The Jacobs Theatre’s production of Frost/Nixon was excellent. The acting was superb, the use of video and audio technology inside the world of the play was done very well, and it was one of the first plays I’ve seen that had me on the edge of my seat the entire production. Despite all of this, the most potent feeling I had leaving the theatre was one of alarm. Alarm at how close Frost/Nixon had made me come to actually sympathizing with, and, dare I say it, liking the former President Nixon. As strong an objector to this man’s actions as any other liberal history buff, I was shocked to find myself drawn to Frank Langella’s portrayal of the infamous leader. The man did not appear to be a coldly-calculating, power-hungry giant, but instead gave off the aura of a charming, intelligent grandfather figure who had an unlimited valise of amusing stories. For the first time in all of my studies of this man, I could understand how Richard Nixon was able to get the American people to vote for him. When asked tough questions, he adroitly skirted the issue and twisted the conversation into a speech about his successes, or a funny tale of misadventure with any number of powerful world leaders. While this technique was rather translucent, one could not help but be drawn into his tales anyway, forgetting the actual man, and replacing him with a charismatic storyteller. This was Nixon’s power, and without a doubt, it is the power of most politicians today. The key to unlocking the true meanings and actions of these politicians, as shown in Frost/Nixon is the use of research, analysis, and media. When these three tools are combined, it seems that no politician, no matter how slippery, can escape the truth.
If you watch the American primetime news syndicates, what do you see? News anchors with backgrounds in theatre and public speaking, asking canned questions to guests who are meant to be flattered rather than interviewed. I have rarely seen a news segment on NBC, ABC, or CBS in which the interviewee was asked a question that at all challenged his/her intellect or made him/her stop, think, and respond. Watching the private American news is like watching two computers play pong, and one can rarely learn anything from it. This is a serious issue in a world where most people learn 90% of their information from television. It is the combination of the lack of useful American news media with the political games played by all politicians, that has lead to the creation of a country crippled by misunderstanding and ignorance.
Now, let us look at Britain. Now, I’m not a political expert, but it seems to me that most politicians in the “western” world are of the same breed. Most that become powerful, like Nixon, are excellent at skirting tough issues, and become experts at avoiding the negatives and shedding the spotlight on the positives. What, then, makes the political climate so different on opposite sides of the pond? As far as I can tell, the difference between Britain and America, the thing that makes Tony Blair step down and leaves President Bush in office, is the existence of a public media. British media is ruled by the BBC, and the BBC asks questions. Their reporters are skilled, well-trained journalists and academics that care about issues and ask their country’s politicians difficult, important questions. Access to its information is available at no cost to all British people (and even those outside, via the internet), and the BBC teaches its citizens that challenging its nations’ politicians is patriotic, not treasonous. And as a result? The British people learn to ask questions, to avoid political traps, to think critically about issues and develop opinions. This is the element that is missing from American media, and what our country desperately needs to get back on track. We can’t have 50% of people still believing that Saddam Hussein bombed the World Trade Center. We can’t have another 50% believing that the Iraq war was started when we found WMDs in Iraq. We can’t have the will of a few billionaire media tycoons determining what news and information is fed to the American people. Television has turned into the American teacher, and we need that teacher to be smarter, more educated, and more worldly than the people to whom it is trying to educate. Let us take the tools we have, the ability to reach everyone in our country with the flick of a switch, and use it for good. Let us give people all of the facts, and let them decide for themselves.
Ultimately, this is what Michael Sheen, as the British talk-show host David Frost, attempts to do in Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon. He forms a band of four experts and builds an interview to challenge the former president in an all-out, no holds barred brawl. Someone is going to win, and someone is going to lose, but no one is going to be placated. No one is going to have their ego stroked. It is the media versus the politician, and in this case the media wins. The media uncovers the truth, and the politician, out-foxed, must admit he has been avoiding the truth. Let us move toward this place again, where journalists fight for the people, and make politicians accountable to those that they are meant to serve and protect.
