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Former White House counsel says Nixon might have survived if there was a Fox News

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John Dean, former White House counsel said Richard Nixon might have survived as president if Fox News had existed.

Mr Dean, a key witness of the Watergate investigation - the scandal that led to former Republican President Nixon's resignation - spoke of the matter in a Politico podcast.

Speaking to Politico he said:

There’s more likelihood he might have survived if there’d been a Fox News.

In the podcast, Mr Dean went on to discuss the Russia Investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller since May 2017. He said he does not see a quick end to the probe in to Russian meddling with the US election and aides to President Donald Trump.

Mr Dean noted that with social media, the Watergate process may have finished sooner than the 928 days it took in the early seventies.

The CNN contributor spent four months in jail for his role in Watergate but he eventually cooperated with investigators - which started with the attempted bugging of Democratic National Committee headquarters at Watergate.

Meanwhile, in a December New York Times interview, the US President said he has every right to do what he wants with the US Justice Department but declared his wish to stay out of investigation:

But for purposes of hopefully thinking I’m going to be treated fairly, I’ve stayed uninvolved with this particular matter.

Fox News

Fox News launched in 1996, created by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes as chairman.

The organisation, then owned by News Corporation - now 21st Century Fox, reports that it surpassed CNN as the number one ranked cable news broadcaster in the United States in 2002, a position it has held consistently since.

'Their dream was my nightmare'

Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky meeting President Bill Clinton at a White House function in 1995 Lewinsky meeting Bill Clinton at a White House function (Picture: Getty Images) 

The broadcaster found it's voice after the Clinton Lewinsky scandal which came to light in 1998.

In a New York Times op-ed - Monica Lewinsky slammed Fox News accusing late chairman Roger Alies of growing the network on the back of the story of her relationship with President Bill Clinton.

She wrote:

Mr. Ailes, a former Republican political operative, took the story of the affair and the trial that followed and made certain his anchors hammered it ceaselessly, 24 hours a day.

Truth and fiction mixed at random in the service of higher ratings.

In her piece, Lewinsky cited comments made by Fox News executive John Moody years ago, who said the Clinton Lewinsky love affair "put us on the news map."

Many would say the next few years saw Fox News rally behind Republican President George W Bush.

Former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn hit out at the broadcaster in 2009. Dunn said the network operates as:

...either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican party."

Fox News was surprised and responded with contempt. A spokesman said:

It is extraordinary that the White House would go and target a news channel.

Donald Trump is said to favour Fox News over other networks in the US, Huffington Post reports.

He told his 45 million followers watch the network and also previously commended the network on his Twitter feed:

HT Politico

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