nixon reelection campaign, denies any link to the operation.  August 1, 1972: A $25,000 cashier’s check, apparently earmarked for the Nixon campaign, wound up in the bank account of a Watergate burglar, The Washington Post reports.  September 29, 1972: John Mitchell, while serving as attorney general, controlled a secret Republican fund used to finance widespread intelligence-gathering operations against the Democrats, The Post reports.  October 10, 1972: FBI agents establish that the Watergate break-in stems from a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage conducted on behalf of the Nixon reelection effort, The Post reports.  November 11, 1972: Nixon is reelected in one of the largest landslides in American political history, taking more than 60 percent of the vote and crushing the Democratic nominee, Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota.  Watergate – Brief Timeline of Events 1973  January 30, 1973: Former Nixon aides G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. are convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the Watergate incident. Five other men plead guilty, but mysteries remain.  April 30, 1973: Nixon’s top White House staffers, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst resign over the scandal. White House counsel John Dean is fired.  May 18, 1973: The Senate Watergate committee begins its nationally televised hearings. Attorney General-designate Elliot Richardson taps former solicitor general Archibald Cox as the Justice Department’s special prosecutor for Watergate.  June 3, 1973: John Dean has told Watergate investigators that he discussed the Watergate cover-up with President Nixon at least 35 times, The Post reports.  June 13, 1973: Watergate prosecutors find a memo addressed to John Ehrlichman describing in detail the plans to burglarize the office of Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, The Post reports. Watergate – Brief Timeline of Events 1973 - continued  July 13, 1973: Alexander Butterfield, former presidential appointments secretary, reveals in congressional testimony that since 1971 Nixon had recorded all conversations and telephone calls in his offices.  July 18, 1973: Nixon reportedly orders the White House taping system disconnected.  July 23, 1973: Nixon refuses to turn over the presidential tape recordings to the Senate Watergate committee or the special prosecutor.  October 20, 1973: Saturday Night Massacre: Nixon fires Archibald Cox and abolishes the office of the special prosecutor. Attorney General Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus resign. Pressure for impeachment mounts in Congress.  November 17, 1973: Nixon declares, “I’m not a crook,” maintaining his innocence in the Watergate case.  December 7, 1973: The White House can’t explain an 18 1/2 - minute gap in one of the subpoenaed tapes. Chief of staff Alexander Haig says one theory is that “some sinister force” erased the segment. Watergate – Brief Timeline of Events 1974  April 30, 1974: The White House releases more than 1,200 pages of edited transcripts of the Nixon tapes to the House Judiciary Committee, but the committee insists that the tapes themselves must be turned over.  July 24, 1974: The Supreme Court rules unanimously that Nixon must turn over the tape recordings of 64 White House conversations, rejecting the president’s claims of executive privilege.  July 27, 1974: House Judiciary Committee passes the first of three articles of impeachment, charging obstruction of justice.  August 8, 1974: Richard Nixon becomes the first U.S. president to resign. Vice President Gerald R. Ford assumes the country’s highest office. He will later pardon Nixon of all charges related to the Watergate case. 