Politics
Bettmann Archive/Getty; William Philpott/AFP/Getty
Americans watched President
- President Donald Trump's impeachment hearing went public on Wednesday, and it's a foreign landscape compared to the two presidents who went before him.
- He's the fourth president to face impeachment proceedings, after Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Andrew Johnson. But Johnson's was hugely different since it took place in 1868.
- Media coverage makes a big difference. For Nixon, since coverage was mostly in television and print, it was communal, and the nation gathered together to watch his hearings unfold on primetime TV.
- For Clinton, television
news was becoming more politicized, and the internet and talk radio were just beginning to flourish. - Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
A president facing impeachment might be America's greatest drama.
President Donald Trump's impeachment hearing went public this week, and it's a foreign landscape compared to the two presidents who went before him.
It won't be the communal experience of a nation watching, like it was with former President Richard Nixon. But it's still going to hold the nation's attention.
In 1973, when the Watergate impeachment hearing was happening, America only had three television networks. It's estimated that 80% of Americans tuned in for at least part of the telecasts. Variety called it "the hottest daytime soap opera."
When former President Bill Clinton's impeachment proceedings were broadcast in 1998, television news had become politicized and diversified, and the internet was in its infancy. It was the first proper ratings competition for CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC.
For Trump, there'll be no singular television audience. Instead there'll be a direct channel to the president through his Twitter account. There'll be live-streaming, blog updates, and 24/7 news. It's going to be a spectacle.
These historic photos show what the last two impeachment proceedings looked like, and how they compare to Trump's.