"You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference."
The media has always loathed Richard Nixon, an upstart Quaker from rural California who became a giant in American politics and world politics as well as President of the United States. Richard Nixon - November 7, 1962
Eventually the media succeeded in destroying his Presidency - quite possibly in their tiny minds their greatest triumph. And a great many readers will see Nixon as the epitome of corrupt and dirty politics, as if!
But it is no great surprise to find the Media trotting out anti Nixon stories on the occasion of the death of Teddy Kennedy, that great icon of Liberalism.
The contrast between the Kennedy's and Nixon could not be greater - the former were playboys born into a life of wealth and privilege whereas Nixon was born into an impoverished but strict quaker household. Two of Nixon's brothers died of tuberculosis one in childhood in the family home, the other in early adulthood when Nixon was still in high school - you could call it the "Nixon curse"...
Here is AP's anti-Nixon diatribe via Stuff: Nixon tapes: Watch Ted Kennedy
It reads as though Nixon set the secret service onto Teddy. But if you listen to the exchange another picture emerges. Teddy Kennedy asked for secret service protection and the discussion was about whether it was appropriate to provide it and the pros and cons of doing so.
Why did the press hate Nixon so? Probably because Nixon wasn't glamorous.He was a solid family man, the picture at the left was taken in the 1950s when Richard Nixon was Vice President and it shows an ideal of family life which the elites have come to despise.
There was an attempt in 1952 to attach a financial scandal to Richard Nixon but he simply opened his books to the public which showed how modest his means really were and how he was living accordingly.
And Richard Nixon's real crime was - that he was a fundamentally decent, if somewhat dour man who didn't grope waitresses and didn't appear in Public with flashy, tacky women in tow and didn't live a jet set lifestyle to provide suitable fodder for glossy magazines.
In other words a peasant who got ideas above his station.