#26: Watergate Scandal

freetalk Podcast

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Transcription to this episode

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to freetalk Podcast, the show where we have one objective, take your english to the next level, the fun and simple way. My name is Alan and I’m your super handsome host, coming to you from the heart of Mexico City.

Before we move to today’s topic, I would like to tell you something a little unrelated. At the beginning of last Podcast I let you know why our Episode 24, Reduction of At, was such a fiasco. A horrible episode. The topic was, I think, very interesting, but the episode in general was horrible nonetheless. Now, ironically, that episode, our worst episode to date, is our most downloaded episode ever. Over 500 downloads, which lets me know that you were genuinely interested in that topic, and for that reason I am going to re-record that episode. I will record that episode again, I will make sure that the microphone is plugged in, we will double check the audio settings, so that you can listen to that information as it was originally planned, and make the most of that information. I hope I will find the time to do so in a few days, I just need to find the time to do it, but, you will have it again.

Ok, now, let’s jump into today’s topic. By now, you are surely asking yourself for my reasons to make this episode, right? So, let me tell you. As of today, I’m a few pages left to finishing a book that I’m reading. The Dead Zone, by Stephen King. This is actually the first time that I read this author. For a long time I had been wanting to read him, mostly because I have seen some of the movies that have been made based on his novels, and I find them very well done. The Shining, a beautiful movie by Stanley Kubrick starring Jack Nicholson; It, that horrible clown who terrorized me during my entire childhood. There is also a movie for this book, named, of course, the Dead Zone, starring Christopher Walken and Brooke Adams. Anyway, I bought this book about 2 years ago and it was just getting old on my bookshelf until I finally got around to readit, that means, I finally found the time to do it. And I must say that the book doesn’t disappoint. It’s very well written, it is exciting, it has a good, uncanny story, uncanny, U-N-C-A-N-N-Y means mysterious, inexplicable, maybe even supernatural, which is, I’ve been told, the line that Stephen King usually follows in his writing. But this episode is not about this book, but about one of the incidents that happened within this story, that is not really essential to the plot, plot P-L-O-T, that is, the argument, the storyline of the book, but that is also very interesting, and I’m talking about The Watergate Scandal. This is a rather complex topic, because there is a lot of legal and political technicalities, but I will try to make it as simple as possible.

And before I go on, I would like to make a brief interruption, to talk about the importance of getting yourself immersed in the language. In this case, of course, English. If you are listening to this podcast, which, you are, of course, that’s because you are learning English as a second language, which, most likely means, that you are not living in the United States or any other English-speaking country. Maybe you are, that’s possible too, but statistically, you are not. And using this podcast is going to help you close that gap that exists between not understanding authentic language, and understanding it. What I’m trying to say is that you should try, as often as possible, to watch and listen and read content that is coming from real American Sources. Well, American or British or Australian or whatever, but I mean, from people whose first language is English, Of course, I’m not telling you to stop listening to my show, nononono, don’t you ever do that, but try to listen to the radio, watch tv shows, read the papers, read books and so on, because when you do that, not only are you learning and acquiring the target language, but you are also exploring the country’s culture, and that is determinant. Language is heavily influenced by the cultural context of its speakers and vice versa. Why am I saying this right now? Because when you consume the content, topics like this, are easier to understand and to make sense of.

Ok, let’s resume. What is the Watergate Scandal? Watergate was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s. It was caused, first, by a break-in at the Democratic National Committee. A break-in, that is B-R-E-A-KI-N (those are two words) break-in, is a crime, a felony, that happens when people enter a property that is not theirs, without any authorization. All right? If somebody breaks into your house they usually do it at night, when you are sleeping, or when you are not home, and most of the times it’s perpetrated with the intention of stealing, of robbing your belongings. So, in this particular case, some people broke in the Democratic National Committee, which is an institution that belongs to the United States Democratic Party, one of the two major political parties, in the United States. They are the liberals, we could say, the left Wing party. Right now, on 2016 election process, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are the Candidates to become the nominees for this party, The other party is the Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, that stands for Grand Old Party. The Republican Candidates this year are Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich. But, let’s not talk about politics for a second.
Resuming: some people broke in the offices of the Democratic Party in June. The year, 1972. Why? Well, the man who was the president of the United States during that period was Richard Nixon, and in 1972 he announced his campaign to be reelected, to be president again. Now, Nixon, being a politician, had some dirty tricks under his sleeve, he wanted to be reelected at all cost.
The most thorough investigation since that of Kennedy’s assassination. In June, 1972, five people broke into the Democratic Party Offices that were located in the Watergate Complex, a group of offices in Washington DC. The objective of this illegal infiltration was to, they said, take photographs of campaign documents and install listening devices in telephones. This is known as wiretapping, or bugging. This worked for a little while, but soon after the phones were to be repaired, so 5 men entered illegally, once again, into the offices, but this time they were discovered and arrested.

When this news broke, when this was discovered, president Nixon at a press conference said, "I can say categorically that... no one in the White House staff, no one in this Administration, presently employed, was involved in this very bizarre incident." Now, the investigation was a very long one, in fact, some people described it as the most thorough investigation since the assassination of Kennedy. Thorough, that is, T-H-O-R-O-U-G-H, means executed without negligence or omissions, complete, extremely attentive to detail. As part of the investigation, it was discovered the existence of some audio tapes that contained recordings from the White House, and the court asked for those tapes. President Nixon refused to release them, he said, no. But eventually, he was forced to give the transcriptions of those tapes in. The content of those transcriptions was not really a proof of guilt to the president, but they revealed, as Time Magazine wrote, “An indictable offense, they showed Nixon contemptuous of the United States, its institutions, and its people.” The majority of the Republican Party members believed that Nixon should step down as quickly as possible, (that is, that he should resign, stop being president). They were disturbed by the bad language, and the coarse, vindictive tone of the conversations in the transcripts. Later on, the original tapes were released and they showed that president Nixon was part of the cover-up. That means, he knew about it, and he was obstructing justice. The release of one final tape, known as the smoking gun tape, destroyed Nixon politically. Realizing that he had no chance of staying in office, Nixon decided to resign, and he announced that to the American people on a nationally televised address, on the evening of August 8, 1974, and he became the first president in the history of the United States in resigning the presidency, before the end of his period. Gerald Ford was the vice-president at the time of Nixon’s resignation, and then he became president, who on September 8, 1974, issued a full and unconditional pardon of Nixon, immunizing him from prosecution for any crimes he had “committed or may have committed or taken part in” as president. So, former president Nixon, was innocent of any possible charge and he would not face legal consequences.

This whole scandal is part, not only of American History, but has translated into popular culture as well, and not only in the United States. Since this scandal, the suffix-gate has been used to describe other scandals that have gained notoriety in the media. In the arts and entertainment, we can mention the Celebgate, in 2014, when more than 500 private pictures were made public, some of them containing nude pictures. Maybe you remember Jennifer Lawrence’s nudes. The Donutgate, in 2015, where Ariana Grande was caught on camera licking some donuts at a store.

In journalism there was the Reutersgate, in 2006, where a photographer from Reuters was discovered manipulating news photos with Photoshop. The Monicagate, or Lewinskygate, that infamous scandal about the inappropriate relationship between President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. The list is countless, huge, and, as I told you in the beginning, it goes to show how, at least partially, the culture influences the way we talk, the way we name things, and the way we decide to use language. I am positive that if you start digging through the content of American media you will find something about this scandal: maybe Nixon’s picture, some of the things said in the case, the use of the suffix -gate, anything. And when you do so, I would be happy to know about it. And now, to finish this episode, let’s have a very quick word on pronunciation.

WORD ON PRONUNCIATION

Today we’ll talk, yet again, about reduction. And today is the turn for the indefinite article A. That’s just the letter A, first letter of the alphabet. As you surely know, the article a is used before singular, countable nouns that begin with consonant sounds. For example: teacher. We say, a teacher. We don’t say, for instance, he is teacher; we say, he is a teacher. Other examples: I don’t have a car. You saw a dog in the street, etc. Because a is equivalent to one, we don’t use it with plural nouns. So, we don’t say I have a cars, right? We say I have cars, or I have 2 cars, 4 cars, a million cars, a lot of cars, etc. A is singular. Now, talking about pronunciation, we can pronounce the article as a, as the sound of the letter, or a. So, you can say ei car, or a car. Both are completely acceptable. However, the latter, the second pronunciation is much more common, so a car is better.
Buuuuut, when we use this article in a sentence, as americans love to do, the sound is going to be reduced. So, the sound a is already short, but they will reduce it even more. Do you remember the sound schwa? That sound that is just like a gasp producing a little vibration on your chest. Uh, uh. Well, that’s exactly the sound. So, let’s hit the examples.

First one: It’s a present (it is a present) but when we pronounce this sentence, the sounds are going to connect naturally to one another and the sound of the article a will become uh. So, it’s [tsə preznt] [tsə preznt] Right?

Ok, let’s move to the rest.

You need a break
Give him a chance
Let’s get a new pair of shoes
Can I have a coke, please?
Is that a computer?
Where’s a public telephone?

Ok? Perfect! Well, that’s going to be the end of this episode. You can find the transcription to this episode on the blog post, in our website www.freetalkingles.com/podcast. There you can also leave me your comments, questions and suggestions and while you are there make sure to check out all the other content we have created, the videos, we have a couple of articles and, if you haven’t, make sure to get a copy of your free course to learn how to make the best out of your english learning experience. The course is completely free, I really don’t know what you’re waiting for.

We will meet again next Wednesday for a new episode and stay tuned for the re-upload of the episode about the reduction of at. I’ll see you soon and, remember, to keep it simple.

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