For those that livedthrough both, which was the bigger scandal: Watergate or Lewinsky?

[NFS4]

Since I didn't take my first breath of air until Jan 1st, 1980 I can't really answer this question

 

[Geekbabe]

Watergate

 

[Brutuskend]

Yup, what she said..

 

[UltraQuiet]

Watergate- It changed most peoples view of their goverment forever. The Lewinsky thing only confirmed what most intelligent people already knew about clinton. He's a POS.

 

[NFS4]

As far as media coverage goes, which was plastered on the TV the most?

 

[ThePresence]

I didnt live through Watergate, but I think it was bigger than Lewinsky. Watergate stood for everything America didnt. It actually shocked people that a President could do something like that.

 

[Gaard]

I'm old enough to remember the Watergate scandal but I wasn't old enough where it held any interest for me. My TV time was spent watching the moon walks and Little Rascals. What Walter Cronkite had to say only came out of the TV when my dad was in the room.

So even though Watergate was probably the bigger scandal of the two in American history, for me personally the Clinton/Lewinsky thing was bigger.

 

[UltraQuiet]

As far as media coverage goes, which was plastered on the TV the most

Definitely the Lewinksky thing although I'd be curious about proportions. You have to remember all we really had was the three networks. We got our news from Walter Cronkite and the local paper.

 

[Brutuskend]

Probably Lewinsky. But at least they never made a movie about THAT. (Or did they?

)

As far as history goes though, watergate def. left more of a lasting impact.

The Lewinsky thing fathered better JOKES though.

 

[Gaard]

The Lewinsky thing fathered better JOKES though.

Most definately. But one can only wonder what jokes would've been spawned had Letterman, Leno, and Conan been on the air back during Watergate.

 

[JC]

Clinton/Lewinsky was aired more, the media wasn't as rabid in the Watergate days.....but Watergate shocked more people.

JC

 

[skyking]

Watergate by far. The Lewinsky thing was about sex, and lying about it. Scandalous for sure, but not on par with breaking into your opposition's campaign headquarters to steal documents.

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: DaveSohmer

As far as media coverage goes, which was plastered on the TV the most

Definitely the Lewinksky thing although I'd be curious about proportions. You have to remember all we really had was the three networks. We got our news from Walter Cronkite and the local paper.

Dave -

Do you really remember more media (not counting Internet) coverage of the Lewinsky deal?
I'm not disagreeing, just racking my poor brain trying to remember.

 

[RossMAN]

I dunno let's all ask the soiled cigar how it felt and after ... :Q

 

[jjones]

Watergate completely demoralized America and its perceptions of Politics and Politicians. After all of the Viet Nam war, this was really devastating and most Americans lost all faith in anything government.

I was in my middle teens during Watergate and I remember quite clearly how terrible an effect this had on everyone. The Lewinsky scandal seems lightweight compared to Watergate.

Edit: BTW, I'd been out of the country for most of the Lewinsky media coverage so I can't really compare apples to apples. But I dont think that Lewinsky has had such a demoralizing effect upon most Americans as Watergate did; especially after the disillusion of Viet Nam.

 

[WhiteWonder]

wasn't watergate over hyped by the media?
i don't really know, but i'v heard that said befor
(wasn't alive then)

I did lose what little respect i had for the government with the Lewinsky thing

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: WhiteWonder
wasn't watergate over hyped by the media?
i don't really know, but i'v heard that said befor
(wasn't alive then)

I did lose what little respect i had for the government with the Lewinsky thing

Not really. You have to remember the sheer scale of Watergate and the number of people einvolved. This wasn't just a sole act by the President, but of the President and all of the people around him. Watergate shook up everything.

 

[Aenygma]

Watergate was bigger, and was plastered as well, though there were not as many outlets as there are now.

Lewinsky? hmm who cares.. we all knew he was a POS anyway.. I cared more about chinagate, rubyridge, the numerous legitimate investigations that janet reno squelched for him...the dismantling of our intelligence services under the clintoon reign, and ditto the military. And on and on..

 

[WhiteWonder]

Not really. You have to remember the sheer scale of Watergate and the number of people einvolved. This wasn't just a sole act by the President, but of the President and all of the people around him. Watergate shook up everything.

I was just saying what i think, guess i shouldn't have because i wasn't around for watergate. I kinda expect for a government to do sneaky sh!t, it always happens.

 

[WhiteWonder]

Lewinsky? hmm who cares.. we all knew he was a POS anyway.. I cared more about chinagate, rubyridge, the numerous legitimate investigations that janet reno squelched for him...the dismantling of our intelligence services under the clintoon reign, and ditto the military. And on and on..

i hear Reno had some good dance parties...

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: WhiteWonder

Not really. You have to remember the sheer scale of Watergate and the number of people einvolved. This wasn't just a sole act by the President, but of the President and all of the people around him. Watergate shook up everything.

I was just saying what i think, guess i shouldn't have because i wasn't around for watergate. I kinda expect for a government to do sneaky sh!t, it always happens.

Hey, you're always welcome to say what you think.

Everyone at that time didn't think highly of the government either but Watergate was like feeling bad already and then getting kicked in the balls.

 

[Red Dawn]

The Lewinsky scandal seems lightweight compared to Watergate.

Because it was. The characters involved with Watergate were much more sinister, including Tricky Dick. By the time he finally left office he was despised by the majority of Americans, Republican, Democrat, young and old . You have to remember that Nixon's Administration alienated a whole generation where as the Lewinski scandal had more to do with Petty Partisan politics. Compared to low lifes like G Gordon Liddy, Erlichman and Hadleman, those involved in the Oval Office Blow Job Scandal seemed like boy scouts getting caught in a circle jerk at a Catholic retreat.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: baffled2
Watergate

 

[Harvey]

Lewinsky was nothing. Nixon was a paranoid speed freak (documented) and criminal who should have spent the rest of his life in prison for his malicious abuse of power. He used the FBI and IRS as offensive weapons for his personal and polical motives to investigate and audit those who opposed him. :|

If you didn't see Tim Russert's interview with Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (All The President's Men), catch it in reruns, tonight on CNBC. Here are some excerpts from the transcript of the show

MR. CARL BERNSTEIN: Richard Nixon, who he was and how his presidency really was unique, in terms of its criminality and in terms of a president willing to undermine the Constitution of the United States in a basic, fundamental way that we?ve never seen before or since.

MR. BOB WOODWARD: Watergate really was kind of the real end of innocence probably for most people in the country. Gerald Ford, when he took over for Nixon, said Watergate had been a nightmare.

And it really was a nightmare. I mean, in the ?60s, there?d been the assassination of Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Vietnam and that tragedy, and then along comes Nixon and Watergate. And as Carl said, this was a criminal president. But not only was he a criminal president, but the investigations and the records showed that he had criminal intent in the White House. He would say to his aides, as we now know and as the whole story unraveled, ?Lie to the grand jury, pay hush money to the burglars, abuse the FBI, the IRS.? And then in this massive record is?you see that there was such zeal on Nixon?s part, not only to beat back his enemies, but to destroy them, to crush them. And

Probably the best example of that is the Ellsburg burglary. Here, Daniel Ellsburg had leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times, and there was a feeling?and they were going to prosecute him and indict him. But that wasn?t enough. In the Nixon White House, you had to rub him out almost.
.
.
MR. WOODWARD: Unbelievable. And then Nixon tapes all of these conversations.

MR. BERNSTEIN: Including one in which he then says, ?Let?s firebomb the Brookings Institution,? a think tank, and repeatedly says, ? Well, use a fire bomb.?

Or, you can listen to the interview with Daniel Shorr, yesterday morning on NPR, including a tape of his live report, thirty years ago, keeping his cool as he read his own name on Nixon's infamous Enemies List for the first time.

Anyone who made that list is a hero of mine.

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: Harvey
Lewinsky was nothing. Nixon was a paranoid speed freak (documented) and criminal who should have spend the rest of his life in prison for his malicious abuse of power. He used the FBI and IRS as offensive weapons for his personal and polical motives to investigate and audit those who opposed him.

Agreed, but I don't think that Nixon was unique in abusing power. Power corrupts...yada,yada, yada.

I seem to remeber Watergate consuming more of the media spotlight than Lewinsky(congressional hearings went on for weeks). At least it had a much more profound affect on the country, myself included.