Why Did Confidence in Government Decline from 1968-1980?Why Did Confidence in Government Decline from 1968-1980?There are many factors that caused people to lose confidence in the government from the years 1968-1980. Throughout these years, many changes occurred in presidency and the political atmosphere, which all impacted the amount of confidence felt towards the government at the time. These factors included the media, scandals surrounding the government and mishandling of events. To a greater extent, the media played the most important factor as to why confidence in the government declined due to the media becoming more accessible and the media uncovering more government deceptions.The media was a huge factor as to why the American people lost confidence in the government from the years 1968-1980. The mediaâs attitude towards politics changed from explaining policies under Rooseveltâs presidency to uncovering government deceptions and reporting political scandals such as the Watergate Scandal in 1971. The mediaâs new relationships with the President and the government led to increased negative views of the government, which in turn led to a decline in confidence in the government. Additionally, more people had access to the media than in earlier years, which meant that more people were influenced by the mediaâs views on political issues. The mediaâs impact is a strong reason as to why the confidence in government declined as the media were so focused on showing the âtrue side of the US governmentâ that inevitably the American people would lose confidence in the government as the mediaâs influence was too strong to ignore.Another reason as to why confidence in government declined was political scandals. The Watergate Scandal (1972-74) showed that the government had been lying to the American people and that the White House and President Nixon were not only guilty of burglary, but also surveillance of political opponents. Nixon was seen swearing and appeared to be suspicious of everyone. The Watergate Scandal was a huge shock to the American people and showed that the President wasnât who he had appeared to be. This was a strong reason as to why the American people lost confidence in the government as it became clear that the White House were perfectly happy to lie to the American public. However, the media played an important role in this and arguably the Watergate Scandal and other political scandals would have never influenced the confidence in the American government if the media hadnât investigated them and reported on them in the first place. Therefore, the media was a much more important factor as to why people lost confidence in the American government during this time.
A few years ago, the Government Accountability Office began a project to evaluate the media and report on the corruption in Congress. As part of this process, a number of independent experts were assigned to assess the potential impact on the public confidence of political coverage. In addition to this team, a number of prominent politicians and journalists who were assigned to the project also came on board to discuss the impact of the Government Accountability Office investigationâthis included Richard Nixon, William Jefferson Clinton, Frank Church, and Michael Chertoff, whose articles have received some attention in the media during the past couple of years.
Another reason the US did not trust the media during the second half of the twentieth century was the media’s inability to cover the scandals that erupted and the media’s use of the media to hide the truth. The first major scandal centered on former Secretary of State William Marshall, who was charged about his past behavior regarding his relationship with the government, in which he had told FBI informant and journalist Paul Craig Roberts of the Nixon Library, that he was involved with the Nixon Administration. The first major scandal centered on former Secretary of State Robert Gates, who received more than ten thousand dollars from the US to lobby for a National Security Council investigation in order to uncover the existence of a cover up perpetrated by the White House in order to win approval of the Pentagon’s Operation Paperclip. The second major scandal centered on a major corruption scandal in the United Kingdom, involving the British government. In order to hide evidence of a coverâup involving the government, British agents who were undercover provided information about the case, but also reported the findings. The British government did not respond to the British authorities and had to cooperate with the Australian Government in the case, where an Australian official told Parliament that he was working with the British government’s British agent on the case. The final scandal involving the British government centered on US Ambassador John Mitchell, who was investigating the allegations of illegal wiretapping of the US. Mitchell had been at the centre of controversy for years due to his work with the British Embassy in Paris and the Foreign Office in London. In 2007, Congress approved a Congressional Accountability Act bill that allows Congressional oversight of the United States Government for the next three years. When this law is passed by the House, its passage and passage are subject to a vote on the House floor and the Senate floor.