Whatever its shortcomings might be considered to be, there seems little doubt that the American wing of the international press constitutes one of the most unfettered and vibrant components. It appears to exhibit an independence and vigour that veer toward boisterousness and exercises a freedom that borders even on licence. At least that's how it appears to me.
There are perhaps few others countries where commitment to freedom of expression has been so pronounced. Perhaps that has to do with the historical fact that many of the early settlers from across the Atlantic had fled political and religious persecution in their countries of origin.
Be that as it may, the American press exercises, in my view, a profound international influence. Its virtues as well as its vices loom large. Its trendsetting potential seems an inescapable fact of life. Collectively, it has demonstrated its ability to have a president removed from office and effect the termination of wars that are unpopular with the American public.
It is no idle remark that US troops were defeated not so much in the jungles of Vietnam but on the streets of Washington. One military official in Central America is reported to have said that he was losing a battle, not so much on the field but in the pages of the New York Times and Washington Post.
If those two examples are not enough, Fidel Castro once admitted that whereas Cuba could not win a war against the US, she was capable of inflicting such heavy casualties that no American president would be able to justify the loss of so many American lives to the American people. Castro did make it his business to keep himself well informed about American politics and political and policy manoeuvres on the part of his giant neighbour to the North.
It's hardly a secret that the White House and US Congress are sensitive to variations in public opinion, certainly to displays of public wrath, especially in the election season. It therefore follows that those who wish to have a deliberate influence on American official local and foreign policy can do no worse than attempting to influence US public opinion, which has ways and means of having officialdom listen to its voice.
For good or ill, the lobby and the pressure group have become institutionalised mechanisms in the American governmental process. Now no extended comment on the American press can ignore the Nixon/Watergate traumatic saga, which has been considered some sort of watershed. The overriding message to be gleaned was that the US press had both the resources and the clout to bring to heel even the country's chief executive and effect the self-cleansing process of the body politic.
Two young reporters from the Washington Post latched on to what, at first, appeared to be a third-rate burglary that the White House shouldn't even be bothered with. But they persisted in their investigative efforts. Their chief source was the mysterious "Deep Throat" whose identity became the subject of much speculation. For a reason which will become obvious subsequently, the young journalists were always a step ahead of President Nixon's attempts to cap the scandal.
It subsequently turned out that the so-called "Deep Throat" was a fellow with a gripe, who had been overlooked for promotion and, "horror of horrors" for the benighted Nixon, was the very man who was designated the task to investigate the source of the leaks to the journalists. Now it's quite possible that Nixon may not have initiated or even known about the burglary, but the buck stopped at the President's desk. In the event, his crime was that of trying to cover up the misdeed.
It's not my intention to go into any details of the Watergate drama or play devil's advocate, but there are those-not necessarily Nixon admirers-who do not see Nixon as the "devil incarnate," as he was generally portrayed by certain sections of the American press. He may have been justifiably shafted for ordering the bombing of Cambodia. But that's another story.
Undoubtedly, he carried his adversarial relation with the press to the extreme of mutual hostility with his supposed "enemy list." As a matter of fact, Nixon himself seemed quite puzzled about the "gathering storm" which was eventually to sweep him into an ignominious oblivion. He, perhaps, genuinely believed that he had "played by the rules," as he understood them and the target had been, mistakenly, the sinner and not the sins.
American public opinion, urged on by an indignant press, antagonised by Nixon's own clumsy efforts at intimidation, and fuelled by a visceral antipathy to the man himself, turned its back on him and virtually sealed his fate. However, as far as China was concerned, his stature and prestige remained undiminished and he was treated with all the protocol and paraphernalia befitting a distinguished elder statesman.
