Back in 1973, tens of millions of Americans tuned in to what Variety called "the hottest daytime soap opera" — the Senate Watergate hearings that eventually led to President Richard Nixon's resignation. It was a communal experience, and by some estimates, more than 80% of Americans tuned
1 / 2Trump Impeachment TV ImpactFILE - In this May 18, 1973, file photo, the hearing of the Senate select committee on the Watergate case on Capitol Hill in Washington. In 1973, millions of Americans tuned in to what Variety called"the hottest daytime soap opera" _ the Senate Watergate hearings that eventually led to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
In the Watergate era, there was no Fox News or nationally prominent conservative talk radio shows, which today are favored by many of Trump's supporters. Nor was there the equivalent of MSNBC, which caters to left-of-center partisans. Two decades before Watergate, Americans had their first collective immersion in live telecasts of a high-stakes Washington hearing when Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., polarized the country with his relentless pursuit of suspected communist sympathizers.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center, said Americans expecting an equally dramatic moment in the upcoming impeachment telecasts may be let down, given that so much important testimony already has been presented in closed-door sessions. Many Trump supporters won't tune in"because they think it's a sham process," he said."And I don't think most people on the left will watch because they already know the conclusion in their minds. To them, the president has been impeachable since before he was elected."
Arthur Sanders, a professor of politics at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, recalled that public support for Nixon's impeachment grew as the televised Watergate inquiry progressed, while most Americans remained opposed to Clinton's ouster at every stage of his impeachment process.
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