Will Americans ever tire of Watergate? The notorious scandal that brought down a president – the scandal against which all future cases of presidential malfeasance would be measured – continues to bubble up in pop culture.
The HBO series “White House Plumbers” is a comedic depiction of the bumbling burglars who were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters inside the Watergate hotel in 1972. Yes, Watergate is funny now – but comedy, or satire, is often more effective than drama in conveying a serious message.
In this episode of History As It Happens, historian Ken Hughes, a renowned expert on secret presidential recordings and author of two books on President Nixon’s criminality, talks about the ongoing fascination with Watergate. Mr. Hughes also discusses whether the HBO series is accurate – and whether the producers even had a responsibility to adhere to the truth in a comedic presentation.
“I watch these series for entertainment. I think it’s fun. I don’t expect a TV series to be any more historically accurate than a Shakespeare play,” said Mr. Hughes, who said “White House Plumbers” gets the most important facts about the break-in right.
“Watergate is now comfort food. We’re in a particularly tumultuous time politically. Not as bad as the late ‘60s, early ‘70s, but there’s a lot of anxiety about the future of American democracy. It’s comfort food because the Watergate burglary has a beginning with a very clear crime. It has a middle with the hunt for the criminals and the cover-up, and then finally the truth about at least part of the scandal comes to light. People are convicted and go to prison. So it’s like ‘Law & Order.’ You know the story is going to end… so people can look back on that as a time when the system did to a degree work,” said Mr. Hughes, the author of “Chasing Shadows” and “Fatal Politics.”
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