I Fell for Tricky Dick

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And along the way, of course, I became immersed in the supernova of complexity that is Richard Nixon. And let's be honest, the supernova of complexity that is David Frost too. A fascinating clash of characters, two men I initially found hard to like, but of whom I became strangely fond. And perhaps I can end this piece by asking the august collection of historians and journalists who will assemble in the Woodrow Wilson Center: Is it a sin to become fond of people who have abused power? Who have criminal faults? Or is it unavoidable, somehow, that we emotionally connect with villainy more than integrity? Is tragedy more revealing about ourselves than achievement? Is the industry of exploring villainy, no matter how high-minded that industry, to be applauded or condemned?

As I reflect on that, I hear a familiar voice behind me in my hotel room, and I notice that David Frost is on daytime TV, being grilled for having paid Nixon for the interviews, and I can't help wondering: If we didn't have television and entertainers to interrogate or hold our politicians to account, how impoverished would we be? How often has the "tube," and its army of showmen, been the cavalry coming to the rescue, the courtroom where politicians truly get taken to task? (I'm thinking of the devastating impact that Jon Stewart and Tina Fey and YouTube had in the recent election—achieving a far more telling coup de grâce than any inflicted by political opponents.) And in that scenario, don't the ends justify the means?

The Frost/Nixon interviews had the largest audience of any TV news interviews in history and delivered a lasting blow to Richard Nixon and his legacy. They also delivered a qualified catharsis for the American people who watched. An extraordinary achievement. In the process, they also made Frost and Nixon rich.

If we have a problem with that, if it depresses us in some way, it's worth remembering we vote as much with the remote switch as with the electoral ballot. With the click of the mouse as with the hanging chad. We participate in a thousand choices and elections every minute of the day, and if we dislike the results, if we wonder why or how it is that our political world and our entertainment are so enmeshed, blurring indistinguishably with one another, don't always blame the politicians or the entertainers. Blame us too. We put them there, after all.