The Nixon interviews were a series of conversations between former American president Richard Nixon and British journalist David Frost, produced by John Birt. They were recorded and broadcast on television and radio in four programs in 1977.[1] The interviews later became the central subject of Peter Morgan's play Frost/Nixon in 2006.
Background
editRichard Nixon spent more than two years away from public life after resigning from office due to the Watergate scandal. However, Nixon granted David Frost an exclusive series of interviews in 1977. He was publishing his memoirs at the time, but his publicist Irving Paul Lazar believed that he could reach a mass audience by using television. Frost's New York–based talk show had been canceled some years earlier. Frost had agreed to pay Nixon for the interviews[2] but the American television network news operations were not interested, regarding them as checkbook journalism. They refused to distribute the program and Frost was forced to fund the project himself while seeking other investors, who eventually bought air time and syndicated the four programs. The interviews were also broadcast on radio by the Mutual Broadcasting System.[3]
Nixon's chief of staff Jack Brennan negotiated the terms of the interview with Frost.[4] Nixon's staff saw the interview as an opportunity for him to restore his reputation with the public and assumed that Frost would be easily outwitted. He had interviewed Nixon in 1968 in a manner that Time magazine described as "softly".[5] Frost recruited author and intelligence officer James Reston Jr.[13] and ABC News producer Bob Zelnick[14] to evaluate the Watergate details prior to the interview. Nixon's negotiated fee was $600,000 (equivalent to $3,100,000 in 2024) and a 20-percent share of any profits.[1][15]
Interviews
editThe 12 interviews began on March 23, 1977, with three interviews per week over four weeks. They were taped for more than two hours a day on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, for a total of 28 hours and 45 minutes.[2] The interviews were managed by executive producer Marvin Minoff who was the president of Frost's David Paradine Productions,[16] and by British current affairs producer John Birt.[16][17] Recording took place at a seaside home in Monarch Bay, California[18] owned by Harold H. Smith, a longtime Nixon supporter. This location was chosen instead of Nixon's San Clemente home La Casa Pacifica due to interference with the television relay equipment from Coast Guard navigational transmitters near San Clemente. Frost rented the Smith home for $6,000[1] on a part-time basis.
Broadcasts
editThe interviews were broadcast in the US and some other countries in 1977.[2] They were directed by Jorn Winther[19] and edited into four programs, each 90 minutes long. In addition to being televised, the interviews were heard over radio via the Mutual Broadcasting System.
On Sunday evening May 1, 1977, CBS's 60 Minutes broadcast[20] an interview of David Frost by Mike Wallace. This was the same network that Frost had "scooped" (CBS had negotiated to interview Nixon, but unlike the news organization, Frost was willing to pay for the sessions). Frost talked about looking forward to Nixon's "cascade of candour."
The interviews were broadcast in four parts, with a fifth part containing material edited from the earlier parts broadcast months later:[1][21]
| Part | Broadcast | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1 | May 4, 1977 | Watergate[22] |
| Part 2 | May 12, 1977 | Nixon and the world |
| Part 3 | May 19, 1977 | War at home and abroad |
| Part 4 | May 26, 1977 | Nixon, the man |
| Part 5 | September 10, 1977 | additional material from parts 1–4 |
The premiere episode drew 45 million viewers, the largest television audience for a political interview in history — a record that still stands today.[23]
In part 3, Frost asked Nixon whether the president could do something illegal in certain situations such as against antiwar groups and others if he decides "it's in the best interests of the nation or something". Nixon replied: "Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal", by definition. This statement notably came 47 years before the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that the president had absolute criminal immunity for official acts under core constitutional powers, presumptive immunity for other official acts, and no immunity for unofficial acts. Which makes Nixon's statement a half-truth in a modern legal context, but damaging in a historical context for the time period as such a legal standard for presidential immunity had not been legally set yet, and such a statement would have been viewed as immoral by most citizens for the time period.[24][25][26][27]
Part 5 opened with Frost's blunt question, "Why didn't you burn the tapes?"[28]
Aftermath
editA Gallup poll conducted after the interviews aired showed that 69 percent of the public thought that Nixon was still trying to cover up, 72 percent still thought he was guilty of obstruction of justice, and 75 percent thought he deserved no further role in public life.[2] Frost was expected to make $1 million from the interviews.[1]
DVD releases
editThere have been several releases on DVD featuring different edited presentations of the Interviews, the first of which is generally focused on clips from the first segment on Watergate with additional commentary, whereas the extended release features the "complete" interviews in the original four (and the later fifth) segments just as they were broadcast in 1977. In particular, footage from the Frost/Nixon interviews were included on the 2009 DVD release of Frost/Nixon, which presented a dramatized re-creation of the interviews and the events surrounding them; the reverse of the keep case explains that the footage was included primarily for the sake of comparing it to the film's depiction. However, it is still unclear whether or not the (more than 20 hours of) tape cut from all the publicly released editions will ever be made available to the public.[citation needed]
- 1 disc edition, 85 minutes ("Frost/Nixon: The Watergate Interviews")
- 2 disc edition, 377 minutes ("Frost/Nixon: The Complete Interviews")
References
edit- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Nixon Talks". Time. May 9, 1977. Archived from the original on May 12, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2009.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Transcript of CNN's Larry King Live: Frost, Schieffer, Bradlee Discuss Extensive Nixon Interview". CNN. February 7, 2001. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
- ^ "James Reston Jr. On The 'Frost/Nixon' Interviews". npr.org. December 10, 2008. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
- ^ Janusonis, Michael (January 23, 2009). "Is Frost/Nixon true? Let's ask PC grad Jack Brennan — he was there". The Providence Journal. Archived from the original on February 1, 2009. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
- ^ "David Can Be a Goliath". Time. May 9, 1977. Archived from the original on February 7, 2007. Retrieved January 8, 2009.
- ^ "Frost/Nixon interview". Radio National. May 19, 2008. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
- ^ "Wednesday 21 May 2008". Radio National. May 21, 2008. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
- ^ "Frost, Nixon and Me". smithsonianmag.com. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
- ^ "Trial by Television". July 15, 2007. Retrieved May 15, 2017 – via washingtonpost.com.
- ^ "The ArtsPaper Interview: James Reston Jr. on 'Frost/Nixon'". palmbeachartspaper.com. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
- ^ "The History Behind the Film and Play 'FrostNixon': – FindLaw". Findlaw. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
- ^ Reston, James (May 2008). The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0307394200.
- ^ Multiple sources:[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]
- ^ bu.edu. "Robert Zelnick : Chairman, Department of Journalism; Professor of Journalism". Archived from the original on October 23, 2003. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Frost, David; Bob Zelnick (2007). Frost/Nixon: Behind the Scenes of the Nixon Interviews. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-06-144586-6.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Barnes, Mike (November 13, 2009). "'Nixon Interviews' producer Marvin Minoff dies". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved December 2, 2009.
- ^ "Producer Marvin Minoff dies at 78 – Worked on Frost-Nixon TV interview specials". Variety. November 13, 2009. Retrieved December 2, 2009.
- ^ Interview with David Frost included with the 2008 DVD re-release of the original 1977 Nixon interviews
- ^ "Tricky Dick and the Dane: The 40th Anniversary of the Frost-Nixon Interviews". kcet.org. May 5, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
- ^ 1977 60 Minutes Mike Wallace interview of David Frost on YouTube.
- ^ "Behind The Scenes Of The Frost/Nixon Interviews". npr.org. January 4, 2009. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
- ^ "The Smoking Gun Tape". www.watergate.info. Archived from the original on May 1, 2012. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
- ^ "Profile:Sir David Frost". UK News. BBC. May 28, 2005. Retrieved December 13, 2008.
- ^ "Nixon's Views on Presidential Power: Excerpts from an Interview with David Frost". Landmark Cases of the US Supreme Court. landmarkcases.org. Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
- ^ "Transcript of David Frost's Interview with Richard Nixon". Teaching American History. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
- ^ Fritze, John (July 1, 2024). "Supreme Court rules Trump has limited immunity in January 6 case, jeopardizing trial before election | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
- ^ "Nixon Gave Trump One Hell of a Gift Forty-seven Years Ago". Esquire. September 30, 2024. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
- ^ Hughes, Ken. "Why Didn't Nixon Burn the Tapes?". Presidential Recordings Program. University of Virginia. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2008.
External links
edit- David Frost Interviews Richard Nixon at IMDb
- "British presenter David Frost taking on Nixon". Summer Breakfast. Radio National. January 5, 2009. Archived from the original on January 31, 2009.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the story is how a team of journalists prepped Frost to take on Nixon in the interview. One of those journalists was Bob Zelnick, played by Oliver Platt in the [Frost/Nixon] film. The real Bob Zelnick speaks to us on Summer Breakfast.