Nixon's The One (2013) s01e05 Episode Script
Episode 5
When Richard Nixon and I were taping the Nixon interviews, there was a news report that President Jimmy Carter, the then-president, was about to give a televised, fireside speech to the nation.
When Nixon heard about it, he immediately approved.
"That's right", he said, "that's what matters these days - "the toobe, it's the toobe.
" Richard Nixon always had a complicated relationship with "the toobe".
In 1952, his televised Checkers Speech kept him on the Vice Presidential ticket.
In 1960, his first televised debate with John Kennedy was widely believed to have damaged his campaign for President.
But it was not as simple as that.
Though opinion polls showed that Kennedy was voted the winner by television viewers, Nixon was voted the winner by radio listeners.
In 1968, his cameo appearance on the hit TV comedy, Laugh In, appeared to help his presidential candidacy.
Talking to me? The medium fascinated, and bedevilled, him.
He understood its power to humanise and glamorise political leaders but despite that fascination, he never appeared to master the crucial art of seeming to be himself on television.
That may be why he frequently mused about taking behind-the-scenes control of a television network, or otherwise blunting the ever-growing power of "the toobe".
The conversations you're about to see were the words actually spoken by the participants, edited only for time.
And in keeping with the era in which the original White House tapes were recorded, this programme is presented in standard definition.
All these photographers, you know, are all highly sensitive, you know? Each one has a different idea of what the hell makes a good picture.
Let's let him do it.
Let's let him select the picture and decide whether it's worth a damn.
Let him set up, touch it up, you know what I mean? But you tell him what we need.
What we need, primarily, is a good smiling shot, you know.
Not too, too But anything we want and then the one that we can use as the final portrait and that way, we don't get a situation where you get others into the deal.
It's awfully difficult for one photographer, Bob, to say that another man's work is any good, you know what I mean? I know Ollie's stuff.
Ollie's new stuff is the best in the world.
Better than this guy's, I'm sure.
This guy is probably better in portraits.
I can imagine, the way he makes you sit and he's just watching little things.
A lot of little damn things Like the wrinkles in your suit and Oh, the cufflinks, da-da-da.
Well, that's damn important.
Yeah, he gets all these damn little things he's watching and whether your head's tilted properly, he's making a decision on that, you know, "Oh, look, you could look very nice if you did your head this way", this sort of thing.
Yeah.
I did want to ask you one other thing about our television producers.
I think Mark Goode, for example, is excellent on sets and all that.
You walk in and the crowd is on your right and the little chart and so forth and so on.
I'm wondering, I wonder, I don't want to do too much of this, but I was wondering if you think he knows anything about, um how I oughta stand, or whether the head oughta be up a little more.
I'm not gonna be He's not gonna get involved with content, I don't want any television person deciding anything about that, but But uh .
.
do you think they know? They do.
They I know I've been reluctant to get into that with you, cos I talked about it with Carruthers.
You didn't want people telling you to wave your hands or fold them and all that.
Well, act like Carruthers, rather than Goode.
He would like to do a little critique on it.
I think, maybe, writing a memo is a better way to do it.
Have him write a little memorandum.
Because he can do it in the abstract and then he isn't hung up.
I don't know He'll give it to you, I'll read it and get it and do it in a very objective way, without everybody involved in it, and then you could say, you can tell him there's no problem.
I think, maybe, on the other hand I think, on the other hand, Bob, we do not want, we do not want to try to eliminate whatever idiosyncrasies I've got.
That's right.
That's part of the man.
You don't wanna be a cardboard man up there.
Carruthers I think realises that.
That's right.
That's what I'm concerned about.
I don't want to be up there, like Ronald Reagan or Bob Hope, or, for that matter, Jimmy Durante.
You know, I've gotta go my own way, you see? Absolutely, and that's the thing I'm not gonna worry about it too much.
Carruthers feels very strongly And I That's why I do not, do not want the staff and all getting into this sort of thing.
That's why TV is different than a, than a It's like an Ollie picture, because it's It keeps moving.
You don't sit and study it.
The portrait, you sit and study.
The portrait hangs on someone's wall for five years and the more you look at it, the more the flaw comes out and you focus on that.
And it's gotta be perfect.
The other, perfection, would hurt it.
Hmm, yeah Uh-huh.
If there were anything that were bad, I'm sure he would have spoken up on it.
I don't think he feels that.
I'm sure there are some things he'd look over and know that he would suggest You said he would want .
.
makes his own better picture.
A few little things, little things that he finds - it's better to look up at the camera or down at the person.
It's not good to look sidewise or something.
A few little things like that would not, er would not er I mean Do you know what I mean? He said, too, about the which is exactly what you want, about making you conscious, self-conscious about technique when you should be working, worrying about the substance.
He's absolutely right.
Absolutely.
Substance matters.
Because you're doing If you're comfortable, your delivery's gonna be good, you know that.
I'll tell you an interesting thing.
What we were talking about before you came in was interesting.
That conference yesterday I prepared for at least 100 questions and answered 21.
My God, most complicated Goddamn things, "What are you gonna do about the pound?" "What are you gonna do about this, that and the other?" But the most important thing about press conference is not how you answer the damn questions.
The important thing is, it turns out, a question of luck, very often.
It's whether you happen to get a few questions that provide the opportunity to, you know, play the field, rather than answer.
Yeah, I think that I think we put too much emphasis on content.
Oh, yeah Everybody's interested in content.
Hell, as I said to Bob the other day, "Forget the content, just look good.
" You had Bob and I go back and look at the uh Kennedy press conferences and when you I'll never forget.
Watching it now, in retrospect, you get a much better feel.
He never answered the questions.
It was the way, the style and the flair and the occasional wit and the gracefulness with which he handled it.
And you did that last night.
I think, better than you've ever done it.
I thought there was more style and class in the way in which you did that, and as I told you the cameras played it better than I've ever seen them play it.
Uh, it was really We had nothing to do with that.
There's nothing we can do about it.
No.
It was magnificent.
Who plays the cameras, Bob? Whichever one is the producing I assume CBS, cos this is their month.
Well, it was spectacular.
They caught Did you see coverage done of every question? No, it's on television.
Don't you think that camera angle was spectacularly good? That three-quarter profile of you smiling, you know, it's the best campaign photograph kept coming back on the screen.
But the impression was an extremely pleasant impression.
Hedley Donovan has just invited me to have lunch with all their editors here on March 7th and I was quite amazed, because this is the first time I've heard from Time News, I mean, Time Magazine, since Henry Luce died.
You meet with their editors, you better take your Jewish-English dictionary.
Is that right? I don't know any of them now.
It's become a very interesting thing.
They're all Jewish.
You can't talk about it publicly.
You know Paul Keyes? Yeah.
He was telling me about his show, he said, "It's the same truth, all the Hollywood shows.
Eleven out of the twelve writers are Jewish.
" That's right.
Now, in the media, Life magazine, totally dominated by the Jews.
Newsweek owned by Jews, totally dominated by them and on the editorial pages.
New York Times, Washington Post - totally Jewish.
Now, the other thing is, the three networks, except they have a front man, Howard K Smith, Brinkley, Cronkite, who may not be that persuasion.
The writers? 95% of them are Jewish.
Now, what does this mean? Does this mean that, uh, that all Jews are bad? No.
What it does mean is most Jews are left-wing, way Particularly the young ones are like this, way out, radicals, peace at any price, except where support of Israel is concerned.
The best Jews actually are the Israeli Jews.
That's right.
Because Israel and the reason Mrs Meir supports me, which she does and Diane does, too, for a very fundamental reason.
This has nothing to do with But they understand that Democratic candidates will cater to the domestic Jewish vote.
She supports me because she knows the great danger to Israel is Russia.
She knows that in the crisis involving Lebanon, Jordan, that I will face down the Russians more.
She knows I'm the only one that will do it.
She knows that a Democrat will cater to the communists and the Russians.
See, that's my point.
She's tough.
We've talked about this and Rabin is the same way.
Oh, yeah.
Rabin is a Russian Jew and, boy, does he know.
But, in this country, we must be under no illusions.
You're aware of that? We must be aware that in the media, we confront a solid block of people.
And, er, it has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, but it happens, though, that, insofar as the media is concerned, the powerful media They've got it.
They've got it by the And they're putting out all the pornographic stuff and I don't know why they do it.
But this stranglehold has got to be broken or this country's gonna go down the drain.
Do you believe that? Yes, Sir.
Good boy.
I can't say it, but I believe it.
No, but if you get elected a second time, we might be able to do something.
Let me tell you something.
Every Democrat candidate is going to owe his election to the Jewish people I won't.
Never.
Now, the point I make is this - the difficulty is not just that they're Jews, but, boy, they take care of each other.
I know every group has a tendency to do this.
Catholics will tend to hire Catholics, a Quaker, perhaps, will want to, tries to hire a Quaker, but the Jews around here, boy, they surround you and they expect the guy upstairs is gonna bend over backward and hire Jews.
Yeah.
Get my point? It's all to help their people.
Now, what we have to remember is media in this country is extremely dangerous.
You've talked about the media network and everybody's working on it.
But we get back in, believe me, we're gonna take care of it.
There's a way to do it, we can't do it now.
If we do it before the election, it'll look political.
But believe me, if you don't do it, you're going to have Do you look at television? Do you see how filthy it is? It's terrible.
Especially this last year.
I don't look at it.
And movies, they're filthy.
I don't even go to the movies.
Yeah, well, they've got all the dirty movies on TV now.
The way we see movies, with old We see usually the old movies, we brief them first, then show 'em at Camp David or other places, but I don't go to the movies.
But the point I'm getting at is that the media today, the filth, the anti-Americanism, and the rest, it's the media, it's the media.
No, I've been thinking about it.
I saw a little of Laugh-In last night.
It's pretty bad.
I don't know I don't see how it's doing, but it's not doing well because you don't hear anything about it.
I don't think it's doing as well as as It had a little spurt for a while, but I understand it's sort of Gone down? The ratings have gone down.
But there isn't anything good on television, apparently.
Is that right? There's just The choices are so bad, there are apparently no good new shows this season.
It's such a horrendous thing that there isn't that much good stuff available.
There's still not.
Yeah, but there's not much good stuff available.
The world doesn't create that much good stuff.
I want you to keep looking into this business of have Give us a really cold, dirty assessment of whether the way to destroy the networks is not to let them build a new TV system.
I mean, they're so obsessed about this.
I'm just inclined to think that maybe we're holding off out there for the wrong reasons.
Do you know what I mean? Maybe that's one service that we can render.
We would destroy them.
That'd be great.
We go out there, see what their guys would do.
Suppose there's cable TV.
Um-hmm.
Now, I would hope Well, no, I mean, after you set the opportunity up for an independent network, then Do you? Well, there's no reason why, why there couldn't be a new service organisation, one that, uh, you know, packages a news show that the cable TV people could buy.
And that may be the chance to get where we keep coming Agnew is just obsessed.
If the only hope here is for us to buy a network, is for us to get some of our money and buy a network Yeah.
Billy Graham and everybody But there may be another way to do it, which is for us to put together a news-producing organisation and sell its product to cable television.
Yeah.
OK, is it? How's that? Is that reading light hit hitting anywhere you can see? I don't think it is, I got it barn-doored off, don't think it is, but it might OK? Hey, you're better-lookin' than I am, why don't you stay here? Blondes, they say, photograph better than brunettes.
Is that true or not? I don't know, Sir.
You are blonde, aren't you? No, Sir.
Redhead? No, thinning.
We're the same.
Mr President, this is Bill Headline, he will be producing the pool for CBS tonight, and he will cue you Oh, hi, Will.
How are you? All right.
So, uh Yeah, you got an extra camera in case the lights go out? Where did you get it from, is that an NBC? This is the camera, this is the primary camera.
Yeah.
That's the backup camera.
Yeah.
And that's a An NBC camera, I presume? No, that's They're both CBS cameras.
Standard joke.
Let see.
Did you get these adjusted properly? My eyes You'll find as you get past 60 That's enough.
Thanks.
My friend Ollie always wants to take a lot of pictures! I'm afraid he'll catch me pickin' my nose.
You wouldn't print that, though, would you, Oddie Ollie? No, Sir.
Yeah, you wouldn't.
You just take a long shot right now, that's enough.
Yes, I can see this.
Oh, you want a level, don't you? Yes, yes.
Good evening.
This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of our nation.
Need any more? Each time, I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest.
That's fine.
All right, Sir.
OK.
Ollie? Yes, Mr President? Only the CBS crew now is to be in this room during this.
Only the crew.
Immediately following the broadcast No.
No, there will be no picture.
No.
After the broadcast.
You've taken your picture - didn't you take one just now? Yes, Sir.
Yeah, because that's it, because we didn't We don't want to be We're not The press isn't taking one, so you're just take You just take it right now, this is after the broadcast.
You got it? Come on.
Just a few more seconds, Mr President.
OK.
Look at the camera, Mr President.
The camera.
The TV camera, Sir.
All right now, fine.
One and done, Sir.
All right, OK.
All right, I'm just going to I'm not going to make the other photographers mad by giving you too many, now, that's enough, OK? All right, all Secret Service Any Secret Service in the room? Just one agent, Mr President.
Out.
You don't have to stay, do you? Yes, Sir.
You're required to? Yes, Sir.
I'm just kidding.
You know, I used to try to get them to leave me alone.
But we usually have more than one.
Didn't we used to have more than one Two minutes and 15 seconds to air, please.
Two minutes and 15 seconds to air, Sir.
Didn't we used to have more than one agent in here? Not in here, Sir, when you're speaking.
What? Not when you speak in here, Sir, we didn't No.
I see.
Fine.
But it's better for the crew, I think you'll agree, to have As few strangers around as possible.
That right? Absolutely.
Yeah.
Sometimes I talk to show-business friends and it drives 'em nuts to have the VIP people and others visiting, it drives the crew up the wall! One minute and a half.
I'd better get in position.
Mr President, I believe they'd like you to move the pages from What? They'd like you to move the pages away from the microphone, Sir.
Oh, if I can! I mean, it depends whether I can see.
I'll try.
You mean move 'em like this? Yes, Sir.
Would that help you? That's fine.
Am I Can you check my collar in the back, am I straight in the back? It's not Looks fine.
Fine, it's not ruffled up? Looks straight, Sir, it's fine.
We're on.
Ten seconds.
Good evening.
This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this nation.
Each time, I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest.
In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the nation.
Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate Therefore I shall resign the presidency, effective at noon tomorrow.
Vice President Ford will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office.
To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American.
In leaving it, I do so with this prayer May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead.
We're clear.
Have a Merry Christmas, fellas.
When Nixon heard about it, he immediately approved.
"That's right", he said, "that's what matters these days - "the toobe, it's the toobe.
" Richard Nixon always had a complicated relationship with "the toobe".
In 1952, his televised Checkers Speech kept him on the Vice Presidential ticket.
In 1960, his first televised debate with John Kennedy was widely believed to have damaged his campaign for President.
But it was not as simple as that.
Though opinion polls showed that Kennedy was voted the winner by television viewers, Nixon was voted the winner by radio listeners.
In 1968, his cameo appearance on the hit TV comedy, Laugh In, appeared to help his presidential candidacy.
Talking to me? The medium fascinated, and bedevilled, him.
He understood its power to humanise and glamorise political leaders but despite that fascination, he never appeared to master the crucial art of seeming to be himself on television.
That may be why he frequently mused about taking behind-the-scenes control of a television network, or otherwise blunting the ever-growing power of "the toobe".
The conversations you're about to see were the words actually spoken by the participants, edited only for time.
And in keeping with the era in which the original White House tapes were recorded, this programme is presented in standard definition.
All these photographers, you know, are all highly sensitive, you know? Each one has a different idea of what the hell makes a good picture.
Let's let him do it.
Let's let him select the picture and decide whether it's worth a damn.
Let him set up, touch it up, you know what I mean? But you tell him what we need.
What we need, primarily, is a good smiling shot, you know.
Not too, too But anything we want and then the one that we can use as the final portrait and that way, we don't get a situation where you get others into the deal.
It's awfully difficult for one photographer, Bob, to say that another man's work is any good, you know what I mean? I know Ollie's stuff.
Ollie's new stuff is the best in the world.
Better than this guy's, I'm sure.
This guy is probably better in portraits.
I can imagine, the way he makes you sit and he's just watching little things.
A lot of little damn things Like the wrinkles in your suit and Oh, the cufflinks, da-da-da.
Well, that's damn important.
Yeah, he gets all these damn little things he's watching and whether your head's tilted properly, he's making a decision on that, you know, "Oh, look, you could look very nice if you did your head this way", this sort of thing.
Yeah.
I did want to ask you one other thing about our television producers.
I think Mark Goode, for example, is excellent on sets and all that.
You walk in and the crowd is on your right and the little chart and so forth and so on.
I'm wondering, I wonder, I don't want to do too much of this, but I was wondering if you think he knows anything about, um how I oughta stand, or whether the head oughta be up a little more.
I'm not gonna be He's not gonna get involved with content, I don't want any television person deciding anything about that, but But uh .
.
do you think they know? They do.
They I know I've been reluctant to get into that with you, cos I talked about it with Carruthers.
You didn't want people telling you to wave your hands or fold them and all that.
Well, act like Carruthers, rather than Goode.
He would like to do a little critique on it.
I think, maybe, writing a memo is a better way to do it.
Have him write a little memorandum.
Because he can do it in the abstract and then he isn't hung up.
I don't know He'll give it to you, I'll read it and get it and do it in a very objective way, without everybody involved in it, and then you could say, you can tell him there's no problem.
I think, maybe, on the other hand I think, on the other hand, Bob, we do not want, we do not want to try to eliminate whatever idiosyncrasies I've got.
That's right.
That's part of the man.
You don't wanna be a cardboard man up there.
Carruthers I think realises that.
That's right.
That's what I'm concerned about.
I don't want to be up there, like Ronald Reagan or Bob Hope, or, for that matter, Jimmy Durante.
You know, I've gotta go my own way, you see? Absolutely, and that's the thing I'm not gonna worry about it too much.
Carruthers feels very strongly And I That's why I do not, do not want the staff and all getting into this sort of thing.
That's why TV is different than a, than a It's like an Ollie picture, because it's It keeps moving.
You don't sit and study it.
The portrait, you sit and study.
The portrait hangs on someone's wall for five years and the more you look at it, the more the flaw comes out and you focus on that.
And it's gotta be perfect.
The other, perfection, would hurt it.
Hmm, yeah Uh-huh.
If there were anything that were bad, I'm sure he would have spoken up on it.
I don't think he feels that.
I'm sure there are some things he'd look over and know that he would suggest You said he would want .
.
makes his own better picture.
A few little things, little things that he finds - it's better to look up at the camera or down at the person.
It's not good to look sidewise or something.
A few little things like that would not, er would not er I mean Do you know what I mean? He said, too, about the which is exactly what you want, about making you conscious, self-conscious about technique when you should be working, worrying about the substance.
He's absolutely right.
Absolutely.
Substance matters.
Because you're doing If you're comfortable, your delivery's gonna be good, you know that.
I'll tell you an interesting thing.
What we were talking about before you came in was interesting.
That conference yesterday I prepared for at least 100 questions and answered 21.
My God, most complicated Goddamn things, "What are you gonna do about the pound?" "What are you gonna do about this, that and the other?" But the most important thing about press conference is not how you answer the damn questions.
The important thing is, it turns out, a question of luck, very often.
It's whether you happen to get a few questions that provide the opportunity to, you know, play the field, rather than answer.
Yeah, I think that I think we put too much emphasis on content.
Oh, yeah Everybody's interested in content.
Hell, as I said to Bob the other day, "Forget the content, just look good.
" You had Bob and I go back and look at the uh Kennedy press conferences and when you I'll never forget.
Watching it now, in retrospect, you get a much better feel.
He never answered the questions.
It was the way, the style and the flair and the occasional wit and the gracefulness with which he handled it.
And you did that last night.
I think, better than you've ever done it.
I thought there was more style and class in the way in which you did that, and as I told you the cameras played it better than I've ever seen them play it.
Uh, it was really We had nothing to do with that.
There's nothing we can do about it.
No.
It was magnificent.
Who plays the cameras, Bob? Whichever one is the producing I assume CBS, cos this is their month.
Well, it was spectacular.
They caught Did you see coverage done of every question? No, it's on television.
Don't you think that camera angle was spectacularly good? That three-quarter profile of you smiling, you know, it's the best campaign photograph kept coming back on the screen.
But the impression was an extremely pleasant impression.
Hedley Donovan has just invited me to have lunch with all their editors here on March 7th and I was quite amazed, because this is the first time I've heard from Time News, I mean, Time Magazine, since Henry Luce died.
You meet with their editors, you better take your Jewish-English dictionary.
Is that right? I don't know any of them now.
It's become a very interesting thing.
They're all Jewish.
You can't talk about it publicly.
You know Paul Keyes? Yeah.
He was telling me about his show, he said, "It's the same truth, all the Hollywood shows.
Eleven out of the twelve writers are Jewish.
" That's right.
Now, in the media, Life magazine, totally dominated by the Jews.
Newsweek owned by Jews, totally dominated by them and on the editorial pages.
New York Times, Washington Post - totally Jewish.
Now, the other thing is, the three networks, except they have a front man, Howard K Smith, Brinkley, Cronkite, who may not be that persuasion.
The writers? 95% of them are Jewish.
Now, what does this mean? Does this mean that, uh, that all Jews are bad? No.
What it does mean is most Jews are left-wing, way Particularly the young ones are like this, way out, radicals, peace at any price, except where support of Israel is concerned.
The best Jews actually are the Israeli Jews.
That's right.
Because Israel and the reason Mrs Meir supports me, which she does and Diane does, too, for a very fundamental reason.
This has nothing to do with But they understand that Democratic candidates will cater to the domestic Jewish vote.
She supports me because she knows the great danger to Israel is Russia.
She knows that in the crisis involving Lebanon, Jordan, that I will face down the Russians more.
She knows I'm the only one that will do it.
She knows that a Democrat will cater to the communists and the Russians.
See, that's my point.
She's tough.
We've talked about this and Rabin is the same way.
Oh, yeah.
Rabin is a Russian Jew and, boy, does he know.
But, in this country, we must be under no illusions.
You're aware of that? We must be aware that in the media, we confront a solid block of people.
And, er, it has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, but it happens, though, that, insofar as the media is concerned, the powerful media They've got it.
They've got it by the And they're putting out all the pornographic stuff and I don't know why they do it.
But this stranglehold has got to be broken or this country's gonna go down the drain.
Do you believe that? Yes, Sir.
Good boy.
I can't say it, but I believe it.
No, but if you get elected a second time, we might be able to do something.
Let me tell you something.
Every Democrat candidate is going to owe his election to the Jewish people I won't.
Never.
Now, the point I make is this - the difficulty is not just that they're Jews, but, boy, they take care of each other.
I know every group has a tendency to do this.
Catholics will tend to hire Catholics, a Quaker, perhaps, will want to, tries to hire a Quaker, but the Jews around here, boy, they surround you and they expect the guy upstairs is gonna bend over backward and hire Jews.
Yeah.
Get my point? It's all to help their people.
Now, what we have to remember is media in this country is extremely dangerous.
You've talked about the media network and everybody's working on it.
But we get back in, believe me, we're gonna take care of it.
There's a way to do it, we can't do it now.
If we do it before the election, it'll look political.
But believe me, if you don't do it, you're going to have Do you look at television? Do you see how filthy it is? It's terrible.
Especially this last year.
I don't look at it.
And movies, they're filthy.
I don't even go to the movies.
Yeah, well, they've got all the dirty movies on TV now.
The way we see movies, with old We see usually the old movies, we brief them first, then show 'em at Camp David or other places, but I don't go to the movies.
But the point I'm getting at is that the media today, the filth, the anti-Americanism, and the rest, it's the media, it's the media.
No, I've been thinking about it.
I saw a little of Laugh-In last night.
It's pretty bad.
I don't know I don't see how it's doing, but it's not doing well because you don't hear anything about it.
I don't think it's doing as well as as It had a little spurt for a while, but I understand it's sort of Gone down? The ratings have gone down.
But there isn't anything good on television, apparently.
Is that right? There's just The choices are so bad, there are apparently no good new shows this season.
It's such a horrendous thing that there isn't that much good stuff available.
There's still not.
Yeah, but there's not much good stuff available.
The world doesn't create that much good stuff.
I want you to keep looking into this business of have Give us a really cold, dirty assessment of whether the way to destroy the networks is not to let them build a new TV system.
I mean, they're so obsessed about this.
I'm just inclined to think that maybe we're holding off out there for the wrong reasons.
Do you know what I mean? Maybe that's one service that we can render.
We would destroy them.
That'd be great.
We go out there, see what their guys would do.
Suppose there's cable TV.
Um-hmm.
Now, I would hope Well, no, I mean, after you set the opportunity up for an independent network, then Do you? Well, there's no reason why, why there couldn't be a new service organisation, one that, uh, you know, packages a news show that the cable TV people could buy.
And that may be the chance to get where we keep coming Agnew is just obsessed.
If the only hope here is for us to buy a network, is for us to get some of our money and buy a network Yeah.
Billy Graham and everybody But there may be another way to do it, which is for us to put together a news-producing organisation and sell its product to cable television.
Yeah.
OK, is it? How's that? Is that reading light hit hitting anywhere you can see? I don't think it is, I got it barn-doored off, don't think it is, but it might OK? Hey, you're better-lookin' than I am, why don't you stay here? Blondes, they say, photograph better than brunettes.
Is that true or not? I don't know, Sir.
You are blonde, aren't you? No, Sir.
Redhead? No, thinning.
We're the same.
Mr President, this is Bill Headline, he will be producing the pool for CBS tonight, and he will cue you Oh, hi, Will.
How are you? All right.
So, uh Yeah, you got an extra camera in case the lights go out? Where did you get it from, is that an NBC? This is the camera, this is the primary camera.
Yeah.
That's the backup camera.
Yeah.
And that's a An NBC camera, I presume? No, that's They're both CBS cameras.
Standard joke.
Let see.
Did you get these adjusted properly? My eyes You'll find as you get past 60 That's enough.
Thanks.
My friend Ollie always wants to take a lot of pictures! I'm afraid he'll catch me pickin' my nose.
You wouldn't print that, though, would you, Oddie Ollie? No, Sir.
Yeah, you wouldn't.
You just take a long shot right now, that's enough.
Yes, I can see this.
Oh, you want a level, don't you? Yes, yes.
Good evening.
This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of our nation.
Need any more? Each time, I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest.
That's fine.
All right, Sir.
OK.
Ollie? Yes, Mr President? Only the CBS crew now is to be in this room during this.
Only the crew.
Immediately following the broadcast No.
No, there will be no picture.
No.
After the broadcast.
You've taken your picture - didn't you take one just now? Yes, Sir.
Yeah, because that's it, because we didn't We don't want to be We're not The press isn't taking one, so you're just take You just take it right now, this is after the broadcast.
You got it? Come on.
Just a few more seconds, Mr President.
OK.
Look at the camera, Mr President.
The camera.
The TV camera, Sir.
All right now, fine.
One and done, Sir.
All right, OK.
All right, I'm just going to I'm not going to make the other photographers mad by giving you too many, now, that's enough, OK? All right, all Secret Service Any Secret Service in the room? Just one agent, Mr President.
Out.
You don't have to stay, do you? Yes, Sir.
You're required to? Yes, Sir.
I'm just kidding.
You know, I used to try to get them to leave me alone.
But we usually have more than one.
Didn't we used to have more than one Two minutes and 15 seconds to air, please.
Two minutes and 15 seconds to air, Sir.
Didn't we used to have more than one agent in here? Not in here, Sir, when you're speaking.
What? Not when you speak in here, Sir, we didn't No.
I see.
Fine.
But it's better for the crew, I think you'll agree, to have As few strangers around as possible.
That right? Absolutely.
Yeah.
Sometimes I talk to show-business friends and it drives 'em nuts to have the VIP people and others visiting, it drives the crew up the wall! One minute and a half.
I'd better get in position.
Mr President, I believe they'd like you to move the pages from What? They'd like you to move the pages away from the microphone, Sir.
Oh, if I can! I mean, it depends whether I can see.
I'll try.
You mean move 'em like this? Yes, Sir.
Would that help you? That's fine.
Am I Can you check my collar in the back, am I straight in the back? It's not Looks fine.
Fine, it's not ruffled up? Looks straight, Sir, it's fine.
We're on.
Ten seconds.
Good evening.
This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this nation.
Each time, I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest.
In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the nation.
Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate Therefore I shall resign the presidency, effective at noon tomorrow.
Vice President Ford will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office.
To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American.
In leaving it, I do so with this prayer May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead.
We're clear.
Have a Merry Christmas, fellas.