One of the advantages of being older is that you remember things. Those things may have happened long ago from the viewpoint of younger generations, but they certainly didn’t occur in a galaxy far far away. Back in the day, stuff happened right in front of our eyes that corrupted our system of justice and it was reported factually on the 6:00 o’clock news.
That experience gives folks my age and older the advantage of a perspective on today’s trends, patterns and occurrences.
Real News from Real Newsmen
I remember when the 6:00 o’clock news reported factually on items of some importance, both nationally and internationally. We heard and saw things that mattered, narrated by men of substance: John Chancellor, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow.
Chet Huntley and David Brinkley
Today, we get only national news because the networks have largely closed their international bureaus as too expensive. Oh, we might hear about a war or a natural disaster or an airplane crash somewhere else in the world, but other than that, the networks treat any place outside of the United States as terra incognita—unknown and of small importance.
Even national news skews toward the sensational, however. NBC has a predilection for information about crimes, trials, sports, and human interest stories. Last night, for example, they led with the Sean Combs trial. Say what? Huntley and Brinkley would have given that sleazy spectacle short shrift. I switched to CBS with coverage of the president’s trip to Saudi Arabia. When the human interest stories came later, I switched back.
A Politicized Department of Justice
I remember when President John F. Kennedy outraged Republicans by naming his brother Attorney General at the insistence of their father. According to the Yale Law and Policy Review,
“The Kennedy DOJ agenda was frankly political, and the AG viewed the ninety-three U.S. Attorneys as his field officers, charged with prosecuting his brother’s enemies.”
Robert Kennedy and John F. Kennedy
That’s a far cry from acting as the people’s lawyer.
The press called RFK “inexperienced” and “unqualified” His appointment made his brother, the president, vulnerable to attacks from Republicans for bias and nepotism. It undoubtedly politicized the Department of Justice. (William P. Rogers, President Eisenhower’s AG was equally political but not one of the family.) In 1957 Congress passed a law prohibiting this kind of naked nepotism.
Corrupt Justice at the FBI
For that matter, I remember when J. Edgar Hoover ran a completely politicized FBI. Hoover made it his business to collect sensitive information on many prominent Americans, hoarding it like the gold it was. He used it to blackmail presidents and dole it out to presidents as ammunition against their enemies.
“Even before he became director of the FBI, Hoover was conducting secret intelligence operations against U.S. citizens he suspected were anarchists, radical leftists or communists.”
Hoover created a list of “enemies of the United States,” that included terrorists, communists, spies, civil rights leaders, and anti-war activists. Plus, anyone he or the FBI considered subversive and enemies of the state. He politicized the FBI unequivocally and unapologetically. Justice took second place in his search for power.
An Attorney General in Prison
I remember how John Mitchell, Richard Nixon’s attorney general, lied about the Watergate break-in under oath and was convicted of perjury. The country’s chief law officer and legal counsel served 19 months in prison.
Martha and John Mitchell
I also remember his wife, Martha, who tried to warn everyone from friends to reporters about the Nixon administration’s corruption. John Mitchell called her “mentally unbalanced” and had her held captive and sedated to protect the Nixon administration’s criminal activities.
That was followed by a smear campaign when she tried to tell the press what had happened to her. members of the administration discredited her as a mentally unstable “sick woman” and an alcoholic. Of course, back then it was easier to slander women for any number of things without proof or having the press demand question the charges.
It took years for her to be vindicated. Today, the term “Martha Mitchell Effect” was coined as a result of her experiences with mental health professionals who believed her to be delusional.
Oh, and let’s not forget Richard Kleindienst, Mr. Mitchell’s predecessor as Attorney General, who was convicted of obstruction of justice and served one month in prison. He and Mr. Mitchell were among the 69 Nixon administration officials who were charged with crimes resulting from the Watergate burglary.
Lamenting Justice Corrupted
So, when I hear people today lament that the FBI is corrupt or the Department of Justice is politicized, I applaud. Because I remember when both of those things were true—as they are today—and I’m glad others think those violations of justice are as important as I do.
