PBS NewsHour: Robert MacNeil & Jim Lehrer- Introducing the Watergate Hearings

Source:PBS NewsHour- Senator Sam Ervin: Democrat, North Carolina: Chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee (93rd Congress)

Source:The Daily Times

“How high did the scandals reach and was President Nixon himself involved?”

That was what Robert MacNeil, then co-anchoring with Jim Lehrer, dubbed “the ultimate question” as public broadcasting began its gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Watergate hearings on May 17, 1973.

MacNeil said the hearings were intended “to bear the truth about the wide range of illegal, unethical or improper activities established … surrounding the re-election President Nixon last year.”

Lehrer also detailed the scandal. Though little action had taken place as the hearings began, the committee’s “basic job remains the same,” he said.”

From the PBS NewsHour

If you are familiar with C-SPAN today, (or the Cable Special Public Affairs Network) well, the PBS coverage of the 1973 U.S. Senate Watergate hearings, is basically the early days of C-SPAN. Gavel to gavel coverage of a major invent in Congress which this was. And what they did like what C-SPAN does, is just show what happened and let the people decide for themselves what it meant and so-forth.

Which is exactly what PBS was doing without breaking in to have an analyst explain what the people were watching. But would have the people be able to make those decisions for themselves. Which was basically the early days of what I call PBS News: the news operation over at PBS that produces shows like the NewsHour, Frontline, Washington Week, and so-forth.

PBS News allowed Americans to be able to see for themselves what Watergate was and what it meant for themselves. With a lot of the key actors in the whole Watergate affair and is a great example of what journalism should be, rather than talk down to the audience with so-called experts allow for them to see for themselves what is happening.