What's the News Across the Nation?

The spineless cancelation of Jimmy Kimmel by ABC has gotten a lot of attention this week. Almost lost in the hubbub has been this dark warning from Premier Donald Berzelius Trump on Air Force One on Wednesday:

"They give me only bad publicity, press. I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away, ... That’s all they do. If you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative on in years or something, somebody said. But when you go back, take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They're giving me all this bad press, and they're getting a license. When you have a network and they have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that's all they do — that license, they're not allowed to do that!"

"We Hear That You Have the Ridiculous Idea That Freedom of the Press Includes the Right to Criticize Our Administration" by Bill Sanders in Milwaukee Journal, Nov. 18, 1969

This week's Graphical History Tour makes an emergency landing at a presidency not so long ago to some of us.

President Richard M. Nixon had a notoriously testy relationship with news media, dating back to his running for Vice President with Dwight Eisenhower. Upon losing the race for Governor of California in 1962, he blamed the press, growling "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more!"

"You Have Just Heard a Speech by the President of the United States" by Herbert Block in Washington Post, Nov. 16, 1969

But of course, he was elected President in 1968, and very quickly determined to bringing news media to heel. 

In November of 1969, Nixon gave a televised speech about the Vietnam War. His Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Dean Burch demanded transcripts from the three television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) of all their commentaries on the address. Days later, Vice President Spiro Agnew set out on a speaking tour to criticize the media.

"Anybody Else, Boss?" by Frank Miller in Des Moines Register, Nov. 18, 1969

"One Federal Communications Commissioner considers the power of the networks to equal that of local, state and federal governments combined. Certainly, it represents a concentration of power over American public opinion unknown in history. 

"What do Americans know of the men who wield this power? Of the men who produce and direct the network news, the nation knows practically nothing. Of the commentators, most Americans know little, other than that they reflect an urbane and assured presence, seemingly well-informed on every important matter. 

"Well, We Don't Have Nixon to Kick Around Any More" by Don Wright in Miami News, Nov. 21, 1969

 "We do know that, to a man, these commentators and producers live and work in the geographical and intellectual confines of Washington, D.C., or New York City."

"We Feel the Public Is Getting All the Views It Needs" by Herbert Block in Washington Post, Sept. 25, 1970

Agnew protested that "I am not calling for government censorship," but his speeches raised the prospect of denying broadcasting licenses to broadcast outlets that leaned left, or were, in the words written for him by Patrick Buchanan, "the nattering nabobs of negativism."

"It's Nothing Important" by Bill Sanders in Milwaukee Journal, Dec. 20, 1972

White House Director of Communications Herbert Klein was explicit: “You in TV should examine yourself or the government will come in.”

Lest you think, however, that President Nixon was just like Dear Leader For Life Trump, please note that there were important differences between then and now.

Uncaptioned by Bill Mauldin in Chicago Sun Times, 1972

We have not gotten to the point where journalists are getting thrown in jail for not revealing their sources. Largely because newspapers and TV are pulling their punches when it comes to investigative journalism.

"Ask Me Anything" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, December 15, 1973

And asking embarrassing questions doesn't get you put on the president's Enemies List. Instead, you show up at the press room to find that your seat has been taken by the dude from the White Guys Grievance Podcast Dot Com.

"We're Considering Him for a High Position" by Herbert Block in Washington Post, Nov. 12, 1971

Herblock made a clever little play on words here, but when it comes to high positions nowadays, being a right-wing spokesflack on Fox Noise is plenty qualification enough to head a cabinet department in the line of succession to the presidency itself.

...It Tolls for Thieu

"American Monument in Southeast Asia" by Frank Miller in Des Moines Register, March 20, 1975

Two weeks ago, our Graphical History Tour visited southeast Asia for the 50th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh to the communist Khmer Rouge. Today, we return for Part Thieu.

"We're Gettin' Out of Here" by Dave Engelhardt in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1975

North Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of the South in January, 1975, its People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong (properly, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam)  racking up a string of victories. As it became crystal clear that the U.S. Calvary was not going to ride in to save the day, South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu pulled back the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) for a last-ditch, desperate bid to protect his capital, then known as Saigon.

"We Would Be Much Braver Than This" by Pat Oliphant in Washington [DC] Star, ca. Apr. 3, 1975

ARVN’s hurried retreat left  military hardware abandoned in its wake, and ran through the panicked evacuation of civilians. Anyone with any connection to civilian government or the U.S. military fled in fear for their lives, with whatever they could carry.

The Chicago Tribune reported isolated instances of Americans in the path of the retreat being robbed by ARVN soldiers. The report quoted an anonymous Westerner that, "The South Vietnamese soldier feels he has been stabbed in the back by the Americans. He feels that he has had to suffer because of the war, but Americans come and go in Vietnam, brandishing their dollars, and he feels they owe him something, anything."

by Jeff MacNelly in Richmond [VA] News-Leader, ca. Mar. 30, 1975 

That report quoted an American teacher in Saigon: "The Vietnamese people are convinced that America has betrayed them. They believe we led them into the battle, then ran away and left them to fight. They have very little respect for us as a people."

On the other hand, a Vietnamese teacher at a Catholic school told the same reporter, "Americans have a tremendous guilt complex about what they have done in our country, the mistakes they have made, and now they feel everybody here hates them for it. Actually, the Vietnamese people don't hate the Americans, they just don't understand them. But who does?"

"Selling It to Congress Won't Be Easy" by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Tribune, April 13, 1975

Acknowledging that the United States still had an obligation to the people who had relied on American promises, the Ford Administration opened the doors to as many Cambodian and South Vietnamese refugees as wanted to come to the U.S. 

In a joint effort, the U.S. military and Immigration and Naturalization Services (predecessor to today's ICE) scrambled to accommodate an estimated 120,000 refugees.

"Can the Congress Be So Calloused" by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, April 16, 1975

The airlift started with Cambodian and Vietnamese children — mostly given up by terrified parents — arriving a Camp Pendleton, California, to be adopted by American parents. Then came whole families, sponsored by religious congregations and civic groups until they could make a living for themselves in a country where nobody spoke their language.

Sponsoring agencies had to commit to finding housing and jobs for the refugees, most of whom arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs, whatever their circumstances might have been back home.

"There Goes the Old Neighborhood" by Dick Locher in Chicago Tribune, May 11, 1975

The cost of caring for the refugees while they were in temporary camps awaiting resettlement was predicted to cost $500 million (in 1975 dollars, or nearly $3 billion today). Inevitably, Americans being Americans, resistance and resentment soon arose to the wave of  strangers who would supposedly — this may sound familiar — eat the neighborhood dogs and the cats. 

U.S. News & World Report described refugees as "a motley mixture, from professors to bar girls." Washington Post Columnist Nicholas von Hoffman accused some of being "the pimps, madams, and hijackers of American food and material" and "the torturers from Gen. Thieu's political police."

"Thank God It's All Thieu's Fault" by Tom Curtis in Milwaukee Sentinel, April 3, 1975

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu had been President of South Vietnam since 1967. What opposition there was to his rule was unable to unite around any rival leader during elections in 1971.

Refugees fleeing south as the communists advanced "are voting with their feet," wrote National Observer columnist James M. Perry. "Trouble is, there is no one for them to elect. The army is in panic, the Thieu regime is broken, and Thieu himself is finally exposed as the pusillanimous fraud he has always been."

by David E. Seavey in National Observer, Washington DC, April 12, 1975

Thiệu resigned the presidency on April 22 in a rambling speech in which he revealed that to get him to sign the 1973 Paris Peace Accord, then-President Richard Nixon had promised that the U.S. military would return if the peace failed. Tearfully blaming the U.S. for his plight, he told his nation, "I never thought that a man like Mr. Secretary of State Kissinger would deliver our people to such a disastrous fate. ... If the Americans don't want to support us any more, let them go, get out! Let them forget their humanitarian promises!"

"King Rat" by Paul Szep in Boston Globe, April 22, 1975

Thiệu turned the government over to his ailing 72-year-old Vice President, Trần Văn Hương, who then resigned, succeeded by ARVN General Dương Văn Minh, 59. A leader of the 1963 coup that overthrew Ngô Đình Diệm, "Big Minh" had nevertheless earned a reputation for indecision.

Three days after ascending to the presidency, with PAVN advancing into Saigon and the U.S. hastily evacuating its embassy, Minh ordered ARVN to lay down its arms and surrendered to North Vietnam. Having offered no resistance to the victorious North, he was allowed to retire in peace, but eventually left for France.

"Will the Last One Out..." by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Tribune, April 27, 1975

Thiệu retired to the United States, living out his days here in obscurity. He died at age 78 in Boston, Massachusetts on September 29, 2001 after suffering a stroke.

When Jack Met Dick

As you may have heard, there's a presidential debate coming up next week between Vice President Kamala Harris and convicted felon Donald Joffrey Trump; so today's Graphical History Tour travels back to September 26, 1960 and the granddaddy of all presidential debates.

"We Have Temporarily Lost Our Picture" by Joseph Parrish in Chicago Tribune, Sept. 27, 1960

The televised debate between Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon was precedent-setting. Never before had rival presidential nominees of the two major parties shared a stage face-to-face, answering the same questions and each other.

"News Item" by Vaughn Shoemaker in Chicago Daily News, Sept. 27, 1960

What about the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, I hear you asking. Or maybe it's just the voices in my head. Either way, yes, a series of debates pitted Abraham Lincoln and Steven Douglas against each other in their race for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois in 1858, but were not repeated when the two vied for the presidency two years later. 

According to contemporary newspaper accounts, 12,000 attended their first debate at Ottawa, 16,000 to 18,000 in Galesburg, 15,000 in Freeport, 12,000 in Quincy, and 5,000 to 10,000 at the last debate in Alton. Given that hyperbole was not unknown in reporting of the time, Vaughn Shoemaker's head count is probably just as valid as any of the others.

"You Were Simply Wonderful" by Gib Crockett in Washington Star, Sept. 28, 1960

Neither Kennedy nor Nixon delivered any memorable zingers, stumbled into major gaffes, or weaved around aimlessly between child care, tariffs, Marco Rubio and the U.S. being a failing nation at their debate. The Louisville Courier-Journal judged that Nixon "had the more flexible and resonant voice of the two," and that Kennedy "often spoke too rapidly" but "seemed less self-conscious than Nixon." A voter interviewed by the Chicago Tribune said that "Nixon made out a bit stronger case, but I got a better impression of Kennedy than I'd had before this show."

"T-V for Victory" by Jesse Taylor Cargill for Central Press Assn., ca. Sept. 30, 1960

On the other hand, the New York Daily News complained that the debate was "a weak and wishy washy piece of history. Both candidates, we thought, overdid the Alphonse-Gaston politeness." The Sacramento Bee agreed, calling it "more of a polite parlor tete a tete than a debate" and griping, "Kennedy and Nixon stipulated there would be no personalities in the debate. The result was like tossing away half the case for Kennedy." 

"The Winner" by Roy Justus in Minneapolis Star, Sept. 28, 1960

What stuck in the collective memory had more to do with appearances than who made the stronger case for himself. I've heard that television viewers thought that Kennedy "won" the debate, whereas radio listeners tended to find Nixon the winner (which may reflect the age of the respective audiences, too).

Nixon's five-o'clock shadow was only one factor for those who judged by appearances; after all, Herblock had been drawing Nixon with darkened chin and jowls for years. Both candidates declined CBS's offer of make-up; Kennedy's slight suntan photographed well anyway, but Nixon was recovering from a bout of flu that rendered him pale and sweaty. Perhaps more significantly in the Age of Television, whereas Kennedy spoke directly to the camera, Nixon faced the off-camera debate moderators when answering their questions.

"Tongue Smoke" by Frank Miller in Des Moines Register, Sept. 28, 1960

Television being a fairly young medium at the time, several editorial cartoonists drew less inspiration from what the candidates said than where they said it. Frank Miller's cartoon references the number one most popular TV series on the tube in 1960.

"I'm Not Satisfied" by Richard Q. Yardley in Baltimore Sun, Sept. 27, 1960

Still, there were a few cartoonists who dove into the specifics of the debate. Nixon, of course, promised that his policies would continue the post-war economic growth the nation had experienced during (most of) the Eisenhower administration. Kennedy promised that he could do better.

I guess Nikita Khruschev and Mao Zedong are peeking from behind the wall in Yardley's cartoon as an acknowledgement that although this first debate centered on domestic issues, foreign policy would be the focus of a future debate between the candidates.

"The Debate—American Style and Russian" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, Sept. 29, 1960

Carey Orr couldn't wait, taking the occasion to remind his readers that the U.S.S.R. had brutally suppressed an anti-Soviet rebellion in Hungary four summers earlier.

Bill Mauldin in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept. 28, 1960

Bill Mauldin highlighted promises by both candidates to replace Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson. Benson's opposition to price supports and government agriculture subsidies won him few friends among farmers, who you might expect would be a key constituency of the Department of Agriculture. As a cleric on the Mormon Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, moreover, his appointment had been opposed by the American Council of Churches, which viewed his church as a anti-Christian cult. (Some of them had the same opinion of Kennedy's Roman Catholic faith.)

Benson had served as Secretary of Agriculture for all eight years of Dwight Eisenhower's presidency, however, so it was extremely unlikely that he would continue in the post beyond January, 1961 in any event.

"Critic" by Bill Sanders in Greensboro (NC) Daily News, Sept. 28, 1960

And that takes care of the Cartoons About Substance. Bill Sanders returns us to the historical significance of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates appearing together on the telly.

"Don't All Come at Once" by Franklin Morse in Los Angeles Mirror, Sept. 27, 1960

I was surprised to find that some cartoonists didn't bother to draw about the Kennedy-Nixon debate at all that week. There was, however, plenty of other material for a cartoonist to work with.

The United Nations General Assembly was held that week, witnessing Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khruschev pounding his shoe on the podium and calling for the firing of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold. Third World leaders denounced Western colonialism; the harangue by Fidel Castro, barely into his second year as Prime Minister of Cuba, lasted four-hours.

Meanwhile, the space exploration program of the U.S. was struggling to catch up to that of the U.S.S.R. No manned space flights had taken place yet — just dogged, monkeyed, moused, rabbited, and fruit flied ones. Russia was first to send satellites into Earth orbit and probes to the moon; the U.S. had experienced mixed success with both efforts.

"What Are You Fellows Arguing About" by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, Sept. 27, 1960

And, of course, there was baseball for anyone bored by national, global, and extraterrestrial affairs.

"What Do You Suppose Happened After the Debate Went Off the Air" by Frank Interlandi for Register and Tribune Syndicate, Sept. 27, 1960

Nixon and Kennedy met for three more debates before the election, on October 7, 13, and 21.

After that, there would be a 16-year hiatus, including two more Nixon election campaigns, before candidates for president would meet for another debate.

Pursuit of the Naked Truth

If you've been following these Graphical History Tours of mine since the centennial of World War I, you know that most of my posts are about whatever was in the news 100 years earlier. But every once in a while, I like to come forward a bit to discuss some of the major news events from fifty years ago that I can actually remember: the Vietnam War... the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy... Apollo 11 landing on the Moon and Apollo 13 making it back to Earth... the Watergate break-in... the Six-Day War...

So let's take a look at this monumental, life-changing news story from March, 1974:

"The Nudity Crisis" by Cyrus Hungerford in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 9, 1974

Streaking.

Spring was just around the corner, so college students naturally shed their winter parkas and started running around au naturel, as one is wont to do. 

And news media loved it. Catching snapshots of studly students and comely co-eds dashing through the quad in their birthday suits was a welcome break from reporting the news of rising oil prices, a looming recession, and the criminal indictment of seven of President Nixon's closest aides.

"They Say Streaking Is a Phenomenon Directly Related to the Pressures and Frustrations of Our Society. Was That Who I Thought It Was?" by Don Wright in Miami News, March 5, 1974

I remember the Chicago Tribune, Time, and Newsweek devoting entire pages to streaker photos. (I recall a large photo in the Tribune spread of a guy with one leg in a cast streaking on crutches!) Television had to be a bit more careful about what got caught on camera, but bare all they did. Which begat more streaking, which begat more photo spreads, which begat more streaking... The fad was seemingly everywhere … even on stage at the Oscars!

"The Object of 'Streaking'..." by Paul Conrad in Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1974

Certainly the nation's editorial cartoonists were eager to join in the fun.

"Again Eluding the Congress and the Courts..." by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, March 6, 1974

We editorial cartoonists fancy ourselves to be serious journalists, speaking truth to power. Distilling important news down to its bare essence! Exposing hypocrisy and corruption! But deep down, we are also the kid in the back of the class drawing pictures of the school principal saying "Poop!" in our notebooks.

(Ask Clay Jones to show you his.)

"Streaking" by Herbert Block in Washington Post, March 6, 1974

Even the great Herblock in the capital's newspaper of record couldn't resist dashing off a cartoon of the President in the altogether.

"Good Grief..." by Jeff MacNelly in Richmond Times-Leader, ca. March 11, 1974

Likewise Jeff MacNelly, then early in his newspaper career. What he got right in this cartoon was that many collegiate streakers protected what was left of their modesty by pulling a balaclava over their face.

Had enough of Nixon in the nude? Yeah, me too.

"Senior Streaker" by Lou Grant for Los Angeles Time Syndicate, ca. March 14, 1974

We can now be grateful to Lou Grant for putting Richard Nixon in a streaking cartoon yet mercifully leaving him fully dressed.

"Streaking through 1974" by Frank Miller in Des Moines Register, March 7, 1974

With the Watergate scandal and economic hardship dominating the news, Republicans were taking a beating in local elections. That included losing the House seat of newly-minted Vice President Gerald Ford.

"We've Been 'Streaking' for Years" by D. Edward Holland in Chicago Tribune, March 16, 1974

For cartoonists (or their editors) who were leery of depicting the President of the United States in the nude, a safer alternative — especially for the dwindling number of Nixon defenders such as Ed Holland — was to draw John Q. Public stripped bare by the Internal Revenue Service.

"Streaking" by Gene Basset for Scripps Howard Newspapers, ca. March 14, 1974

Or one could draw Jane Q. Consumer losing everything to Inflation Bar Sinister.

"Streaker" by Don Hesse in St. Louis Democrat, ca. March 16, 1974

Or heck, why not draw about inflation and taxes? There's no limit to the kinds of major expenses that you could draw stealing the shirt off your back and the pants off your tush.

But you can leave your hat on.

"Like Father Like Son" by Jim Lange in Daily Oklahoman, March 7, 1974

Returning whence the fad began, I'm not sure whether Jim Lange was commenting on the economy in general or college tuition in particular. But I do know that the tuition grant I was awarded a couple years later, a significant amount at the time, would barely cover the cost of one semester's textbooks today.

The average college tuition in 1974 was $1,650/year for a public college, $3,420/year for a private college. Today, adjusted for inflation, that would be $12,155 and  $21,395, respectively. With the proliferation of fees since the '70's, looking at the actual cost of college today is like comparing apples and fruit salad; but the average cost for a four-year public college last year was $21,878, and for a private college, it was $47,961.

"Vulgar Indeed, Miss Finch..." by Clyde Peterson "C.P. Houston" in Houston Chronicle, ca. March 9, 1974

That's enough math and calculus. I'll bring today's NSFW romp to a close with a couple of cartoons that expressed relief that college and university students were blowing off steam in harmless, frivolous ways, in contrast to students of only a few years prior. 

(Side note: I've seen the C.P. Houston cartoon with the word "mirthfully" instead of "joyously"; I do not know which word appeared in the Houston Chronicle. And the Doug Marlette cartoon below must have been drawn for national syndication in place of the local-issue cartoon of his with a streaking theme that appeared in the Charlotte Observer.)

"Once a Campus Revolutionary..." by Doug Marlette for Charlotte Oberver, ca. March 13, 1974

P.S.: If you caught a Joe Cocker earworm a couple paragraphs back and would rather get rid of it, try this one.

The Telltale Tapes

Today's Graphical History Tour is going to be extra heavy on the cartoonistry and light on the commentary; so if you're the kind of reader who skips to the editorial cartoons, you've come to the right place.

"Speak Frankly into the Olive" by Jeff Darcy in Newsday, Long Island NY, ca. July 23, 1973

Fifty years ago this month, on Friday, July 13, Donald Sanders, a junior staff Republican counsel to the Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair, asked Alexander Butterfield, a former White House aide to Nixon Chief of Staff Harry R. Haldeman whether "conversations in the President's office are recorded."

It was a throw-away question asked at the end of an up-to-then unremarkable interview, with no Senators or top counsel present.

"Oh god, I was hoping you wouldn't ask that," Butterfield answered. Richard Nixon had been tape recording conversations and phone calls in the Oval Office since the spring of 1971.

"Testing, Testing" by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Today, ca. July 21, 1973

Editorial cartoonists reacted immediately with a lot of cartoons mocking Nixon for the recording system — seeming not to realize that the tapes would support or refute the testimony before the committee given that month by those closest to the President: former Attorney General John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, and former presidential counsels John Ehrlichman and John Dean III.

"You Can Say That Again" by Herb Block in Washington (DC) Post, July 17, 1973

Instead, we had a lot of cartoons about people with much less to be worried about in those recordings than Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Dean, or Nixon.

"Go Ahead, Kissinger" by David Simpson in Tulsa Tribune, ca. July 21, 1973

"About That Conversation We Had" by Leonard Borozinski in Wisconsin State Journal, Madison WI, July 18, 1973

Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev had just returned home from a state visit to the U.S.

"Good Lord, That's My Voice" by Bill Crawford for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. July 27, 1973

Nixon wasn't the first president to record White House conversations; Lyndon Johnson had done the same. It seems Nixon tossed out the best legacies of the Johnson administration and kept the worst.

No caption, by Louis "Tim" Mitelberg in Paris Match, 1973 (?)

(Having not putting a date on the above clipping, I could be off on whether Tim's cartoon was drawn in July with the rest of these; but it was one of my earliest favorites, so I'm including it anyway.)

No caption, by Fritz Behrendt in Het Parool, Amsterdam Netherlands, ca. July 19, 1973

At this same time, Nixon was briefly sidelined with a bout of pneumonia.

No caption, by Don Wright in Miami News, July 26, 1973

The Senate Committee, chaired by folksy "old country lawyer" Sam Ervin (D-NC), subpoenaed the administration to turn over to them tapes which might have recorded conversations about the Watergate break-in and cover-up.

"This Jus' Might Unravel the Mummy's Secret" by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, July 18, 1973

Claiming "executive privilege," Nixon refused, and a constitutional crisis was thus in the making.

"The Collectors" by Gene Basset for Scripps-Howard Newspapers, ca. July 20, 1973

It's at this point that most cartoonists quit using bugs as a symbol of the scandal, in favor of reel-to-reel tapes.

"And Stay on Your Own Side" by Leonard D. Warren in Cincinnati Enquirer, ca. July 30, 1973

"Constitutional Crisis in the Oval Office" by Frank Miller in Des Moines Register, July 25, 1973

It's only fair that I include a couple of cartoons by defenders of the President:

"You Guys Are Way Off the Trail" by D. Edward Holland in Chicago Tribune, July 30, 1973

I have a difficult time imagining where Nixon apologist Ed Holland thought the Watergate investigation ought to have been leading. It was too early to be worried about Hillary's emails (although she was actually an aide to the committee) or Hunter Biden's laptop (he was three years old). Teenager Barack Obama's birth certificate, perhaps?

"We'd Be Delighted for Him to Prove His Innocence" by Don Hesse in St. Louis Globe-Democrat, ca. July 24, 1973

Don Hesse's reaction is more typical of the Nixon Defense League. "If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell." —Carl Sandberg

No caption, by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, ca. July 31, 1973

As tempting as it is to go on, I have to stop somewhere. So I'll wrap up with Pat Oliphant's pointed reference to the Nixon plumbers' earlier break-in of the offices of the psychiatrist of Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg.

✍

Say what you will about Richard M. Nixon, but his Watergate scandal (and the war in Vietnam) brought out a golden age of editorial cartooning. I was just beginning to appreciate and eagerly read the work of these guys above and many more: Paul Conrad, Jacob Burck, Bill Mauldin, Bill Sanders, Jeff MacNelly, Dick Locher, John Fischetti, Tom Curtis, Jim Berry, Ed Valtman, Draper Hill, "Corky" Trinidad, Lou Grant, Dennis Renault, Guernsey LePelley, Ranan Lurie, Jules Feiffer, Edward Sorel, Robert Gray Smith, Mike Peters, Mike Konopacki, Ed Huck — there were literally hundreds of them. You could find their work daily in just about any newspaper with a modicum of self-respect, and every major newsmagazine around the world.

The hedge fund managers pretending they know how to run today's newsmedia don't know what they're killing off. Or perhaps they just don't care.