Las entrevistas de David Frost con Richard Nixon

David Frost y Richard Nixon en 1970

Las entrevistas de Nixon fueron una serie de conversaciones entre el expresidente estadounidense Richard Nixon y el periodista británico David Frost , producidas por John Birt . Fueron grabadas y emitidas por televisión y radio en cuatro programas en 1977. ^{[ 1 ]} Posteriormente, estas entrevistas se convirtieron en el tema central de la obra de teatro Frost/Nixon de Peter Morgan en 2006.

Richard Nixon se alejó de la vida pública durante más de dos años tras dimitir a raíz del escándalo Watergate . Sin embargo, en 1977, Nixon concedió a David Frost una serie exclusiva de entrevistas. En aquel momento, Frost estaba publicando sus memorias, pero su publicista, Irving Paul Lazar, creía que podría llegar a un público masivo a través de la televisión. El programa de entrevistas de Frost, con sede en Nueva York, había sido cancelado años antes. Frost había accedido a pagar a Nixon por las entrevistas ^{[ 2 ]} , pero las cadenas de noticias estadounidenses no mostraron interés, considerándolas periodismo sensacionalista . Se negaron a distribuir el programa y Frost se vio obligado a financiar el proyecto por su cuenta mientras buscaba otros inversores, quienes finalmente compraron tiempo de emisión y sindicaron los cuatro programas. Las entrevistas también se emitieron por radio a través de Mutual Broadcasting System ^{[ 3 ]} .

El jefe de gabinete de Nixon, Jack Brennan, negoció los términos de la entrevista con Frost. ^{[ 4 ]} El personal de Nixon vio la entrevista como una oportunidad para que él restaurara su reputación ante el público y asumió que Frost sería fácilmente superado en astucia. Había entrevistado a Nixon en 1968 de una manera que la revista Time describió como "suave". ^{[ 5 ]} Frost reclutó al autor y oficial de inteligencia James Reston Jr. ^{[ 13 ]} y al productor de ABC News Bob Zelnick ^{[ 14 ]} para evaluar los detalles del Watergate antes de la entrevista. La tarifa negociada de Nixon fue de $600,000 ( equivalente a $3,200,000 en 2025 ) y una participación del 20% de cualquier ganancia. ^{[ 1 ] [ 15 ]}

The 12 interviews began on March 23, 1977, with three interviews per week over four weeks. They were taped for more than two hours a day on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, for a total of 28 hours and 45 minutes.^[2] The interviews were managed by executive producer Marvin Minoff who was the president of Frost's David Paradine Productions,^[16] and by British current affairs producer John Birt.^[16][17] Recording took place at a seaside home in Monarch Bay, California^[18] owned by Harold H. Smith, a longtime Nixon supporter. This location was chosen instead of Nixon's San Clemente home La Casa Pacifica due to interference with the television relay equipment from Coast Guard navigational transmitters near San Clemente. Frost rented the Smith home for $6,000^[1] on a part-time basis.

The interviews were broadcast in the US and some other countries in 1977.^[2] They were directed by Jorn Winther^[19] and edited into four programs, each 90 minutes long. In addition to being televised, the interviews were heard over radio via the Mutual Broadcasting System.

On Sunday evening May 1, 1977, CBS's 60 Minutes broadcast^[20] an interview of David Frost by Mike Wallace. This was the same network that Frost had "scooped" (CBS had negotiated to interview Nixon, but unlike the news organization, Frost was willing to pay for the sessions). Frost talked about looking forward to Nixon's "cascade of candour."

The interviews were broadcast in four parts, with a fifth part containing material edited from the earlier parts broadcast months later:^[1][21]

The premiere episode drew 45 million viewers, the largest television audience for a political interview.^[23]

Part 5 opened with Frost's blunt question, "Why didn't you burn the tapes?"^[24]

A Gallup poll conducted after the interviews aired showed that 69 percent of the public thought that Nixon was still trying to cover up, 72 percent still thought he was guilty of obstruction of justice, and 75 percent thought he deserved no further role in public life.^[2] Frost was expected to make $1 million from the interviews.^[1]

There have been several releases on DVD featuring different edited presentations of the Interviews, the first of which is generally focused on clips from the first segment on Watergate with additional commentary, whereas the extended release features the "complete" interviews in the original four (and the later fifth) segments just as they were broadcast in 1977. In particular, footage from the Frost/Nixon interviews were included on the 2009 DVD release of Frost/Nixon, which presented a dramatized re-creation of the interviews and the events surrounding them; the reverse of the keep case explains that the footage was included primarily for the sake of comparing it to the film's depiction. However, it is still unclear whether or not the (more than 20 hours of) tape cut from all the publicly released editions will ever be made available to the public.

• 1 disc edition, 85 minutes ("Frost/Nixon: The Watergate Interviews")
• 2 disc edition, 377 minutes ("Frost/Nixon: The Complete Interviews")

• David Frost entrevista a Richard Nixon en IMDb.
• «El presentador británico David Frost se enfrenta a Nixon» . Summer Breakfast . Radio National . 5 de enero de 2009. Archivado del original el 31 de enero de 2009. Uno de los aspectos más fascinantes de la historia es cómo un equipo de periodistas preparó a Frost para enfrentarse a Nixon en la entrevista. Uno de esos periodistas era Bob Zelnick, interpretado por Oliver Platt en la película [ Frost/Nixon ]. El verdadero Bob Zelnick nos habla en Summer Breakfast.