Written by Jim Arvantes

The possibility of impeaching a U.S. president used to scare the hell out of renowned journalist Linda Wertheimer and many of her colleagues in the national press corps during the bygone days of Watergate and the presidency of Richard Nixon.

In the early 1970s, Wertheimer was a young congressional correspondent for a then-fledging organization called National Public Radio, NPR. During the summer of 1974, as the Watergate scandal overtook the Nixon White House, it became increasingly apparent that the House would vote to impeach the beleaguered president and the Senate would convict Nixon, removing him from office.

“I think what was extraordinary about it was how terrified we were of impeachment at that point,” said Wertheimer during a Tuesday Talk presentation at the Cleveland Park Library on Sept. 19 attended by a capacity crowd of more than 200 people. “I think people were frightened it would mean the end of the world as we knew it if the United States actually dumped a president.”

Wertheimer, a Cleveland Park resident who is known as one of the founding mothers of NPR, discussed changes in the political and media professions during the past 50 years with moderator, journalist and producer Linda Winslow, a fellow Cleveland Park resident and the first woman executive producer of the PBS NewsHour.

The two Lindas zeroed in on the issue of impeachment during the first several minutes of the Tuesday Talk presentation, saying, for example, that the weaponization of impeachment by both congressional Republicans and Democrats epitomizes the profound changes that have swept over the political landscape during the past five decades.

In the early 1970s, impeachment of a president was a profoundly serious move, undertaken only after much deliberation and only as a last resort.

“Now of course one party decides to impeach someone from the other party over coffee, and they go out and do it,” said Wertheimer, former long-time host of the immensely popular NPR show, All Things Considered. 

Comparisons Then and Now 

The discussion about impeachment 50 years ago and today brought inevitable comparisons between Nixon and Donald Trump, who was impeached twice during his presidency. (Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974, before the House impeached him.)

Wertheimer conceded that Nixon was “far and away not the most popular president we ever had.” But he was “a capable man,” representing “a sensible vote,” according to Wertheimer.

And people voted for Nixon on that basis, electing him in 1968 and again in a landslide in 1972.

“There was not something so terribly wrong with (Nixon) that he could not have been president,” said Wertheimer, author of the book, Listening to America: Twenty-Five Years of a Life of a Nation, As Heard on National Public Radio, which celebrates NPR’s storied history.

Trump, by contrast, should never have been president, Wertheimer said. Yet, he may be president again.

“The weapons that exist to deal with him are not as vicious as I personally think they should be,” she said.

As a journalist, Wertheimer was always very careful about what she said publicly. During the Tuesday Talk Wertheimer reminded the audience that she is now retired and “no longer on the air at NPR.”

“You cannot blame NPR for anything I say,” she quipped, prompting laughter from the audience.

During the question and answer period, Wertheimer said, “Every political organization – no matter how it is put together – will have people in it who are just awful.”

She urged people to be “very careful who you vote for.” With her voice rising, Wertheimer again alluded to Trump, saying “people voted for a man they wouldn’t have over to their house for dinner.”

“Don’t do that,” she admonished.

 Treatment of Women

When talking about changes during the past 50 years, Wertheimer and Winslow discussed how differently women were treated many years ago. Wertheimer covered Congress for many years, and when she started as a political correspondent for NPR in early 1970s, very few women worked as reporters covering Capitol Hill.

In those days, it was difficult to find a woman’s bathroom on Capitol Hill, noted Winslow, a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the former Vice President for News and Public Affairs at WETA TV in Washington, DC.

As an attractive young woman, Wertheimer had to be especially careful.

“It was every bad thing you can remember it being – the guys with their hands all over you,” she said.

Wertheimer recalled one incident where she went to interview an elderly and frail senator, and the senator’s secretary wanted to sit in on the interview. Wertheimer said no, thinking the secretary wanted to monitor the interview to make sure the senator didn’t say anything controversial. But the secretary wanted to be there to stop the senator from chasing Wertheimer around the desk.

And that is exactly what happened – the senator chased Wertheimer around the desk, seeking intimate and unwanted contact.

“When I finally got out of there I said to the woman, ‘I was afraid to really do anything because I thought it might kill him,’” remembered Wertheimer.

Wertheimer and Winslow also addressed the wide income disparities that existed between men and women for the same jobs during the early 1970s.

“Back in the 1970s, I had a pen that said 59 cents, which is what women made compared to the men’s dollar,” said Winslow, a board member of the Pulitzer Center in Washington, D.C. 

Reaching Millions

As a broadcaster, Wertheimer relied on a mellifluous voice and keen insights to file reports that connected and resonated with millions of listeners in this country and abroad.

When Wertheimer had a microphone in her hand, she reached millions of listeners, something House and Senate members recognized and respected, giving her ready access to House and Senate leaders.

Wertheimer and NPR also had a good friend in former House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neil, (D-Mass.) who played a major role in obtaining congressional funding for NPR and PBS.

When O’Neil walked through the corridors of the House, he called out Wertheimer by name when he saw her.

“He would walk down the hall and say, ‘Linda how are you doing?’” recalled Wertheimer. “My colleagues in the press and other (House and Senate) members knew that Tip knew who I was and that counted for something.”

O’Neil and Robert Michael, (R-Ill.), the Republican Minority Leader, were close friends, a friendship that transcended partisan politics.

Winslow said it would be difficult to find a similar type of friendship in today’s Congress. She asked why there is more animosity among House and Senate members today compared to decades ago.

Some of the reasons are seemingly minor, Wertheimer responded. House and Senate members did not go home every weekend like they do now. Back then, they either couldn’t afford it or finding transportation back to their districts was difficult.

As a result House and Senate members stayed in Washington for longer periods of time, giving them a chance to socialize and form friendships, Wertheimer said.

There were also differences in how House and Senate members approached their jobs. In the past, newly-elected Representatives and Senators came to Washington with a specific plan in mind – things they wanted to accomplish for constituents.

Now, many House and Senate members regard their time in Congress as a “pretty good job—where they don’t have to work too hard, and they get to travel a lot,” Wertheimer said.

They can also appear on television as long as they “act outrageously,” she said.

All of these factors have changed “the character of the Congress,” according to Wertheimer.

“I feel as a little old lady it is a great loss,” Wertheimer said.

Valuable Sources

As a reporter, Wertheimer found that “all sorts of people will help you.” Long before he was Vice President, Dick Cheney served in the House, representing a Wyoming district.

According to Wertheimer, Cheney was an excellent source, often providing inside and tantalizing information.

“He would go out on the floor and make a speech that would remove paint,” Wertheimer remembered. “It would be so awful.”

But then he would tell Wertheimer and other reporters what was really going on behind the scenes.

“He was always telling you the truth, and a lot of times it was things you could not possibly imagine were true,” she said.

Wertheimer’s work was not confined to Washington, D.C. and Capitol Hill. As a long-time host of All Things Considered, Wertheimer knew that most of her listeners resided in the Mid-West, thousands of miles from the political seat of power in Washington.

As a consequence, she reported on issues and legislation that affected people in the Mid-West, following farm bills, for example, and investigating the best ways to purchase farm land.

Wertheimer also went out and talked to people in the heartland of the country, finding out what farmers and other people who had common interests thought about candidates for office.

It was, in its own way, a “completely different approach to polling,” she said.

Wertheimer also served as an NPR national correspondent, a job that took her to many parts of the world covering stories.

Formidable Force  

At NPR, Wertheimer worked alongside Susan Stamberg, Nina Totenberg, and the late Cokie Roberts, the four of them forming a dynamic and formidable team of journalists who shaped NPR, changing the voice of broadcast news while forging a new path for female journalists in the process.

The four of them became known as the founding mothers of NPR, an appellation that Winslow expanded on.

“You are the so-called founding mothers, in part, because you are very nurturing,” said Winslow. 

Winslow also pointed out that they were among the first journalists hired at NPR.

Wertheimer praised her former colleagues, saying, for example, that Totenberg “is one of the most respected journalists covering the Supreme Court.”

Stamberg, like Wertheimer, hosted, All Things Considered, for many years.

“She loved it and everybody loved her,” said Wertheimer.

Cokie Roberts, the daughter of long-term House members Hale and Lindy Boggs from Louisiana, “was born knowing things I didn’t know yet,” according to Wertheimer.

“It was so frustrating to me knowing that I had worked my butt off to get all of this (congressional) stuff sorted out, and she already knows it,” Wertheimer said.

Cokie Roberts always shared, helping Wertheimer when she needed assistance.

“She explained to me why something was happening the way it was happening,” Wertheimer said.

Wertheimer’s own career at NPR was defined by many firsts. In 1976, she became the first woman to anchor network coverage of a presidential nominating convention and a presidential election night. Wertheimer anchored 10 presidential nominating conventions and 12 presidential election nights.

She was also the first woman to broadcast live from inside the United States Senate chamber, providing 37 days of live coverage of the Senate debate over the Panama Canal Treaties, reporting that won her an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University award.

She also won prestigious awards for a series of reports on the Iran-Contra affair, and her coverage of the 104th Congress in 1995, the first time Republicans took control of Congress since 1955.

Washingtonian Magazine named Wertheimer one of the top 50 journalists in Washington in 1997, and in 1998 Vanity Fair recognized her as one of America’s most influential women. 

Childhood Dreams

Working as a journalist and reaching millions of people through her broadcasts fulfilled a childhood ambition for Wertheimer. She grew up in a small New Mexican mining town called Carlsbad, and from a young age, she wanted to work as a secretary for the legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow to learn everything she could about journalism.

“Did I have the vaguest clue how I would get to New York and meet Edward R. Murrow and get myself hired?” Wertheimer asked rhetorically. “No I didn’t. But that was my ambition.”

Then, in November 1956, Wertheimer was at home watching television when famed broadcaster Pauline Frederick appeared on the screen, speaking in front of the United Nations building in New York City, talking about the Soviet Union’s invasion of Hungry.

“I had that blinding moment when I thought: she’s a woman, and she’s got that job,’” Wertheimer said. “How did she get that job? I’m going to get that job.”

Wertheimer eventually met and became good friends with Frederick.

“To get to know her was absolutely wonderful,” Wertheimer said.

Wertheimer attended Wellesley College and worked at the BBC in London and then WCBS Radio in New York before arriving at NPR in 1971, the year of NPR’s inception. By working for what was then a start-up, Wertheimer was able to demonstrate her talents from the start, and she moved up quickly, something that might not have been possible with a major broadcasting company and in a male-dominated industry.

When advising young and aspiring journalists, Wertheimer urges them to try start-ups. This is especially true for women, she said.

“You cannot count on somebody reinventing a major broadcasting organization right as you are getting ready to be hired by a big broadcasting company,” Wertheimer said. “A new organization today is much better for women than an old one.”

If a young journalist gets hired by the New York Times, “how many people will you have to kill before you can get the big jobs?” Wertheimer joked, drawing laughs from the audience.

“The answer is many people,” she added.

Wertheimer also urges young broadcasters to “come up with your own voice and your own way of speaking,” instead of trying to emulate someone else.