Tie Shoelaces And Not Shoelaces.

Han Lian Qing

In 1974, President Nixon resigned because of Watergate scandal. After vice president Ford succeeded to the presidency, he absolved Nixon unconditionally. This caused great dissatisfaction among the American public, who thought Nixon did not confess.

After leaving office, Nixon lived in deep simplicity and concentrated on writing his memoirs. It was not until the summer of 1977 that he received an exclusive interview with David Foster, a talk show host, about his role in Watergate.

In 2006, the Forster dialogue Nixon, which was adapted from the incident, was successfully staged in London, England. In 2008, American director Ron Howard put the drama on the screen.

Forster was originally a silent TV presenter. When he saw Nixon's resignation speech on television, he immediately felt that it was a good subject to interview Nixon. When he learned that Nixon had made a speech at 9 a.m. in Washington time, he said freely, "why did he not wait for a while to speak again? It's only 6 a.m. on the west coast now, and half of his audience is still asleep." Forster knows TV very well.

Forster offered to pay $600 thousand to Nixon, far exceeding the offer of US television. Nixon picked up a soft persimmon and thought that foster was better than the American TV host. He accepted Forster's invitation and tried to make a comeback through this exclusive TV interview.

Forster led the team to the United States to prepare for the desk work before the visit. Their goal is to let Nixon plead guilty through this interview. Forster peddled the right to broadcast interviews, but the TV station did not believe that he could do the program well.

After the interview began, Nixon Don Laci shifted the topic and put the gold on his face everywhere. As a result, those who opposed Nixon said they would vote for him if Nixon came out to run for president again. Forster gradually fell into despair. This is just like Bozeman, an American media environmentalist. entertainment As far as death is concerned, TV dialogue will encourage incoherent and boring details.

One night before the last interview, Forster accidentally received a call from Nixon. Nixon admitted that he had just drunk a few glasses of wine, and honestly talked about his struggles and others' misunderstanding of himself. The talks re stimulated Forster's morale.

Forster reorganized the team, and finally found conclusive evidence that Nixon actually knew the eavesdropping incident before the Watergate scandal was exposed and tried to cover it up.

In front of irrefutable evidence, Nixon Finally, I admit that I have made mistakes under the pressure of partisanship, violating my moral standards, disappointing the people and letting the government lose faith in the people. Forster's interview eventually convinced Nixon to do things that the law and political opponents had not done, and Forster was also famous.

The interview focused on Nixon's slightly swollen face showing loneliness, annoyance and loss. In the words of the movie, "the first and biggest problem with TV is that it simplifies everything." Major and complex ideas are simplified into a snapshot.

Mcluhan, a Canadian media environmentalist, divided two media into the media: one is "hot medium", the other is "cold medium". The so-called "hot medium" is the medium of "high definition". It is in a state of data filling, leaving little room for the recipient to fill and participate. Broadcasting is the representative of hot media. {page_break}

The so-called "cold medium" is a medium with "low definition", which provides insufficient information and requires recipients to fill and participate. When watching TV, people's eyes do not follow actions, but react. Eyes seldom leave the faces of characters. This makes television a media that tends to be close-up, so the definition of TV is low and the degree of participation is high. Mcluhan classified television as "cold medium".

Mcluhan thought, "for Nixon's high definition image, television It must be a disaster. In 1952, Nixon successfully made use of radio to make a speech. In 1960, Kennedy and Nixon held presidential debates on television. Those who listened to the debate on the radio thought that Nixon had won; while the people watching TV knew that Nixon had lost.

When Nixon speaks, the corners of his mouth sweat easily. This often gives people a sense of self doubt. Someone once joked that this fault made him lose the throne of the president.

Mcluhan has a famous saying: "media is information." What he calls "media" is very broad. It refers to newspapers, radio and television as well as language, currency and automation. Therefore, "media" is actually a generalized technology, and "message" is meaning.

According to Mcluhan's explanation, the meaning of "media is information" means: "any influence of any medium (i.e. any extension of human beings) on individuals and society is due to new scale. Any extension of us, or any new technology, must introduce a new dimension in our affairs."

Media environmentalists like Mcluhan and Boltzmann all hold the view of media determinism. They argue that the media is not a neutral tool, but a process that can shape our lives, our thinking and our history.

Mcluhan believes that broadcasting is a fanatical medium for fanaticism, and if television comes out before Hitler, there will be no such thing as Hitler. Television requires a high degree of participation, but it can easily cause numbness, so it is not suitable for dealing with thorny and controversial topics.

In Forster's dialogue with Nixon, there is probably no difference between politics and entertainment. Forster understood this better than anyone else. Or in the words of Boltzmann, television shows all the content in the form of entertainment, and television will entertain politics.

This is well explained in detail in the movie. When Nixon saw Forster for the first time, he noticed that Forster wore leather shoes without shoes. Nixon's assistant told him that these shoes were too feminine.

Before the interview, Nixon walked out of the special car. The movie focused on the leather shoes with shoes tied on Nixon's feet. During the interview, Nixon stared at Forster's shoes that laced his shoelaces and told him that wearing these shoes might be a good idea in your business.

When Forster saw Nixon for the last time, he gave him a pair of leather shoes without shoes. Nixon said that Forster had the ability to get along well with others, but he did not, and he was more suitable for a spiritual life that needed to be debated and debated. "Maybe you should be a politician, and I became a tough interviewer."