Thread by @SethCotlar

Just watched the first 10 minutes of this and I heartily second Heather's suggestion that you take some time to watch it. What most stands out to me are Buckley's bad faith accusations of bias. Perhaps he was just playing "devil's advocate," but still...not a good look for Bill.

https://twitter.com/ProfHendershot/status/1178055065233285120

Woodward and Bernstein's explanation of how they did their work as journalists stands as a useful reminder of the reason for that profession's existence. I love how they so easily swat away Buckley's efforts to discredit them and defend Nixon.

Buckley [paraphrased]: But your reporting will have real life consequences that will please one side.

Woodward & Bernstein [paraphrased]: And so therefore we shouldn't pursue the truth of what the President has done?

Buckley's cynical effort to defend Nixon from his critics and discredit journalists' attempts to uncover the truth are of a piece with this Spiro Agnew speech from 1969.

My favorite moment in this Agnew speech is where he attacks a journalist who said the following: "Were it not for the fear of a hostile reaction, Richard Nixon would be giving into his natural instinct to smash the enemy with a club or go after him with a meat ax."

Agnew then says "If this slander had been made by one political candidate about another it would have been dismissed as a partisan attack. But this attack emanated from the privileged sanctuary of a network studio & therefore had the apparent dignity of an objective statement."

Readers, that statement about Nixon was perhaps overstatement, but not slander. As @TimNaftali discusses in this podcast, Nixon gleefully used government agencies to try to destroy citizens he considered his "enemies." wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/s…

@TimNaftali But remember, Agnew's speech was made in 1969, long after Agnew had begun his own career of corruption and intimidation detailed in this podcast series, but before Nixon had fully ramped up into attack mode post 1972 Watergate break in. msnbc.com/bagman

@TimNaftali There are many lessons we can draw from Watergate and the broader Nixon administration. One of the big ones, is that when politicians attack the press, it's usually because they're trying to hide their own corruption and criminality.

@TimNaftali While I suspect many folks in MAGA-land are steeped in the cynicism about politics that Watergate infused into our culture, somehow they missed the lesson that it is journalists more than anyone else who have served us by exposing the misdeeds of the powerful.

@TimNaftali As for Bill Buckley. It strikes me that part of his legacy is that he eloquently and with great erudition, sought to defend the indefensible (like Nixon, or segregation). Once those positions became untenable, he would memory hole them and pick up some new indefensible cause.

@TimNaftali Like, for example, in this moment when Buckley makes the now widely discredited claim that Andrew Johnson should not have been impeached. Note also how he hides behind JFK to make the argument. "Objective, bothsides Bill" vs. biased liberals.

@TimNaftali And this is an argument from Buckley that is truly Hannity-worthy. "Because so many more Democrats than Republicans will vote for impeachment, it shows that this is a biased process."

@TimNaftali According to Buckley, the problem is not that Republicans will let their loyalty to their President cloud their judgement of his actions, but rather that Democrats are being biased by investigating him.

@TimNaftali The more old episodes of Firing Line I watch, the more I see the outlines of Limbaugh/Glenn Beck/Hannity/Ingraham/D'Souza conservatism...only spoken in a posh New England prep school accent with genteel bemusement rather than with middle American rage.

@TimNaftali Bill Buckley: wHaT eVeN iS aN iMpeaCHaBLe OfFenCe?

@TimNaftali Holy Schnikies. Bill Buckley, self-professed admirer of liberty and limited government: "I think Nixon ought to have burned the tapes instantly, publicly, on the 4th of July!"

@TimNaftali Scratch a libertarian, and frequently you'll find an authoritarian hiding just below the surface. I mean seriously, imagine making the case that the President should have proudly burned the tapes containing evidence of his crimes.

@TimNaftali In this clip, Buckley makes the case for why Daniel Ellsberg should be in jail for espionage. Bernstein reminds Bill of the whole "rule of law" thing where proper legal procedures matter. Buckley isn't having it.

@TimNaftali This is such a great moment. Woodward depicts himself as a patriotic American with reverence for the nation's institutions who is shocked by what he's finding. Buckley snarkily says "did you learn that reverence in your history classes at Yale?"

@TimNaftali Buckley is so invested in the idea that W & B must hate America because they've been critical of the President, that he can't comprehend that they're motivated, in part, by principle. It's the whole "the liberal elite hates America" schtick so endemic to American conservatism.

@TimNaftali This is another amazing moment, when Deborah Willig, a law student at Temple, asks about whether the lack of women in positions of power has something to do with political corruption. The sexism she encounters (from all parties) is off the charts.

@TimNaftali Deborah Willig went on to have a successful career as a labor lawyer. Not a surprise given how well she handled these guys. wwdlaw.com/attorney/2/deb…