Content-Type: text/html
Perceptions of Media Fairness: Implications for the Nixon and Clinton Legacies
Perceptions of Media Fairness:
Implications for the Nixon and Clinton Legacies
By
Marilyn S. Roberts, Ph.D.
College of Journalism and Communications
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-8400
(352) 392-5817
fax: (352) 392-3919
[log in to unmask]
And
Thomas J. Johnson, Ph.D.
School of Journalism
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901
(618) 453-3279
fax: (618) 453-5200
[log in to unmask]
Paper submitted for consideration to the Association for Education in
Journalism and Mass Communication 2000 Conference, Phoenix, AZ
Mass Communication and Society Division
April, 2000
Audio/video equipment needed: overhead projector
ABSTRACT
PERCEPTIONS OF MEDIA FAIRNESS:
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE NIXON AND CLINTON LEGACIES
The study examines perceptions of the Watergate and Lewinsky scandals. Survey data (n=450) was collected after the Senate rejected articles of impeachment against President Clinton. Three questions asked about the scandals: whether their actions were serious enough to warrant being forced out of office; perceptions of corruptness; and whether the media were out to get them. Included are measures of demographic and political variables to determine significant associations and implications for the two Presidential legacies.
Introduction
As Bill Clinton appeared to be sinking under the collective weight of the accusations made against him in the Monica Lewinsky affair, a familiar name kept resurfacing in analyses of the scandal: Richard Nixon. Journalists, many of whom have lived through and covered Watergate, argued whether Clinton's misdeeds could match Nixon's and whether Clinton should take the same step as Nixon and resign from office. Similarly, reporters who remember the firestorm of public indignation that forced Nixon to resign from office lamented the lack of public outcry against Clinton's actions. They argued that the legacy of Watergate might be that the public now tolerates wrongdoing among government officials because they no longer expect their leaders to act honorably.
Pollsters and scholars seemed mystified by poll results during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal that indicated that while the public believed that Clinton lied about his affair with the Washington intern and consequently did not judge him as a moral individual, that they still
judged him a strong leader who should remain in office (Brody, 1998). Clinton's approval
ratings remained strong throughout the scandal. Indeed, his approval ratings jumped slightly
after details of the Lewinsky scandal were first revealed (Newport & Gallup, 1998).
Scholars advanced several possible explanations for the apparent paradox about how people could believe Clinton guilty yet still approve of the job he was doing as president. First, several noted that unlike Nixon, Clinton was buoyed by a strong economy; people were willing to overlook the scandal because the economy was humming (Zaller, 1998). Second, the public unlike the media and leaders in Washington, saw the Lewinsky scandal as a private affair, one that did not affect his public performance in office (Jamieson & Aday, 1998). Finally, researchers suggest that Watergate, and scandals after, have conditioned the public not to be outraged by public scandals. (Alter, 1998). As Rolling Stone's William Greider (1997) noted, "Americans are already quite disgusted with Washington, prepared to believe the worst about politics and government, no longer shocked by lies and illegality in high places."
One argument that the media did not put forward as an additional alternative explanation
about the Clinton paradox was that the public may not have perceived the media coverage to be fair. Some members of the public may have felt that the Lewinsky affair was made into a major crisis by the mainstream media that were out to get Bill Clinton.
Researchers have long noted that most of our knowledge of the world is a mediated reality. But the media do not hold up a mirror to the world and accurately reflect its complex happenings. As Walter Lippmann noted in 1922, "the news is not a mirror of social conditions, but the report of an aspect that has obtruded itself" (Lippmann, 1922, p. 341).The media can only report a small fraction of the many events that happen in a day. Even one event is too complex to report in its entirety. Thus the media must focus on portions of the event to represent the entire reality. Any focusing on one event will invariably cause a part of the reality to be blow up and others left in the background (Shoemaker & Reese, 1991; Adoni and Maine, 1984; Lang and Lang, 1984; Schlesinger, 1978). Research suggests that the news is distorted in systematic and predictable ways. News tends to reflect official views and mainstream values. Events tend to be dramatized and personalized to attract an audience. Lastly news tends to be fragmented, reflecting what happened today or yesterday rather than trying to report trends and otherwise connecting related events (Bennett, 1988).
The media do not only influence our present-day attitudes and behavior, but they also influence what scholars call our collective memory, the shared image or collective representation of the past as it has been refashioned over time (Lang & Lang, 1988, 1989; Kammen, 1991; Schudson, 1992; Schwartz, 1982; Halbwachs, 1980). Because most of our knowledge about the world comes from switching on the television, opening up a newspaper or going to our favorite Web sites, scholars suggest that the media have assumed the primary role in conveying the nation's history to the public. The media, not only write the first draft of history in how they report events, they also influence how history is rewritten (Zelizer, 1992, 1995; Schudson, 1982; Edy, 1998, 1999).
What happens if the majority of the public do not weigh in on the first draft of history? What if the majority of the public does not weigh in on how history is rewritten? The purpose of the current study is to examine whether the public perceives that the media made the Lewinsky scandal into a major crisis in order to get Bill Clinton. In addition the study will contrast those perceptions with a re-examination of whether the public perceives that Watergate was made into a major crisis by the media in order to get Richard Nixon. Based upon the media's first draft of history and the public's perceptions of the fairness of the media's coverage of Bill Clinton- and the media's rewritten history of Richard Nixon, in light of the Clinton impeachment trial, what implications can be made about the future legacies of these two presidents? How do they compare on whether the seriousness of their actions warranted being forced out of office? How do they compare regarding the corruptness of their administrations with other presidents? Finally, this study will examine what demographic and political influences are associated with the perceptions of the Watergate and the Monica Lewinsky scandals.
Perceptions of media fairness
Widespread concern that the public no longer trusted the media spurred a host of studies in the mid-to-late 1980's examining media credibility ( American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1985; Times Mirror, 1986; The People and the Press, 1987, 1989; Whitney, 1985; Shaw, 1985, Associated Press Managing Editors Association, 1985; Schneider & Lewis, 1985, Izard, 1985). A concern that disappeared after esteem for the media rose during the Persian Gulf war and after studies suggested that the credibility crisis itself lacked credibility-that is, the public held a largely favorable view of the media (Gaziano, 1989).
Media credibility has received renewed attention in recent years as polls suggest that confidence in the media has dropped precipitously in the 1990s, igniting fears that "the old style gatekeeper breed of journalist could be poised to follow the slide rule and buggy whip into oblivion." (Newport & Saad, 1998) For instance, a Pew Research Center (1999) study found that the number of people who judge the media as immoral tripled from 1985-1999 (13 to 38 percent) and the percentage of those who believe the media hinder rather than help democracy climbed from 23 to 38 percent.
The public is also more likely to judge the media as unprofessional, overly critical and uncaring about the people they cover than they were 15 years ago. This echoes other studies that have found that from 1985 to the mid 1990s the number of individuals who judged negativity, bias and being manipulated by special interests as major problems in media coverage has increased. (American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1999; Freedom Forum, 1997; Pew Research Center, 1997).
Several public opinion polls suggest the public do not believe the media covered either Watergate or the Lewinsky scandal fairly . However, polls rate coverage of Watergate as better than Monicagate. Respondents to an Associated Press poll were almost twice as likely to say the media had been treated Clinton less fairly (21 percent) than more fairly (40 percent) than Richard Nixon (Associated Press, 1999), and while 72 percent of a Gallup Poll claimed the media spent too much time with Monicagate, 51 percent said the same of Watergate (Newport, 1999).
Nixon's image in the media
Journalists undoubtedly thought they had heard the last of Richard Nixon when his helicopter whisked him to supposed exile in San Clemente after he resigned from office. However, in the years after he resigned in disgrace, Nixon worked actively through speeches, foreign trips and interviews with journalists to rehabilitate his image. Indeed, journalists and political observers marveled at Nixon's resurrection from disgraced politician to elder statesman (Anson, 1984; Weisberg, 1994; Halberstam, 1994; Roberts, 1994; Safire, 1994; Martz, 1984; Herbers, 1984).
Studies suggest that the media, who were instrumental in driving Nixon out of office, were also key in welcoming him back to public life. Nixon manipulated the media in order to improve his public standing. In order to use the media to rehabilitate his image, Nixon relied on three techniques that served him well during his time in office: appeasement, intimidation and evasion.
First, Nixon freely offered himself up to the media as a geopolitical expert and became a favorite media source on anything from international treaties to the presidential election. After the release of his book Real Peace, Nixon appeared for four consecutive days on NBC to talk about world peace (Johnson 1995). He also worked hard to cultivate his image with young journalists who came of age after Watergate. He regularly invited Washington journalists to his Manhattan townhouse or his Saddle River estate to regale them with stories about his political life and to offer up his views on political affairs (Carlson 1989). Because he did not hold public office, he appeared to express his views more honestly than most politicians reporters came in contact with (Ambrose 1991). Nixon assistant John Taylor also sent out a stream of press releases that updated the press on Nixon's life and presented his views on world affairs (Ambrose 1991).
While Nixon no longer had the power to intimidate the press as he once did, one job of Nixon assistant Taylor was to pore through the media for stories about Nixon and contact news organizations to demand a retraction for any misstatement (Ambrose 1991).
Finally, Nixon largely avoided interviews directly with reporters, preferring to go around the press by delivering public speeches before sympathetic crowds and by appearing on television talk shows so that he could present his case that he was a brilliant foreign policy strategist directly to the American people (Woodward 1988).
Political observers, then, lament that Nixon was able to manipulate the media into helping him rehabilitate his image (Morgan 1994). But despite claims from journalists that Nixon was still "spinning from his grave" after his death (Weisberg 1994), the job of assessing Nixon's place in history now falls upon journalists and historians. As an article in The Economist (1994) noted, "The next generation of retouchers will set about partly repainting the reputation Nixon partly restored."
It did not take long for the retouching process to begin. The perception that the media swooned over Nixon's legacy during the funeral led to a backlash of columns reminding the public of the former president's "sins" as well as angry letters from readers criticizing journalists for rehabilitating Nixon (Morgan 1994). The Haldeman Diaries were released within a month of his death. They revealed a host of other secret activities as well as accused Nixon of being both a racist and an anti-Semitic (Haldeman 1994; Associated Press 1994). To mark the 20th anniversary of his resignation, the Discovery Channel and BBC ran a five-hour series that presented an unvarnished history of Watergate (Zoglin 1994).
The succeeding years have not always been kind to Nixon. The National Archives periodically release excerpts of the 3,700 hours of secret recordings Richard Nixon made between 1971 and 1973. These have revealed, among other things, that he ordered a break-in and theft at the Brookings Institute (Biskupic, 1996; Kutler, 1997). LardnerJr. (1996) revealed that he got drunk after a 1973 speech announcing the
departures of H.R. Haldeman and John D. Erlichman. Warren (1999) argues that he tried to undermine a historic Supreme Court decision permitting school busing.
Oliver Stone's movie Nixon portrayed the former president Nixon as King Lear, "a crass, crude powerless bore ceasingly shouting into the wind" who had a foul mouth, was often drunk and who had a hand in the JFK assassination (Ambrose 1996). The more whimsical Dick lampooned Nixon as the embodiment of a clueless age (Barone, 1999).
Finally, whenever a scandal in the beltway breaks out in-whether it was Iran/Contra (Ignatius and Getler 1987; Lewis 1987; Barber 1987), Whitewater (Bernstein 1994; Maier and Hickey 1997), campaign funding (Borger 1997) or Monica Lewinsky ("Clinton Defenders" 1998)-the press invariably draw comparisons to Watergate, typically noting that these new scandals pale in comparison to Watergate.
Public Opinion and Watergate
During Nixon's final days, his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger boldly predicted that history would remember him as a near great or great president and the Watergate would be relegated to a minor footnote (Nixon, 1978). Kissinger was on target that memories of Watergate would fade in time. While the Lewinsky scandal became an occasion for the media to revisit Nixon and the Watergate scandal, evidence suggests that the majority of the public, particularly those too young to have lived through the event,
have long relegated the event to the musty pages of history. For instance, a 1986 study found
that the majority of high school students did not know that Watergate happened after 1950, considering it an event of little consequence that had happened in this country's distant past (Winerup, 1994). A 1987 Times-Mirror poll found that those aged 25-29, 30-39, and 50-59 judged Watergate as an event that most influenced their political views (Times-Mirror Center, 1990). But a similar poll in 1999 conducted by the Pew Research Center found that no age group ranked Watergate as one of its five most memorable events (1999).
However, Kissinger's prediction that Nixon would be remembered as a great man hasn't been borne out in the 25 years since Nixon's resignation. While details of the events of Watergate may have faded in the public's mind, attitudes about his guilt have not. Indeed, in some cases they have intensified.
A Gallup Poll conducted on the 25th anniversary of Nixon's resignation found that 72 percent of those surveyed thought Watergate was serious enough to warrant his resignation, up from 65 percent at the time he resigned. Those who judged it a serious matter rather than just the kind of politics both parties engage in remained steady from 1974 to 1999 despite the rash of scandal news since Watergate (Newport, 1999). While an AP survey conducted just before the 25th anniversary of Watergate found people less likely to judge Watergate as serious than the Gallup Poll, they found that 72 percent of those surveyed believed that Nixon will remembered more for Watergate than his policies 25 years in the future (Associated Press, 1999).
Nor has the image of Nixon presidency improved markedly since he left office. Respondents to a February 1999 Gallup poll judged Nixon as the worst president we have had since WWII, although the numbers who judged him the worst have declined slightly since 1986 (28 to 34 percent). Similarly while retrospective approval ratings of Nixon are higher in 1999 than when he left office (32 to 24 percent), his positive ratings were half those of the second lowest president, Jimmy Carter (Newport, 1999).
Other studies suggest, however, that while people judge Nixon guilty of Watergate crimes, passions against him have cooled somewhat over the last 10 years. A 1988 study found that 78 percent of those surveyed believed Nixon's actions in Watergate were serious enough to force him to resign, and 85 percent said Watergate was a serious matter, not just politics, up from figures found in the 1999 polls. Nixon finished second to Reagan for which president will go down in history as one of the worst (41-39 percent), although he also finished second, behind Jimmy Carter, for those presidents who appear better now during his term of office. However, this study was conducted in the wake of the Iran/Contra affair, and that scandal appeared to influence evaluations of the Nixon presidency. A plurality (42 percent) disagreed that Nixon's administration was one of the most corrupt and they were evenly split on whether Nixon got caught for what other presidents habitually did (Johnson, 1995).
Public Opinion comparing Watergate and Monicagate
Pollsters have consistently found that the public rates Watergate as a more serious scandal than Monicagate. Gallup found that people overwhelmingly said charges against Nixon were more serious than those against Clinton (54 percent to 14 percent). Gallup's results were also echoed by surveys conducted by Newsweek (51 percent to 19 percent) and by the Associated Press (45 percent to 18 percent).
Similarly, the AP found that 39 percent judged Watergate as the most serious scandal in the last 25 years, far ahead of the Iran-Contra affair (23 percent) and the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal (22 percent). However, more than three-fourths of those responding to an NBC/News/Wall Street Journal poll thought that there were other scandals just as bad as Watergate during the last 25 years (PollingReport.com, 1999).
Public opinion polls have also compared the quality of the news media's coverage between the Watergate and Monicagate scandals. Poll results imply that the media coverage of Watergate was better than the media's coverage of Monicagate. Respondents to an AP poll were almost twice as likely to say the media had treated Clinton less fairly (21 percent) than more fairly (40%) than Richard Nixon (AP, 1999). A Gallup Poll reported that 72% of the respondents felt that the media spent too much time with Monicagate, compared to 51% who said the same of the Watergate scandal (Newport, 1999).
Following the Clinton impeachment trial, the current study will
address the following questions:
1. How do individuals perceive the fairness of the media's coverage of
President Bill Clinton and the Lewinsky scandal?
2. How do individuals perceive the fairness of the media's coverage of
former President Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal?
3. How do individuals perceive the seriousness of Watergate and whether
it warranted Nixon being forced out of office?
4. How do individuals perceive the seriousness of Monicagate and
whether it warranted Clinton being forced out of office?
5. How do individuals perceive the corruptness of the Nixon
administration?
6. How do individuals perceive the corruptness of the Clinton
administration?
7. What demographic and political variables explain attitudes toward Nixon and the Watergate scandal?
8. What demographic and political variables explain attitudes toward Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky scandal?
Methodology
The current study examines public opinion toward Watergate and Monicagate scandals. The data was collected in Midwestern and Southeastern university communities in March 1999 after the Senate rejected articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. The Midwestern data was collected through a mall intercept. The Southeastern data was collected
at diverse sites on campus and slightly supplemented with convenience sampling to obtain respondents 40 years old or more.
Respondents were asked three questions about involvement in Watergate and media coverage of the scandal that were derived from a 1988 survey (Johnson, 1995) and repeated in Johnson and Roberts' work in 1998. The three questions were: 1) "Nixon's actions in Watergate were not serious enough to warrant being forced out of office," 2) "Nixon's administration was one of the more corrupt in American history," and 3) "Watergate was made into a major crisis by the media which were out to get Nixon." Answers ranged on a Likert scale from definitely agree to definitely disagree. Parallel questions were asked for Clinton's involvement in the Lewinsky affair and the media coverage of it.
The study also includes measures of demographic variables (age, gender,
income, education) and three political variables (political socialization, political
interest, and political ideology). The political socialization question asked, "When you were growing up, how much did your parents talk about politics?" The responses ranged from a lot, some, a little to hardly ever. Political interest was determined by using a 10-point scale from very interested (0) to very uninterested (10). Similarly, political ideology was measured on a 10 point scale from very liberal (0) to very conservative (10).
SPSS was used to analyze the data. First, frequencies were run on the Nixon and Clinton variables to compare public opinion on the two scandals. Second, to examine the association between the Nixon and Clinton questions and the demographic and political variables, bi-variate crosstabulations were conducted to determine significant associations determine whether statistically significant relations exist between the various control variables and the parallel three questions for Nixon and Clinton.
Findings
A total of 450 surveys were collected, 188 in the Midwest and 262 in the Southeast. The respondents ranged in age from 16 to 90, with the average age being 35 years. The sample was basically balanced with 51 percent female respondents and 49 percent male respondents. The sample is primarily made up of non-Hispanic whites (80%), while the remainder (20%) is represented by persons from diverse ethnic or racial backgrounds. Just over half of the sample earned a yearly household income of $40,000 or less. The plurality (37.6%) earned a bachelor's degree, although a quarter (24.1 percent) earned a graduate degree.
Univariate results demonstrate that the public do not believe the media treated either Nixon or Clinton fairly in their respective scandals. About a third agreed more than disagreed or strongly agreed with the statement that "Watergate was made into a major crisis by the media which were out to get Nixon." Slightly less than one-third had no opinion, and slightly more than one-third disagreed more than agreed or strongly disagreed. The public were more likely to argue that the press treated Clinton unfairly in the Lewinsky scandal. Approximately half of the sample agreed more than disagreed or definitely agreed that the media were out to get Clinton. More than one-third disagreed or definitely disagreed that the media were out to get Clinton. Fourteen percent held no opinion.
Respondents judged the Lewinsky scandal more serious than the Watergate affair, but sizable numbers thought both scandals were serious enough for the presidents to be impeached. Approximately one-quarter agreed more than disagreed or definitely agreed with the statement "Nixon's actions in Watergate were not serious enough to warrant being forced out of office," while 60 percent of the sample either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the claim. Less than 20 percent had no opinion. On the other hand, approximately 45 percent either agreed or definitely agreed that Clinton should be removed from office, while 48 percent either disagreed or definitely disagreed with it. Slightly more than 7 percent of the respondents had no opinion.
People also believe that Clinton ran the more corrupt administration.
The results were split evenly as to whether respondents agreed, had no opinion, or disagreed about whether Nixon presided over one of the most corrupt administrations. Respondents were polarized as to whether "Clinton's administration was one of the more corrupt in American history," with nearly 43 percent agreed more than disagreed or definitely agreed, while almost 40 percent either disagreed more than agreed or definitely disagreed with the statement. However, 17 percent indicated that they had no opinion.
Associations with Demographic Variables
When examining the relationships between the demographic variables (Figure 1) and the three parallel questions for Nixon and Clinton, a total of six significant associations were found. Two involved age, one gender, one with ethnicity, and one each for income and educational levels.
Nixon's actions in Watergate
In regard to the level of agreement that "Nixon's actions in Watergate were not serious enough to warrant being forced out of office," only the variable of age was statistically significant (Table 1). Of those who agreed more than disagreed or definitely agreed with the statement, over one-third were 51 years of age or older. Of those aged 30 and under, only agreed. Those who held no opinion also tended to be 30 years or younger in age. Those who disagreed more than agreed or definitely disagreed with the seriousness of Nixon's actions fell between the ages of 31 and 50 years.
Clinton's actions in the Lewinsky affair
In examining the level of agreement that "Clinton's actions in the Lewinsky affair were not serious enough to warrant being forced out of office," a significant relationship was found for ethnicity (Table 2). Those in the non-Hispanic white category disagreed more than agreed or definitely disagreed with the statement. While only a third of those with other racial or ethnic backgrounds definitely agreed-agreed more than disagreed more than disagreed. Approximately 61% of those of respondents with diverse ethnic/racial background definitely agreed-agreed more than disagree that the affair was not serious enough to force Clinton from office.
Nixon's Administration and corruptness
As to whether Nixon's Administration was one of the more corrupt in
American history," two demographic variables were associated with the statement. First, there appeared to be gender differences (Table 3). Males tended to disagree more than agree/definitely disagree (48%) that the Nixon administration was the most corrupt, than females (32%). Females tended to agree with the statement more (32%) than males (24%). Female respondents also tended to have no opinion more than males.
Household yearly income was significantly related with the corruptness of
Nixon's Administration (Table 4). Nearly 30 percent of those who definitely agreed with
the statement, reported annual incomes of between $30,000 or less. Those most
likely to have no opinion also had incomes of $30,000 or less per year. The higher the
yearly income level, the more likely that respondent was to disagree that Nixon's
Administration was one of the most corrupt in American history, with 55% of those who
make over $60,000 a year, and 40% of those who make between $31,000-60,000 stating
that they disagreed more than agreed or definitely disagreed with the statement.
Clinton's Administration and corruptness
No significant relationships were found with any of the demographic variables and the statement that Clinton's Administration was one of the most corrupt in American history.
Media out to get Nixon
When examining the relationship between the demographic variables and the level of agreement with the statement that "Watergate was made into a major crisis by the
media who were out to get Nixon," two variables produced significant chi-square results - age and education. The youngest age bracket (30 years or less) was more likely to report no opinion (Table 5). This is likely due to the fact that the Nixon scandal was "before their time" and they did not witness what happened with the media and thus could not form an opinion. On the other hand, 50% of those aged 51 and older and 36% of those aged 41-50 disagreed with the statement. However, 46% of those aged 41-50 also definitely agreed-agreed more than disagreed with the statement.
In general it appears that the more education the respondent had, the more likely he/she tended to disagree with the statement that the media were out to get Nixon (Table 6). Over half of the respondents (52%) who disagreed more than agree or definitely disagreed were those with a graduate degree. Conversely, of those respondents (37%) with the least amount of education (those who did not graduate high school-some college or associates degree) definitely agreed or agreed more than disagreed that the media were out to get Nixon. Approximately one-third of those who held bachelor's degree or less had no opinion.
Media out to get Clinton
No demographic variables were found to be significantly associated with the level of agreement with the statement that "the Lewinsky affair was made into a major crisis by the media which were out to get Clinton."
Associations with Political Variables
In examining the relationships between the three parallel questions about Nixon and Clinton, three control variables were used (Figure 2). The first variable was the frequency of how often the respondent's parents talked about political. The second variable was the level of political interest in politics. The third variable was the political ideology (liberal/conservative) of the respondent. Seven relationships were shown to be significant. Two significant relationships were found for the level of parental discussion of politics, one for political interest, and dominating, four significant chi-squares with the political ideology of the respondents.
Nixon's actions in Watergate
Of those respondents whose parents talked about politics the most, three-fourths disagreed more than agreed or definitely disagreed with the statement that Nixon's actions were not serious enough to force him from office (Table 7). Those whose parents talked about politics the least, were those tended to agree with the statement more that Nixon's actions were not serious.
Those who responded as being somewhat to extremely interested in politics were more likely, in general, to disagree with the statement that Nixon's actions in Watergate were not serious (Table 8). Those respondents who were somewhat to very uninterested in politics were more likely to agree. However, the largest percentage of those who agree with the statement were those who were politically neutral (neither interested or uninterested in politics). Those extremely to somewhat interested in politics (68.1%) disagree more than agree with the statement, but 54% of those who are uninterested in politics also disagree more than agree with the statement.
Clinton's actions in the Lewinsky affair
The more liberal the respondent, the more agreement there is that Lewinsky scandal was not serious enough to force Clinton out (Table 9). While 64% of respondents who said they were extremely-somewhat liberal agreed with this statement, only 18% of those who said they were quite-extremely conservative agreed with the statement. Conversely, only 28% of those who said they were extremely-somewhat liberal disagreed with the statement, while a great majority, 75% of those who said they were quite-extremely conservative disagreed more than agreed-definitely disagreed with the statement.
Nixon's Administration and corruptness
The data show that the more the parents talked about politics growing up, the stronger is the tendency of the respondent to either definitely agree or to definitely disagree with the statement that Nixon's Administration was one of the most corrupt in American history (Table 10). Of those respondents whose parents talked a lot about politics growing up (38%) definitely agreed-agreed more than disagreed, while 44% of those whose parents talked a lot about politics disagreed more than agreed-definitely disagreed. Conversely, only 26% of those whose parents talked a little definitely agreed, and 34% of those whose parents talked a little disagreed. Of those who had no opinion, the majority of the respondents stated that there parents talked about politics little or never. The association here is a logical one. The more politically aware or interested one is, the more likely we are to have a stronger opinion one way or the other.
The more liberal the respondent, the more he/she agreed with the corruptness of Nixon's Administration (Table 11), and conversely the more conservative the respondent is on the political spectrum, the more they disagree. While the biggest percentage of respondents (41%) who stated they were extremely to somewhat liberal definitely agreed-agreed more than disagreed with the statement, the biggest respondent bulk (56%) of those who stated they were quite-extremely conservative stated that they disagreed. Not surprisingly, the largest bulk (42%) of those with no opinion stated they were neither liberal nor conservative.
Clinton's Administration and corruptness
None of the three political variables (parental talk, political interest or ideology) were significant that Clinton's Administration was one of the most corrupt in American history.
Media out to get Nixon
In general, the more conservative the respondent states that he/she is, the more they agree with the statement that the media were out to get Nixon (Table 12). The highest percentage of those respondents (43%) who definitely agreed-agreed more than disagreed with the statement were those who stated that they were quite-extremely conservative. Conversely, the highest percentage (36%) of respondents who stated that they disagreed more than agreed/definitely disagreed were those who stated that they were extremely-somewhat liberal. Furthermore the highest percentage of respondents (31%) who stated that they had no opinion was also those who stated that they were extremely-somewhat liberal.
Media out to get Clinton
The more liberal the respondent, the more agreement that the media treated Clinton unfairly (Table 13). While 60% of those who stated that they are extremely to somewhat liberal definitely agree or agree more than disagree that the media is out to get Clinton, the largest percentage of those who say they are quite-extremely conservative (60%) think just the oppositely, they disagree more than agree-definitely disagree with the statement.
Conclusions and Implications for Nixon and Clinton legacies
Discussion
Political observers who chronicled the life of Nixon after he had been exiled to San Clemente following his resignation were amazed by his Phoenix-like rise from disgraced politician to elder statesman.
Some argue that the press that helped drive him out of office acted as accomplices in ushering him back into public life. Nixon worked hard after his resignation to cultivate his image among young journalists. Nixon was frequently tapped by the media as an expert on topics ranging from arms control to the 1992 and 1996 presidential races (Nixon, 1986, 1988; Dowd, 1992; Safire, 1994). Finally, several magazine and newspaper articles commented on Nixon's rise from the ashes of Watergate, leading further credence to the claim he had been politically rehabilitated (Weisberg, 1994; Roberts, 1994; Safire, 1994; Martz, 1986; Herbers, 1984; Alter, 1984; Fineman, 1985).
While evidence abound that Nixon had been rehabilitated abound among political insiders and journalists, evidence is also clear that the public hasn't forgiven Nixon. A Gallup poll found that the percentage of those believe Nixon's resignation was warranted actually increased since he resigned, and Nixon is still rated as the worst president since World War II.
This study also found little evidence that Nixon had been forgiven for Watergate. A majority (59 percent) said that Nixon's actions in Watergate warranted him being forced out of office. These figures are actually lower than those found in a recent Gallup Poll (72 percent) as well as a similar study conducted 10 years ago (Johnson, 1995). Some of this might be due to differences in the way the samples were drawn. However, the fact that a majority of people still believe Nixon guilty of Watergate crimes appears support Schudson's claim that events such as Watergate are so ingrained in memory that they are highly resistant to change (Schudson, 1989, 1992).
However, results do suggest that scandals since Watergate may make the public perceive Nixon's crimes as politics as usual. The plurality (39.6 percent) disagreed that the Nixon administration was one of the most corrupt in history and the majority, Finally, the results support the predictions of political observers memories of Watergate itself are fading as the event itself recedes into the past. Almost a third registered no opinion about whether Nixon's administration was one of the most corrupt and almost the same did not know whether the media were out to get Nixon. However, this study did not find that as memory of Watergate faded that passions would cool along with them. The majority still believe him guilty of Watergate crimes .
This study found that passions had hardly cooled about Clinton in the months after the Monica Lewinsky affair. Respondents were more likely to say that Clinton rather than Nixon should have resigned because of scandal (45 to 25 percent). Similarly, people were more likely to agree that Clinton rather than Nixon ran one of the most corrupt administrations (43 to 28 percent). On the other hand, respondents were more likely to believe the media were out to get Clinton (50 to 33 percent).
These results appear to run counter to studies that found that respondents judged Watergate more serious than the Lewinsky scandal (Associated Press, 1999; Newport, 1999), although they do support previous polls that found that the public believe the media treated Nixon more fairly than Clinton. However, the Associated Press and Gallup Polls directly compared Watergate with Monicagate while this study asked parallel questions of the two scandals. Perhaps if this study asked respondents to directly compare Watergate and the Lewinsky affair, Clinton would not have fared so poorly.
Several recent studies have suggested that the public do not believe the media are serving this country well. For instance, those who consider the media to be immoral tripled from 1985 to 1999 (Pew Research Center, 1999), and the number of those who judged negativity, bias and being manipulated by special interests as major problems in media coverage has increased (American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1999; Freedom Forum, 1997; Pew Research Center, 1997). This study does little to dispel the notion that the public feels the media are performing poorly. While a sizable percentage of people argued that Clinton should resign because of the Lewinsky affair and most believe that he presides over a corrupt administration, they still believe that he was treated unfairly in Lewinsky coverage.
Demographics were not strong predictors of attitudes toward Watergate and the Lewinsky affair as only seven of 30 possible relations were significant. Age was the only significant predictor and only of Nixon events. Older respondents who lived through the turmoil of Watergate were more likely to say that his actions warranted his resignation. Similarly, those lived through Watergate recognize the role the media played in exposing White House crimes. These results support earlier studies that those who directly experienced Watergate events harbor more negative feelings toward Nixon than those who only learned them through media use after the event (Johnson, 1995).
Political variables were stronger predictors than demographics with seven of 18 possible relationships significant. Four of the six relationships with ideology were significant. Not surprisingly, liberals were much more likely than conservatives to content that the Lewinsky scandal was not serious enough to warrant Clinton's resignation and believe that the media were out to get Clinton. Similarly, conservatives, who had applauded efforts to remove Clinton from power, were more likely than conservatives to disagree that Nixon ran one of the most corrupt administrations and to agree that the media blew the Watergate scandal out of proportion.
Those who grew up in a family where the parents actively discussed politics were more likely to disagree with the statement that Watergate was not serious enough to force Nixon out of office. They were also more likely agree that Nixon ran a corrupt administration. This result may show the indirect effect of age on Nixon attitudes. Parents who had grown up during the Nixon era and remember his administration's crimes would pass this information on to their kids. In particular, discussion of the Lewinsky scandal may have sparked dinner time conversation about Nixon's offenses.
A question remains: What do these results say about the Nixon and Clinton legacies? Nixon was sure that after his death future historians would regard Watergate as merely a footnote to history. This study found that while images of the scandal have faded and the public is more likely to judge the scandal as politics as usual than they were 10 years ago, the public has yet to forgive Nixon for Watergate. Watergate, then, appears to be a stain on the Nixon administration that can never be removed.
It is too early to know the lasting influence of the Lewinsky scandal on Clinton's legacy. Results for Clinton mirror ones found 10 years ago for Ronald Reagan during the Iran/Contra scandal (Johnson, 1995). More than 40 percent judged Reagan as the worst president in this half of the century, and the Iran/Contra affair was judged as almost as serious of a matter as Watergate. The plurality of people claimed Reagan headed one of the most corrupt administrations in American history. A similar study by Johnson and Roberts (1998) found that attitudes toward Reagan had improved significantly. For instance, people were more likely to agree that Nixon ran a corrupt administration than Reagan. This study should be replicated a decade from now to see if anger toward Clinton faded like it did for Reagan in Iran/Contra affair. Thus, it is unclear whether the Lewinsky affair will be considered a defining moment in his presidency or, like the Iran Contra affair, it will fade from memory.
Studies should be conducted a decade from now to see if memories of Watergate remain or whether they are relegated to a footnote and history. Similarly, such studies could discover if Monicagate represented a blip on the radar screen of the Clinton presidency or it becomes the defining event as people assess his legacy.
References
.
Adoni, H., & Mane, S. (1984). Media and the social construction of reality: Toward an integration of theory and research. Communication Research, 11, 323-340.
Alter, Jonathan. "The Lewinsky Legacy." Newsweek , 19 Oct., 1998, 33.
___. "Nixon: The Long Climb Back." Time, 20 February 1984, 53-54.
Ambrose, Stephen. "The Nixon Inside Stone's Head: The 'Beast' is the Director's Own Warped View of History." Washington Post, 17 January 1996.
American Society of Newspaper Editors, Newspaper Credibility: Building Reader Trust, conducted by MORI Research Inc., 1985.
American Society of Newspaper Editors, Examining our Credibility: Why Newspaper Credibility Has Been Dropping, available at www.asne.org/works/jcp/executivesummary.htm
Anson, Robert Sam. Exile: The Unquiet Oblivion of Richard M. Nixon. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984.
Associated Press Managing Editors Association, Journalists and Readers: Bridging the Credibility Gap, conducted by MORI Research, Inc. (San Bernardino, CA: The Sun, October 1985)
Associated Press. "Poll Compares Clinton, Nixon." available at
http://europe.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/10/12/nixon.poll.ap.
Barber, James David. "How Irangate Differs From Watergate." New York Times, 9 August 1987, D25.
Barone, Michael. "Nixon's America." U.S. News & World Report, 20 Sept. 1999, 20-27.
___. "The Voice of the GI Generation." U.S. News & World Report, 2 May 1994, 37.
Bell, David A. "Richard Milhous Clinton," The New Republic, 18 Jan. 1999, 18.
Bennett. W. L. (1988). News: The politics of illusion. New York: Longman.
Bernstein, Carl. "Whitewater is Not Watergate." St. Louis Post Dispatch, 24
July,1994, 3B.
Biskupic, Joan. "Tapes: Nixon Sought Brookings Break-in." Washington Post, 22
November, A1, A21.
Borger, Gloria. "Everything is Relative." U.S. News & World Report,
10 November, 1997.
Brody, Richard A. "The Lewinsky Affair and Popular Support for President Clinton." available at http://pollingreport.com/brody.htm
Carlson, Margaret. (1989, 23 January). Washington Diarist. The New
Republic, pg. 42.
"Clinton Defenders are Rewriting History: At Least Nixon Had the Decency to See That His Trial Would Profoundly Embarrass and Rend America--and He Resigned." Maclean's, 24 August, 1988, 9.
Edy, Jill A. "Journalistic Uses of Collective Memory." Journal of Communication 49 (Spring 1999): 71-85.
___. "Just Make It Go Away: Neutralizing Public Memories of the 'Chicago
Convention.'" Paper presented at the International Communication Association
Annual Convention, San Francisco, May 1998.
Freedom Forum, "News Junkies, News Critics: How Americans Use the News and What They Think About It" at www.newseum.org/survey/summary.html
Gaziano, Cecilie. "How Credible is the Credibility Crisis?" Journalism Quarterly 65 (summer 1988): 267-278, 375.
Greider, William. "Does Whitewater plus hubblegate plus Chinagate equal Watergate?" Rolling Stone, 12 June 1997, 45-46.
Halberstam, David. "Richard Nixon's Last Campaign." Columbia Journalism Review, July/August 1994, 35-39.
Halbwachs, Maurice. The Collective Memory. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.
Haldeman, H.R. The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1994.
Ignatius, David and Michael Getler. "This Isn't Watergate-But the Moral is the Same." Washington Post, 1 March 1987.
Izard, Ralph S. "Public Confidence in the News Media," Journalism Quarterly 62 (spring 1985): 247-255.
Jamieson, Kathleen Hall., and Sean Aday. "When is Presidential Behavior Public and When is it Private?" Presidential Studies Quarterly 28 (Fall 1998): 856-860.
Johnson, Thomas J."Critical Events: The Missing Link in Generational Research." Paper presented at the annual convention of the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research, Chicago, November 1989.
___. "The Journalist as Historian: The Relative Influence of the Media on Images of the Past." Paper presented to the International Communication Association annual convention, Miami, May 1992.
___. The Rehabilitation of Richard Nixon: The Media's Effect on Collective Memory. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1995.
Johnson, Thomas J., and Mahmoud A. Braima and Jayanthi Sothirajah, "Measure for Measure: The Relationship Between Different Broadcast Types, Formats, Measures and Political Behaviors and Cognitions." Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media..
Johnson, Thomas J., and Marilyn Roberts. "'Death is No Excuse: Nixon in 2000': Public Images of Nixon 25 Years After Watergate." Paper presented to the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research annual convention, Chicago, November 1998.
Kammen, Michael. Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.
Kutler, Stanley I. The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
Lang, G.E. and Lang, K. (1984). Politics and television re-viewed. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Lang, Gladys Engel, and Kurt Lang. "Recognition and Renown: The Survival of Artistic Reputation." American Journal of Sociology 94 (July 1988): 79-109.
Lang, Kurt, and Gladys Engel Lang. "Experiences and Ideology: The Influence of the Sixties on an Intellectual Elite." In Research in Social Movements and Social
Conflicts I, 197-230. London: Greenwich: JAI Press, 1978.
___. (with the assistance of Thomas J. Johnson and Peggy E. Roberts). "Collective Memory and the News." Communications 11 (1989): 123-139.
Lardner Jr., George. "Calls Indicate Nixon Was Blue, Drinking After Major Speech." Washington Post, 29 November 1996.
Lewis, Anthony. "Ronald Milhous Reagan." New York Times, 22 May 1987, A31.
Lippmann, W. (1922). Public opinion. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.
Maier, Timothy W. and Jennifer G. Hickey. "Whitewater & Watergate." Insight on the News, 23 June , 1997.
Pew Research Center, "Fewer Favor Press Scrutiny of Political Leaders: Press 'Unfair, Inaccurate and Pushy,'" available at http://www.people-press.org/97medmor.htm.
PollingReport.com. Associated Press. July 28-Aug. 1, 1999. available at http://
www.pollingreport.com/news/htm.
___. NBC News/Wall St. Journal Poll. July 24-26 1999. http:// www.
pollingreport.com/news/htm.
Morgan, Edward P. (1994). Nixon and the Sixties: Mass media and the
sanitized past, Tikkun,
Newport, Frank. "Nixon's Image Remains Negative 25 Years After Watergate."
available at http://www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr900807.asp.
Newport, Frank, and Alec Gallup. "Clinton's Popularity Paradox." The Gallup
Poll Monthly 388 (January 1998): 14-19.
Newport, Frank and Lydia Saad, "A Matter of Trust," AJR Newslink, July/August 1998, available at ajr.newslink.org/ajrgallup98.html.
Nixon, Richard M. RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978.
Pew Research Center. "America's Collective Memory." available at http://www.people-press.org/mill1.sec4.htm.
Roberts, Steven V. with Jeff Trimble. "The Road to Respectability." U.S. News & World Report, 2 May 1994, 34-36.
Ryder, Norman B. "The Cohort as a Concept in the Study of Social Change."
American Sociological Review 30 (December 1965): 843-861.
Safire, William. "Mr. Comeback." New York Times, 25 April 1994, A15.
___. "Nixon on 1996." New York Times, 2 May 1994, A19.
Schlesinger, Philip. (1978). Putting reality together: BBC News. London:
Constable.
Schneider, Beth E. "Political Generations and the Contemporary Women's Movement." Sociological Inquiry 58 (Winter 1988): 4-21.
Schneider, William and I.A. Lewis, "Views on the News," Public Opinion, August-September 1985, 6-11, 58-59.
Schudson, Michael. "The Present in the Past Versus the Past in the Present."
Communication 11 (1989): 105-113.
___. Watergate in American Memory: How We Remember, Forget, and Reconstruct the Past. New York: BasicBooks, 1992.
Schwartz, Barry. "The Social Context of Commemoration: A Study of Collective
Memory." Social Forces 61 (December 1982): 374-402.
Shaw, David. "Public and the Press-Two Viewpoints," Los Angeles Times, 11 August, 1985, sec. A, pp. 1, 12-13
Shoemaker, P.J., & Reese, S.D. (1991). Mediating the message: Theories of influence on mass media content. New York: Longman.
Stacks, John F. "Victory in Defeat." Time, 2 May 1994, 28-29.
The People and the Press: Part 3 (Los Angeles: Times Mirror Company, 1987);
The People and the Press: Part 5, conducted by the Gallup Organization (Washington, D.C.: Times Mirror Company, 1989.
The Pew Research Center, "Public Votes for Continuity and Change; Big Doubts About News Media's Values," February 1999, available at www.people-press.org/Feb99rpt.htm.
Times-Mirror Center for People and the Press. The People, the Press & Politics.
Washington D.C. Times Mirror Center, 1990
Times Mirror, The People & the Press: A Time Mirror Investigation of Public Attitudes Toward the News Media, conducted by Gallup in collaboration with Michael J. Robinson (Los Angeles: Times Mirror Company, 1986
Warren, James. "Scorn, Slurs on New Nixon Tapes: Plots Against Busing, Calls Jews 'Disloyal.'" Chicago Tribune, October 1999.
Weisberg, Jacob. "Spinning From his Grave." New York, 9 May 1994, 39-43.
Whitney, Charles D. The Media and the People: Soundings from Two Communities (New York: Gannett Center for Media Studies, Columbia University, 1985);
Winerup, Michael. "In School: Remembering Nixon? For Some Students, He Might as Well be George Washington." New York Times, 27 April 1994, A14.
Woodward, Bob. "The Revisionist Nixon: Sinner in Shining Armor." Washington Post, 2 October 1988, C5.
Zaller, John. "Monica Lewinsky's Contribution to Political Science." PS 31 (June 1998): 182-189.
Zelizer, Barbie. Covering the Body: The Kennedy Assassination, the Media, and the Shaping of Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
___. "Reading the Past Against the Grain: The Shape of Memory Studies."
Critical Studies in Mass Communication 12 (1995): 214-239
Zoglin, Richard. (1994, 8 August). Nixon without nostalgia. Time, p. 60.
Figure 1 - Demographic Variables and Significant Associations by Questions
Question Age Gender Ethnicity Income Education
Watergate not serious enough
to force Nixon out X* -- -- -- --
Lewinsky not serious enough
to force Clinton out -- -- X -- --
Nixon Administration one of
the most corrupt -- X -- X --
Clinton Administration one of
the most corrupt -- -- -- -- --
Media out to get Nixon through
Watergate scandal X -- -- -- X
Media out to get Clinton through
Lewinsky scandal -- -- -- --
*indicates a significant relationship at p>.05
Figure 2 - Political Variables and Significant Associations with Questions
Parental Political Political
Question Talk Interest Ideology
Watergate not serious enough
to force Nixon out
X* X --
Lewinsky not serious enough
to force Clinton out -- -- X
Nixon Administration one of
the most corrupt X -- X
Clinton Administration one of
the most corrupt -- -- --
Media out to get Nixon through
Watergate scandal -- -- X
Media out to get Clinton through
Lewinsky scandal -- -- X
* indicates a significant relationship at p>.05
Cross-Tabulation Tables
Table 1: Watergate scandal not serious enough to force Nixon out of office and the association by Age of Respondent
Watergate not serious to force Nixon out
Age 30 and under
Age 31-40
Age 41-50
Age 51 and older
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=27
18%
n=19
20.2%
n=17
25.4%
n=37
37.4%
No opinion
n=34
22.7%
n=14
14.9%
n=5
7.5%
n=11
11.1%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=89
59.3%
n=61
64.9%
n=45
67.2%
n=51
51.5%
Total n= 150 n= 94 n= 67 n= 99
100% 100% 100% 100%
Total n= 410 Chi-square= 21.15 df=6,6 p=.002
Table 2: Affair not serious enough to force Clinton out and the association by Racial/Ethnic Background of Respondent
Affair not serious to force Clinton out
white
other
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=66
33.2%
n=30
61.2%
No opinion
n=19
9.5%
n=3
6.1%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=114
57.3%
n=16
32.7%
Total n= 199 n= 49
100% 100%
Total n= 248 Chi-square= 13.07 df=4,4 p=.001
Table 3: Nixon's administration is most corrupt and the association by the Gender of the Respondent
Nixon's
administra-
tion most corrupt
male
female
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=51
23.8%
n=72
32.1%
No opinion
n=60
28%
n=81
36.2%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=103
48.1%
n=71
31.7%
Total n= 214 n= 224
100% 100%
Total n= 438 Chi-square= 12.38 df=2,2 p=.002
Table 4: Nixon's administration most corrupt and the association by the Household Income of the Respondent
Nixon's administra-
Tion most corrupt
30K or less
Between 31- 60K
Over 60K
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=42
26.3%
n=45
34.6%
n=26
23%
No opinion
n=70
43.8%
n=34
26.2%
n=25
22.1%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=48
30%
n=51
39.2%
n=62
54.9%
Total n= 160 n= 130 n= 113
100% 100% 100%
Total n= 403 Chi-square= 25.22 df=4,4 p=.000
Table 5: Media out to get Nixon and the association by the Age of the Respondent
Nixon's administra-tion most corrupt
Age 30 and under
Age 31-40
Age 41-50
Age 51 and older
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=38
25.5%
n=34
35.8%
n=30
45.5%
n=30
30.6%
No opinion
n=68
45.6%
n=30
31.6%
n=12
18.2%
n=19
19.4%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=43
28.9%
n=31
32.6%
n=24
36.4%
n=49
50%
Total n= 149 n= 95 n= 66 n=98
Total n= 408 Chi-square= 31.51 df=6,6 p=.000
Table 6: Media out to get Nixon and the association by the Level of Education of the Respondent
Nixon's administra-tion most corrupt
Did not graduate high school-some college/asso-ciate degree
Bachelor's Degree
Graduate Degree
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=58
36.5%
n=52
33.5%
n=28
27.5%
No opinion
n=55
34.6%
n=52
33.5%
n=21
20.6%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=46
28.9%
n=51
32.9%
n=53
52.0%
Total n= 159 n= 155 n= 102
Total n= 416 Chi-square= 15.94 df=4,4 p=.003
Table 7: Watergate scandal not serious enough to force Nixon out and the association by How much Respondent's Parents Talked about Politics Growing up
Watergate not serious to force Nixon out
Parents talk a lot about politics
Parents talk some
Parents talk a little
Parents hardly ever talk
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=16
19.5%
n=32
21.2%
n=28
24.3%
n=31
34.4%
No opinion
n=5
6.1%
n=23
15.2%
n=22
19.1%
n=21
23.3%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=61
74.4%
n=96
63.9%
n=65
56.6%
n=38
42.2%
Total n=82 n=151 n=115 n=90
Total n= 438 Chi-square= 22.02 df=6,6 p=.001
Table 8: Watergate scandal not serious enough to force Nixon out of office and the association by Level of Political Interest
Watergate not serious to force Nixon out
Extremely-somewhat interested in politics
Neither interested/
uninterested in politics
Somewhat-very uninterested in politics
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=45
22.1%
n=22
30.6%
n=38
24.2%
No opinion
n=34
9.8%
n=16
22.2%
n=35
22.3%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=139
68.1%
n=34
47.2%
n=84
53.5%
Total n= 204 n= 72 n= 157
100% 100% 100%
Total n= 433 Chi-square= 17.15 df=4,4 p=.002
Table 9: Affair not serious enough to force Clinton out and the association by the Political Ideology of Respondent
Affair not serious to force Clinton out
extremely-somewhat liberal
neither liberal nor conservative
somewhat conservative
quite-extremely conservative
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=79
63.7%
n=50
56.8%
n=38
39.6%
n=23
18.3%
No opinion
n=10
8.1%
n=6
6.8%
n=8
8.3%
n=9
7.1%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=35
28.2%
n=32
36.4%
n=50
52.1%
n=94
74.6%
Total n= 124 n= 88 n= 96 n= 94
100% 100% 100% 100%
Total n= 434 Chi-square= 65.08 df=6,6 p=.000
Table 10: Nixon's administration the most corrupt and the association by How much Respondent's Parents Talked about Politics Growing up
Nixon's administra-tion most corrupt
Parents talk a lot
Parents talk some
Parents talk a little
Parents talk hardly ever
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=31
37.8%
n=36
23.8%
n=31
27.2%
n=24
26.7%
No opinion
n=15
18.3%
n=46
30.5%
n=47
41.2%
n=35
38.9%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=36
43.9%
n=69
45.7%
n=36
31.6%
n=31
34.4%
Total n= 82 n= 151 n= 114 n=90
Total n= 437 Chi-square= 17.14 df=6,6 p=.009
Table 11: Nixon's administration is most corrupt and the association by the Political Ideology of the Respondent
Nixon's administra-tion most corrupt
Extremely-somewhat liberal
Neither liberal or conservative
Somewhat conservative
Quite-extremely conservative
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=51
40.8%
n=27
30.7%
n=19
20.0%
n=25
19.8%
No opinion
n=41
32.8%
n=37
42%
n=33
34.7%
n=30
23.8%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=33
26.4%
n=24
27.3%
n=43
45.3%
n=71
56.3%
Total n= 125 n= 88 n= 95 n=126
Total n= 434 Chi-square= 36.86 df=6,6 p=.000
Table 12: Media out to get Nixon and the association by the Political Ideology of Respondent
Media out to get Nixon through Watergate scandal
extremely-somewhat liberal
neither liberal nor conservative
somewhat conservative
quite-extremely conservative
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=29
20.4%
n=20
14.1%
n=32
22.5%
n=61
43%
No opinion
n=41
30.6%
n=35
26.1%
n=32
23.9%
n=26
19.4%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=55
35.3%
n=31
19.9%
n=32
20.5%
n=38
24.4%
Total n= 125 n= 86 n= 96 n= 125
100% 100% 100% 100%
Total n= 432 Chi-square= 26.22 df=6,6 p=.000
Table 13: Media out to get Clinton and the association by the Political Ideology of Respondent
Media out to get Clinton through Lewinsky scandal
extremely-somewhat liberal
neither liberal nor conservative
somewhat conservative
quite-extremely conservative
Definitely agree-agree more than disagree
n=75
60%
n=58
66.7%
n=44
45.4%
n=40
32%
No opinion
n=29
23.2%
n=10
11.5%
n=9
9.3%
n=11
8.8%
Disagree more than agree/
definitely disagree
n=21
16.8%
n=19
21.8%
n=44
45.4%
n=74
59.2%
Total n= 125 n= 87 n= 97 n=125
100% 100% 100% 100%
Total n= 434 Chi-square= 66.31 df=6,6 p=.000