The Downfall of a President: The Media Coverage of Richard Nixon’s Resignation

Authors

Ning Xi, Tulane University

Abstract

The Watergate Scandal stands out as being the first, and so-far only, event that was catastrophic and damming enough to force a sitting President of the United States to resign from office. The exceptional circumstances of Richard Nixon’s departure from presidency invites many questions regarding how Nixon deciding to resign was initially covered by the new media. An analysis of excerpts from newspaper editorials from a variety of places around the United States demonstrates that there was a strong consensus that resigning was the best and only thing Nixon could have done. Yet, wide support for Nixon’s resignation co-existed with a wide range of views on what, if it was even necessary at all, should be done to rebuild the atrophied public trust in government and how Nixon deserved to be judged by history.

First Page

94

Last Page

106

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Xi, Ning (2022) "The Downfall of a President: The Media Coverage of Richard Nixon’s Resignation," Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History: Vol. 12: Iss. 3, Article 6.
DOI: 10.20429/aujh.2022.120306
Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/aujh/vol12/iss3/6