America
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NIXON’S RESIGNATION
On August 8, 1974, President Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994), the 37th President of the United States, spoke at 9: 01 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White House. His address to the American people was heard live over radio and television as he announced his resignation as President of the United States. Nixon’s Resignation Speech Good evening. This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this Nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest.…
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The Rosenbergs
The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg began on March 6, 1951 in the New York Southern District federal court overseen by Judge Irving R. Kaufman. Roy Cohn, the lawyer known for his infamous association with Senator Joseph McCarthy , and more recently with Donald Trump, was part of the prosecution that succeeded in exacting a conviction. The Rosenberg’s crime was legally termed “Conspiracy to Commit Espionage” for purportedly selling nuclear secrets to the Russians. However, the Rosenbergs were not charged with treason, as some may suppose, and could not be, because the United States was not at war with the Soviet Union. As stated: By Section 110 of Article…
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First President Gives a Warning
There is a warning contained in George Washington’s Farewell Address. In an op-ed piece in the New York Times by Thomas R. Pickering and James Stoutenberg, Feb. 18, 2018, they point out Washington’s “uncanny foresight” regarding forces that can threaten our democracy. In a quote from Washington’s address this first leader of America reveals weaknesses in our system of government that can be exploited: “A free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another,” he declared. Such encroachment, he said, would lead to the consolidation of…
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The Martha Mitchell Effect
Martha Beall was born on September 2, 1918 and later became Martha Beall Mitchell the wife of President Richard Nixon’s 1968 appointed Attorney General, John Mitchell. Nixon, notoriously known as a man who shifted blame away from himself and onto others, shamelessly placed the Watergate scandal onto Martha’s shoulders. In an interview with popular talk show host David Frost (September 1977 on Frost on America) Nixon said, “If it hadn‘t been for Martha Mitchell, there‘d have been no Watergate.” Martha’s claims of White House wrong doing were thought at first as unbelievable, but were eventually proven correct. On January 1, 1975, her husband John Mitchell was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction…
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History of Fact Checking in Journalism
A focus on fact-checking in American journalism was spurred on by yellow journalism and muckraking practices of the late 19th century and early years of the 20th century. The Bureau of Accuracy and Fair Play that was founded in 1913 had the assignment to “correct carelessness and to stamp out fakes and fakers”. It served to find and apologize for already in print errors rather than preventing such errors from entering into print in the first place. Time magazine was one of the earliest to use the actual term “fact checking” back in 1935 in an issue of Colliers that referred to the addition of “its researchers and fact-checkers from…
