Richard Nixon, Watergate, and the Press: A Historical Retrospective

It's time to revisit Watergate. In this compelling reexamination, Liebovich draws extensively from newly available sources, including recently released Nixon Oval Office tapes, FBI reports, and personal reminiscences of cover-up leader John Dean. Liebovich sheds new light on the Nixon administration's extensive foul play, zeal to battle and manipulate the press, scandalous miring, and eventual political disgrace. After detailing the nation's news media coverage of the Watergate debacle and the ensuing breakup of American politics, Liebovich recounts the scandal's long-lasting, corrosive effect on presidential and popular politics.

Scholars and students of the media and latter-20th-century American political malaise will be provoked and persuaded by Liebovich's argument that much of the public's cynicism toward the press, the president, and politics stems from the bitter battles-fought in the White House, on the front pages, and on television screens-between the press and Nixon's administration. The book focuses on the fight against a press perceived as hostile to the President and charts how the nation's major newspapers and magazines covered the unfolding scandal. Newly released sources show how Nixon and his advisors immersed themselves so deeply in a maze of deception and mistrust that none involved could extricate themselves, creating a political tragedy that haunts us to this day.