Having Lived Through Watergate, This Was A Treat
Meeting John Dean at Annual Kastenmeier lecture Friday
Give Dean credit for owning up to and then using his Watergate participation to live a life of public-spirited journalism, teaching and scholarship. That is a model career and an admirable recovery.
And his observations about arrogant, abusive power and unethical lawyering are certainly applicable here in Scott Walker's Wisconsin, where free speech, free assembly, ballot access, transparent redistricting and public land and water rights are under sustained attack by politicized attorneys.
More, here.
Give Dean credit for owning up to and then using his Watergate participation to live a life of public-spirited journalism, teaching and scholarship. That is a model career and an admirable recovery.
And his observations about arrogant, abusive power and unethical lawyering are certainly applicable here in Scott Walker's Wisconsin, where free speech, free assembly, ballot access, transparent redistricting and public land and water rights are under sustained attack by politicized attorneys.
More, here.
4 comments:
Now I know why you write for a propaganda machine and refuse to acknowledge the role of the media (YOUR EMPLOYER) in creating a "divide and conquer" governor.
You worship John Dean?!?!?!
LOL!
You really don't understand what watergate was all about -- this man is no hero.
An exerienced professional like you could choose to enlighten the public on how journalism works -- how it is systematically biased towards the interests of its owners. There certainly is NO major liberal media outlet among the 5 multinational corporations that control virtually all of the national mass media.
And then there's the wanna-be's that dominate states like WI.
If you personally admire john dean -- that is your choice -- but it explains why you refuse to inform the public as to how the media works and how it is entirely culpable for today's republican autsterity agenda.
If you mean the JS, it is not my employer. The do not pay me.
I admire Dean for owning up to his crime and then becoming a thoughtful and productive scholar and pundit.
I went to the speech in Madison and it was fascinating, especially for someone that watched the Watergate hearings as avidly as I did in 1973.
Dean speaks and writes with animation and humor, a real contrast with his monotone testimony during Watergate. He said on Friday that the monotone was deliberate; he was trying to save his voice for many hours of testimony and also trying not to give any emotional weight to his statements but just put the facts out. Ironically, it was the monotone that made statements like the famous "I began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency and that if the cancer was not removed the president himself would be killed by it" so very dramatic!
After the speech, I found myself thinking about how important our system of checks and balances is and how dangerous it may be to dismantle them as we are doing. Dean points out the foibles of human nature that tend to trip up very intelligent, very politically savvy people like Nixon and allow deluded fools like G. Gordon Liddy to attempt unnecessary things like the Watergate break in. Even good people blow it sometimes. It's important to have systems that catch the errors and keep people honest.
I've been reading Dean's books and blogs for several years and find that his thinking very enlightening and stimulating.
I went to the speech in Madison and it was fascinating, especially for someone that watched the Watergate hearings as avidly as I did in 1973.
Dean speaks and writes with animation and humor, a real contrast with his monotone testimony during Watergate. He said on Friday that the monotone was deliberate; he was trying to save his voice for many hours of testimony and also trying not to give any emotional weight to his statements but just put the facts out. Ironically, it was the monotone that made statements like the famous "I began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency and that if the cancer was not removed the president himself would be killed by it" so very dramatic!
After the speech, I found myself thinking about how important our system of checks and balances is and how dangerous it may be to dismantle them as we are doing. Dean points out the foibles of human nature that tend to trip up very intelligent, very politically savvy people like Nixon and allow deluded fools like G. Gordon Liddy to attempt unnecessary things like the Watergate break in. Even good people blow it sometimes. It's important to have systems that catch the errors and keep people honest.
I've been reading Dean's books and blogs for several years and find that his thinking very enlightening and stimulating.
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