ABC Evening News – Nixon Resigns (film #5 in the Clip of the Week section of Retromedia). [Category: News]

This is not Nixon’s resignation speech, as you might guess. It’s a clip from the regular ABC news broadcast on the day Ford was sworn in as president. Still, it’s pretty interesting, as it shows Ford being sworn in, Nixon saying goodbye to his staff in a long, rambling speech that the newscasters hint was not overly coherent, and an editorial by Howard K. Smith in which he asserts that although the system works, it doesn’t work very well (granted, we didn’t get rid of Nixon as quickly and efficiently as the European examples he cites, but it didn’t involve violence, either, and that’s better than some countries we know). Overall, this is a great bit of news ephemera, bringing back some of the forgotten details of the Watergate affair.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.