Spiro Agnew was Not an American Hero

At the 10th anniversary party/episode of Hardball, Chris Matthews let loose a furious tirade on the White House and it's treatment of media:

In front of an audience that included such notables as Alan Greenspan, Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy, Matthews began his remarks by declaring that he wanted to “make some news” and he certainly didn’t disappoint. After praising the drafters of the First Amendment for allowing him to make a living, he outlined what he said was the fundamental difference between the Bush and Clinton administrations.

The Clinton camp, he said, never put pressure on his bosses to silence him.

“Not so this crowd,” he added, explaining that Bush White House officials — especially those from Vice President Cheney’s office — called MSNBC brass to complain about the content of his show and attempted to influence its editorial content. “They will not silence me!” Matthews declared.

“They’ve finally been caught in their criminality,” Matthews continued, although he did not specify the exact criminal behavior to which he referred. He then drew an obvious Bush-Nixon parallel by saying, “Spiro Agnew was not an American hero.”

Matthews references an important similarity that hasn't often seen the light of day. In 1969 - 70, Agnew, with the help of Pat Buchanan, and William Safire, became notoriously reviled by the press for his attacks, polarizing the media in his use of their reporting as a means of condemning liberal ideas and attacks on the White House. After a now famous November 1969 anti-war protest, which drew nearly two million people to Washington, Agnew launched an all out assault so confrontational it would've made Bill O'Reilly himself blush. In a speech in Iowa, Agnew called the protesters and the media “so-called intellectuals,” “merchants of hate,” and most famously, “an effete corps of impudent snobs.” FreePress:

This would set the stage for the Nov. 13, 1969 speech that Walter Cronkite would call “an implied threat to freedom of speech in this country.”

On Nov. 3, 1969, President Nixon spoke in a televised address about the need for an “honorable peace” with the Communists in Vietnam. It was a speech that he had diligently worked on with Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s chief foreign policy advisor at the time, and one that introduced the “Vietnamization” program. Though purportedly recognized by the “silent majority” as a well thought-out plan, much of the press was skeptical. In a Nov. 4, 1969 editorial, The New York Times stated that the president had “disappointed the nation’s hope for a reordering of American priorities with a ‘plan for peace’ that looks more like a formula for continued war.”

Though it was no secret that Nixon hated the press — William Safire recalled hearing the President repeatedly say that “the press was the enemy” — what irked Nixon the most was the reaction from the network news stations. According to the biography of Agnew by the Senate Historical Office, the Nixon family was “livid with anger” over the networks’ criticisms of the president’s plan.

Nixon, Agnew, et al were lashing out a media body that consistently poked holes in White House policies and agenda. In hindsight, we all know they were right to do so.

The White House reaction to media scrutiny of failed policy served only to anger the media establishment, energizing their skepticism with each counter-attack. History, as Matthews final comments show, seems to be repeating:

Matthews left the throng of Washington A-listers with a parting shot at Cheney: “God help us if we had Cheney during the Cuban missile crisis. We’d all be under a parking lot.”

UPDATE: Fox News Live (now with 25% more Ann Coulter), in their never ending campaign to be free of intelligence or useful commentary, "analyzed" Matthews' comments about criminality by discussing Jon Stewart's future Oscar hosting gig and book interview with Matthews on the Daily Show (playing the interview in near entirety). Unfortunately, they ran out of time before they could discuss any issues of "ciminality." Go figure. Fox viewers are getting less than half the story these days.

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