Nixon came to national attention in the 1940s when he ran against Helen Gahagen. He claimed she was so far Left she had pink underwear. The press hated him after that.
Nixon made no friends in the press when Joe McCarthy was hunting for communists in the 1950s.
The press lambasted Nixon for a "slush fund" while he was Eisenhower's VP.
The press lambasted Nixon for his debate performance against JFK in 1960.
The hippies who marched against the Vietnam War were not Nixon supporters, and the press who covered those hippies were not Nixon supporters.
When exactly was the press in bed with Nixon? Watergate is when the press finally "got him" -- they had been trying for close to 30 years.
No, the press was never in bed with Nixon like they are in bed with Obama. I don’t believe I implied that.
However, the press feared Nixon just like the press fears Obama. Nixon had J. Edgar Hoover, the FCC, the IRS at his beck and call, and he did use them. When it became clear he was under siege, the tone of the media changed. Talk show guests were openly and blatantly critical, no longer fearing retribution.
Woodward has the creds to go against the flow. A lesser independent journalist would simply never work again on the national level.
I was in my 20s in the Nixon era, but I was paying attention.