Nixon Documentary

[Frank W. Baker]

(NOTE: EdWeek has a column with advice on teaching about Nixon, including a link to a video by Stephen Colbert.)

In late 1971, the media portrayed Richard Nixon as a combatant in the war for women's equality, pushing forcefully to appoint the first woman to the Supreme Court of the United States. But in reality, as his secret recordings reveal, Nixon never intended to seat a woman on the bench at all. As he would time and again during his presidency, Nixon used the media to promote a false narrative about himself. And the press was never the wiser.

The episode is one of many dissected in director Peter Kunhardt's new HBO documentary, Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words, released this week just ahead 40th anniversary of Nixon's resignation. Using only the secret tapes recorded by the president and media accounts from the time, the documentary offers a unique and personal perspective on one of the most studied presidencies in U.S. history, undiluted by modern analysis.  More from The National Journal.

PBS also aired "Dick Cavett's Watergate" The Watergate scandal that gripped the nation from 1972 to '74 is seen through the eyes of Dick Cavett, who interviewed many of the principles on his talk show at the time, including John Ehrlichman and G. Gordon Liddy. In addition to clips of those exchanges, the documentary features new insights from journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward; former White House counsel John Dean; and Watergate historian Timothy Naftali.