I just saw it tonight. I loved it, but I'm more of a political sort anyway. Anyone else see it? What did you think?

I checked quickly and didn't see the movie as a topic but I'll admit I wasn't looking very hard.

I'm not sure how Ron Howard was screwing with history. It's just a film version of a play that's been out for years, and it stayed pretty true to the real tapes. It was also an allegory on the fact that he believes Bush was also pushing illegal policies that he didn't feel were illegal because "when the president does it, it's not illegal".

I'm not going to debate over whether or not what Bush did WAS illegal, I'm just pressing the point that in part the movie was made to symbolize the issues America was dealing with a couple of years ago, once that it continues to struggle with into Obama's term as well and probably will struggle with forever. And the paranoia surrounding the corruption of government and the inability to trust elected officials really got its revival with Watergate.

I wouldn't call journalists the 4th branch of gov't, but I also would not be so flippant about how they influence gov't and politics. If anyone actually thinks that elected officials wouldn't be fucking us in the ass even worse than they are now without the watchful eye of the media then you're crazy. They're job is to uncover what is constantly trying to be hidden and I would contend that we need them now more than ever.

I would agree with your assertion about the media going easy on him for his about-faces. I think the fact that he said he'd overturn Don't Ask, Don't Tell during the campaign but refused to reinstate a gay Army translator who was recently discharged, as well as flipping on showing the pictures from Gitmo have been under-reported. However, those about-faces have been on lesser issues and right now the economy is in the toilet and the media is focusing on that and Iraq.

I don't agree about Obama being in like flint with the media. Every story that's come out of the media about its relations with the president has been about how aloof and "cool" (not as in awesome but as in standoff-ish) he's been toward them.

Nixon came off as shifty and weird because a) for a while he had no idea how to manage his image; and b) because he WAS shifty and the American people saw right through him. The Frost interview was Nixon at his most vulnerable and it showed clearly that while he was aware of the illegalities he was perpetrating, he thought it was in the best interest of the nation. People didn't buy it and they should not have. Illegal is illegal, no matter what the reason.