The most famous political scandal in American history is, of course, Watergate.

It's so famous that even now, 50 years after it happened, almost every scandal of any kind

comes with an obligatory gate after it.

If you ask most people to explain what Watergate was all about, they draw blank.

If they know a bit of history or perhaps they lived through it, they might say something

like this.

It was about a bungled break-in that brought down a president.

That's true.

That the break-in is the least significant part of the story.

Watergate was first and foremost a political war between the president, Richard Nixon, and

the media, which in those pre-cable days meant, ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, and The

Washington Post.

The media's aim in the words of British historian Paul Johnson was to use publicity to reverse

the electoral verdict of 1972.

Why?

What did the media have against Nixon?

That's a complex question, but we can essentially boil it down to three things.

One, he was despised by the East Coast liberal elite, of which the Washington Press Corps was

a key component.

Two, he was a staunch anti-communist.

The media considered the communist threat to be overblown.

Three, he refused to abandon South Vietnam.

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