James Reston, Jr. quotes from Frost/Nixon (2008)

James Reston, Jr.

You know the first and greatest sin of the deception of television is that it simplifies; it diminishes great, complex ideas, tranches of time; whole careers become reduced to a single snapshot. At first I couldn't understand why Bob Zelnick was quite as euphoric as he was after the interviews, or why John Birt felt moved to strip naked and rush into the ocean to celebrate. But that was before I really understood the reductive power of the close-up, because David had succeeded on that final day, in getting for a fleeting moment what no investigative journalist, no state prosecutor, no judiciary committee or political enemy had managed to get; Richard Nixon's face swollen and ravaged by loneliness, self-loathing and defeat. The rest of the project and its failings would not only be forgotten, they would totally cease to exist.

James Reston, Jr.

The man lost twenty-one thousand Americans and a million Indochinese during his administration. He only escaped jail because of Ford's pardon. Right now, I submit it's impossible to feel anything close to sympathy for Richard Nixon. He devalued the presidency and he left the country that elected him in trauma. The American people need a conviction, pure and simple. The integrity of our political system, of democracy as an idea, entirely depends on it. And, in years to come, if people look back and say that it was in this interview that Richard Nixon exonerated himself, that would be the worst crime of all.