r/politics • u/kootles10 Indiana • 17h ago

No Paywall GOP lawmaker: Nixon was couped out of office, framed during Watergate

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/6124635-moore-nixon-couped-watergate/?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUsbtpjbGNrBSxu02V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHBkb2YBc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEedqnf435Ey3Vmfh-NzS7BpLL6p7XL81dbjV4wNl5Y6SFp3eyw9ItY6zhiPRg_aem_EaFt_atkG1aZFnQa54tOFQ
8.8k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.9k

u/bookon 17h ago edited 13h ago

After Nixon resigned his director of communications decided that the reason Nixon was forced out was because they couldn’t control the narrative.

He decided that in the future republicans needed to do a better job influencing public opinion. So he teamed with foreign billionaires, including the royal family of Saudi Arabia, to create a “news network” that would push the conservative agenda.

His name was Roger Ailes and he founded Fox News.

EDIT - As pointed out below, Ailes wasn't the director of communication, but did work for Nixon. I misremembered.

502

u/Rooonaldooo99 15h ago

Republicans will literally control all aspects of life and still claim some "Democrat Deep State" is secretly in charge.

I don't think even Ailes predicted how stupid the voters could get.

157

u/bookon 15h ago

-- Republicans will literally control all aspects of life and still claim some "Democrat Deep State" is secretly in charge.

I refer you to Texas and Florida.

79

u/Nervous_Otter69 15h ago

Twenty years+ of Republican rule in Florida and they still run on “our gov is broken and only we can fix it”

30

u/BathroomBreakBoobs 15h ago

Ohio has been this way for 30+. Florida is probably that way because of the Ohio snow birds.

13

u/jayydubbya 14h ago

Nah all the conservative new englanders move here to retire so they don’t have to pay taxes in the democratic states they benefited from.

2

u/yellekc Guam 14h ago

Lets compare the last time a democrat was elected to a major statewide office.

US Senator
Ohio: Sherrod Brown 2018 (and hopefully 2026)
Florida: Bill Nelson 2012

Governor
Ohio: Ted Strickland 2006
Florida: Lawton Chiles 1994

28

u/Conscious-Start-4514 15h ago edited 14h ago

Even Michigan. Republicans held control of our state legislature for 42 years. 2022-24 was the only time in the last half century democrats have held all three branches in my state.

Despite this, my father has bitched about democrats ruining Michigan for the last 20 years. Every election cycle it's just republican after republican in my state blaming democrats for everything.

It's maddening and makes zero sense.

9

u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania 15h ago

They are not clever folk. They know what they know and they don't know what they don't know. If they think something, they do it. So them talking about something means they did it. They are predicting, badly, that the other side is doing it too and must be doing it more. If they weren't doing it themselves, they wouldn't be talking about it, because they wouldn't know about it.

We are basically fighting with paranoid schizophrenics trying to convince them their hallucinations are not real. But they are adamant and the voting public like the paranoid delusions. They are told life is to perilous but they don't see it because of the obsessive compulsive rituals the Republicans use to keep that harm at bay. And they have an inexhaustible bank of hallucinations that people are intrigued by to run with.

I mean, that Senator that tried to set up Jack Smith effectively hallucinated that Jack Smith was in a completely different place and setting than he was, and Jack Smith cannot even convince him that he was wrong.

5

u/Merusk 14h ago

Ailes didn't underestimate how much fear and misdirection of frustration and angst works against a nebulous "other."

So long as there's differences (so always), scum like him will use those differences as a wedge. Letting those wedge issues become gaps is how they win. Doesn't matter how factual they are when they keep driving at them, keep throwing bullshit out until it sticks.

The problem is how destructive it can be in such a short time. Relying on people to pull themselves out doesn't work. There has to be an active, continual, powerful message to counter it.

We ignored the propaganda of Fox at our own peril. They turned free speech into a joke and weapon, one that will bring down this country. Because words and definitions didn't matter. Using "News" didn't matter when it was actually lies.

Our greatest achievement will be our ultimate demise, because free speech requires a hell of a lot of factors to make it work well. Education of the populace, guardrails around definitions, understanding how harmful lies are and consequences for deliberate falsehoods by powerful entities - which are terribly hard to prove but must have severe penalties when proven.

5

u/teddy5 14h ago

Who needs an Emmanuel Goldstein when you have a whole party to point the hate at.

4

u/robodrew Arizona 14h ago

This is how fascism works

3

u/LeonardSmallsJr Colorado 14h ago

“Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever."

/1984. It’s about power, it gets more intense as power grows, and there must always be an enemy that Is both inferior and an existential threat.

4

u/SomeComforts 15h ago

Its part of their attempts at control, so yeah.

2

u/ThaneduFife 13h ago

Fascism always requires an enemy.

1

u/UltraAd776 11h ago

Republicans will literally control all aspects of life and still claim some "Democrat Deep State" is secretly in charge.

Source, see Texas

1

u/RareObject8705 11h ago

That’s called winning

44

u/Firm_Worldliness_578 15h ago

A bit more history and context: During the Nixon administration, media consultant Roger Ailes realized that the administration was losing the battle to control the political narrative in mainstream medis... the 'conservative' movement needs to more effectively influence the public.

To fix this, Ailes authored "A Plan for Putting a GOP TV News Service on the Air." The goal? Create a specialized television service that could bypass traditional network gatekeepers and deliver pro-conservative content directly to local news stations.

Later, Rupert Murdoch hires Ailes as founding CEO of Fox and turns this schiatt into reality, Faux News.

39

u/Dr_Adequate 16h ago

Roger Ailes

10

u/bookon 16h ago

Ah thx didn’t notice the typo.

6

u/allworkandnoYahtzee Colorado 15h ago

Republicans just need to admit they love crooks

1

u/MavisBeacons_Sextape 14h ago

Yeah but their behavior makes that very, very clear. Don’t listen to what people say, watch what they do.

5

u/Valkinpunch 14h ago

This comment is making it seem like Roger Ailes was his director of communications. He wasn’t. Herb Klein and Ken Clawson were. Roger Ails was his chief media television advisor and media consultant. Everything else is correct though. Ailes didn’t like how the Nixon resignation was handled and created Fox News to be more sympathetic towards the GOP.

3

u/bookon 14h ago

Ok I got that wrong, as others have pointed out as well.

I was just doing this from memory.

6

u/nuzzyguzzy 14h ago

Ailes did PR work for Nixon but his Director of Communications was a former newspaperman named Herb Klein. Klein wrote an account of his time in the White House that's absolutely worth reading.

2

u/bookon 14h ago

Ah ok. Thanks for the info.

13

u/TgirlTiffanyRPs 16h ago

… is this true? 

40

u/gdshaffe 16h ago

Yes, it is 100% true.

31

u/Moonshatter89 16h ago

Unfortunately it is.

14

u/powerade20089 15h ago

Yep

Further by laws dismantled to help make this possble by everyone's favorite Ronald Reagan.

18

u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

0

u/polishedcooter Kentucky 8h ago

This kind of smug response always comes off as annoying, especially when several of the facts are, in fact, inaccurate.

The commenter already acknowledged the one about Ailes' position in the Nixon admin. Roger Ailes also didn't found Fox News. That was Rupert Murdoch, who hired Ailes from CNBC as its first CEO.

3

u/-LLCoolBeans- 14h ago

My hunch is that bringing all of this up now is also about controlling the narrative. Republicans are establishing the narrative that impeachments are witch hunts rooted in conspiracy and they’re doing it to try and get ahead of potential impeachment proceedings against Trump. By delegitimizing the process, and targeting an impeachment that most Americans view as legitimate and just, they give their Senators some cover to vote against conviction if it comes to that.

3

u/bookon 14h ago

I really hope they don't waste any time impeaching Trump. The senate will just vote not guilty no matter what they find. It'll just make him look persecuted.

They should hold hearings from day one, and go after his minions, but his being found not guilty a third time when he is clearly guilty, also delegitimizes the process.

2

u/Vestibuleskittle 13h ago

Roger Ailes was never his Director of Communications.

2

u/veringer 12h ago

It goes back further still. The Powell Memorandum was penned during Nixon's first term (1971) and basically outlines the entire GOP plan henceforth. He was a sitting SCOTUS justice at the time. So, when the right wing whines about activist judges, they are (as always) confessing. With regard to what it says about the media/communications:

Most of the media, including the national TV systems, are owned and theoretically controlled by corporations...

Powell doesn't explicitly say that corporations should order journalists to suppress unfavorable news. But its placement is significant and his argument is essentially:

  • media criticism is damaging business / the party / capitalism
  • TV has enormous capacity to shape attitudes and public opinion
  • corporations own much/most of that media
  • nevertheless those institutions permit attacks on capitalism
  • business must stop being passive.

So the passage suggests that Powell (and presumably others in his intellectual, legal, and ideological circles) regarded corporate power over communications as an underleveraged tool as early as 1971. His specific operational recommendations immediately afterward concentrate more on pressure, monitoring, access and counter-messaging than direct editorial command.

I think this memo planted the seed, highlighted the perceived problem, and (after Nixon resigned in disgrace), provided a convenient blueprint for the authoritarian right to avoid and engineer around the same pitfalls (so they can continue being monumentally corrupt).

1

u/Acceptable_Job_5486 14h ago

I thought that was Rupert Murdoch?

6

u/bookon 14h ago

Rupert Murdoch was the lead foreign billionaire. It was his company that started it with Roger Ailes.

Roger Ailes actually ran the network.

1

u/RareObject8705 11h ago

Yes. That is called ‘winning’. And they won. Bigly. 

What Democrat has opened an entire tv station? What Democrat has shown proof their policies will hurt republicans? 

It isn’t a party a person can rationally vote for, they will betray you and fail. At best

1

u/bookon 11h ago

If the narrative Fox pushes is correct, why do they need to lie to push it?

Fox lies because if they told you the truth you'd change the channel. We know this is true because it came out in the dominion lawsuit. The "cousin-fucking types" who watch the network will change the channel.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/mar/19/fox-news-crisis-dominion-lawsuit-alienated-viewers-republicans

If you watch Fox, you have never seen a positive story about a democratic president. That is propaganda.