Photographic Presidents by Cara A. Finnegan

Author:Cara A. Finnegan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2021-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

PART IV

The Social Media President

CHAPTER 8

Changing Visual Media from the

Mid-Twentieth Century to the Digital Age

On the evening of August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon prepared to deliver a live address to the nation to announce his resignation. The CBS network cameras started rolling before the broadcast was to begin, preserving for posterity about seven minutes of Nixon before he went live on the air.1 As the video opens, the television crew is readying the room for the live broadcast. One of them sits in the president’s chair so that the camera operator can check the lighting. Suddenly the president himself appears in the room and the man leaps up to offer him the seat. “Hey, you’re better lookin’ than I am; why don’t you stay here?” Nixon jokes as he sits down, a copy of his speech in his hands. Then, referencing the man’s hair color, he adds, “Blondes, they say, photograph better than brunettes. That true or not?”

Seated now, Nixon asks the production crew whether they have a backup camera (they do), whether they have set the lights properly (they have), and he makes a joke about the brightness of the lights and his aging eyes. The entire scene is understandably awkward. Then Nixon notices something off to his right and says, speaking through a forced smile, “That’s enough. Thanks.” Nixon turns to the television crew to explain: “My friend Ollie always wants to take a lot of pictures. I’m afraid he’ll catch me pickin’ my nose.” More awkward laughter on the part of the president. (No one else seems to be laughing.) “Ollie” is Oliver Atkins, the president’s official White House photographer. Then Nixon hastily adds, “He wouldn’t print that, though, would ya, Ollie? Yeah.” Off camera, Atkins’s reply is inaudible; presumably he says no, he wouldn’t. Then the president gets more serious with his photographer: “No, you can take a long shot, but no, that’s enough, really.” Next, Nixon runs through the opening of the speech so that the crew can check his sound. Less than a minute later an increasingly strained Nixon addresses his photographer again, making a sweeping gesture with his left hand as if he is clearing off the desk: “Ollie? Now, only the CBS crew now is to be in this room, during this. Only the crew.” Off camera, Atkins begins to ask, “Would it be possible if I …,” but Nixon cuts him off: “No, there will be no picture. No. After the broadcast. You’ve taken your picture; didn’t you take one just now?” Atkins answers, “Yes, sir.” Nixon continues: “That’s it. Because you know, we don’t want to be … we didn’t let the press take one, so you’ve taken it, you, just take it right now.” Nixon pauses with his script in his hand, serious-faced, consenting to a brief pose. Then, a second later, agitated: “You got it? Come on. OK.” The camera clicks several times as Atkins says something inaudible about the TV cameras. Nixon replies, “OK fine, all right, fine.

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