‘No Watergate for the Media’
Some people believe we never put a man on the moon. They say it was a hoax inflicted by the media. Others tell us the Earth is flat and contrary evidence is fabricated. Still others argue the Holocaust a fiction, the product of people trying to rewrite history. Then there is Raymond Price (Editorial Pages, May 10), “This Time, No Watergate for the Media.” He tells us the media caused Richard Nixon’s downfall.
The truth, though, is quite different.
Nixon caused Nixon’s downfall with a mind-boggling list of deeds. These ranged from the merely gamy through the unethical and illegal to the impeachable. Finally, he was an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice. He was also an about-to-be impeached President who resigned to prevent conviction. In an old Western, he would have been the villain who rode out of town before the law could get him.
Price suggests, essentially, none of this ever happened. Perhaps this qualifies him as one of the bunch who believe space flight, the Holocaust, or a round Earth fictional products of people tampering with facts. More likely, though, it suggests this old Nixon speech writer is a member of another gang: ex-Nixonites who themselves play fast and loose with facts to rehabilitate their deservedly fallen leader.
BRUCE ALLEN
Pasadena
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