# Nixon's war on the press, Trump's inheritance > Before Trump attacked journalists, Richard Nixon waged a sustained campaign to intimidate, punish and discredit the media. - Title: Nixon's war on the press, Trump's inheritance · TIME - Summary: Before Trump attacked journalists, Richard Nixon waged a sustained campaign to intimidate, punish and discredit the media. Richard Nixon pioneered the… - Keywords: richard nixon, donald trump, press freedom, watergate, first amendment, presidential power, media relations, government censorship, Nixon's, war, press, Trump's - Source: TIME — https://time.com/article/2026/10/01/nixon-trump-press - Author: David Greenberg - Published: 2026-10-01T11:00:05+00:00 - Read time: 3 min - Topics: richard nixon, donald trump, press freedom, watergate, first amendment, presidential power, media relations, government censorship ## Trump attacks the press, but he's not alone Donald Trump regularly berates reporters, revokes credentials and sues news organizations. But Richard Nixon, who appeared on TIME's cover more often than anyone else, was equally skilled at media manipulation. ## Presidents and press are natural enemies Since the early twentieth century, Presidents have tried to use journalists to spread their message while treating critical coverage as hostile. Reporters believe they offer fuller, more accurate accounts by adding context and checking facts. ## Every President has fought the media Theodore Roosevelt sued Joseph Pulitzer's New York World over Panama Canal corruption allegations. Franklin Roosevelt told an impertinent correspondent to wear a dunce cap. Eisenhower lied about a Soviet spy plane. Obama excluded Fox News from interviews. ## Nixon's hostility was unprecedented By nineteen sixty-nine, the White House press relationship was already combative. CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite called Nixon's antipress campaign a grand conspiracy. Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee said the First Amendment faced greater danger than ever before. > a grand conspiracy ## Nixon got positive coverage too In summer nineteen seventy-two, Nixon received admiring coverage during détente with the Soviet Union and after his China trip. Of more than twenty-two hundred Washington correspondents, only about a dozen pursued the emerging Watergate story. ## But Nixon's campaign never stopped Chuck Colson bullied CBS executives into shortening a Watergate exposé in fall nineteen seventy-two. Speechwriter Ray Price admitted, we did often lie, mislead, deceive, try to use the press and con them. Nixon insisted the press is the enemy to be hated and beaten. > the press is the enemy ... to be hated and beaten ## Nixon and Kissinger wiretapped journalists Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger planned to stop leaks by wiretapping homes and phones of journalists reporting critically on the Administration. At syndicated columnist Joseph Kraft's Georgetown home, a White House hireling in a repairman's uniform installed a transmitter on a telephone pole. ## The Pentagon Papers triggered more retaliation When the New York Times published the Pentagon Papers in nineteen seventy-one, Nixon sued to stop publication. The Supreme Court rejected his claim that national security justified censorship. The leak spurred Nixon to create the Plumbers unit, which later broke into Democratic headquarters at Watergate in nineteen seventy-two. ## Nixon threatened the Washington Post's licenses The Washington Post Company owned two Florida television stations, WJXT in Jacksonville and WPLG in Miami. In September nineteen seventy-two, Nixon told aides the Post would have damnable problems and the game has to be played awfully rough. Allies challenged the licenses, hurting the company's stock and legal fees. > The Post is going to have damnable, damnable problems out of this one ## Individual journalists faced punishment Martin Schram of Newsday was excluded from Nixon's nineteen seventy-two China trip after reporting on Nixon's financial entanglements. Daniel Schorr of CBS News endured an FBI investigation after a negative piece. Nixon ordered the IRS to audit journalistic detractors. G. Gordon Liddy plotted to assassinate columnist Jack Anderson. ## Nixon's war on media ultimately failed Courts rejected Nixon's attempt to censor the Pentagon Papers. Congress exposed his illegal operations. Watergate showed investigative journalism's value in holding a lawless President accountable. But the conflict heightened journalists' distrust of power and embrace of confrontational posture. ## Trump inherited Nixon's playbook Presidents after Nixon viewed reporters as adversaries to be monitored, punished and discredited. Donald Trump simply inherited a playbook bequeathed by Nixon, continuing the assault on press freedom that began decades earlier. ## Key takeaway Richard Nixon pioneered the presidential assault on press freedom that Donald Trump later adopted, using wiretaps, legal threats, and executive power to punish critical coverage.