Theo Lippman Jr.: Attacks on press recall Agnew's ire
When President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and several members of Congress recently fired broadsides at The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and, to a degree, The Wall Street Journal for publishing detailed accounts of a somewhat secret counterterrorism program, it was the mightiest political salvo at the press since Maryland's Spiro T. Agnew threatened the big three television networks and newspaper-dominated mixed media corporations.
"On November 13, 1969, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew became a household word when he vehemently denounced television news broadcasters as a biased 'unelected' elite who subjected President Richard M. Nixon's speeches to instant analysis," begins a chapter on Agnew in the Senate Historical Office's Vice Presidents of the United States. "'The president had a right to communicate directly with the people,' Agnew asserted, without having his words 'characterized through the prejudices of hostile critics. ... '"
Agnew didn't go as far as a few members of Congress have recently gone. At least one senator and one representative charged that the New York Times journalists were "treasonous." But Agnew said something that shook up his targets more than mere cries of treason.
"Agnew," the historical office's biography continued, "raised the possibility of a greater government regulation of 'this virtual monopoly,' a suggestion that the veteran television newscaster Walter Cronkite took 'as an implied threat to freedom of speech in this country.'"
Agnew's November speech was his first as vice president that was not written by two Maryland aides from his governorship days, Cynthia Rosenwald and Herbert Thompson. President Richard M. Nixon's press monitor, Pat Buchanan, did that job.
Rosenwald and Thompson thought it was too strong and got a few changes, but it was still one of the harshest speeches to come out of Washington since Nixon was vice president, when his principal chore was to take the low road while President Eisenhower took the high.
Agnew, it was said, became "Nixon's Nixon" after delivering the first of two anti-media speeches, in Des Moines, Iowa, at a meeting of a Republican regional committee.
Advance word on the speech circulated in the executive suites of ABC, CBS and NBC. All three networks canceled their prime time Thursday schedules to broadcast the speech - even then, a rare occurrence. ...
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"On November 13, 1969, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew became a household word when he vehemently denounced television news broadcasters as a biased 'unelected' elite who subjected President Richard M. Nixon's speeches to instant analysis," begins a chapter on Agnew in the Senate Historical Office's Vice Presidents of the United States. "'The president had a right to communicate directly with the people,' Agnew asserted, without having his words 'characterized through the prejudices of hostile critics. ... '"
Agnew didn't go as far as a few members of Congress have recently gone. At least one senator and one representative charged that the New York Times journalists were "treasonous." But Agnew said something that shook up his targets more than mere cries of treason.
"Agnew," the historical office's biography continued, "raised the possibility of a greater government regulation of 'this virtual monopoly,' a suggestion that the veteran television newscaster Walter Cronkite took 'as an implied threat to freedom of speech in this country.'"
Agnew's November speech was his first as vice president that was not written by two Maryland aides from his governorship days, Cynthia Rosenwald and Herbert Thompson. President Richard M. Nixon's press monitor, Pat Buchanan, did that job.
Rosenwald and Thompson thought it was too strong and got a few changes, but it was still one of the harshest speeches to come out of Washington since Nixon was vice president, when his principal chore was to take the low road while President Eisenhower took the high.
Agnew, it was said, became "Nixon's Nixon" after delivering the first of two anti-media speeches, in Des Moines, Iowa, at a meeting of a Republican regional committee.
Advance word on the speech circulated in the executive suites of ABC, CBS and NBC. All three networks canceled their prime time Thursday schedules to broadcast the speech - even then, a rare occurrence. ...