National Research Act at 50: An Ethics Landmark in Need of an Update; The Hastings Center, July 12, 2024

Mark A. Rothstein and Leslie E. Wolf, The Hastings Center; National Research Act at 50: An Ethics Landmark in Need of an Update

"On July 12, 1974, President Richard M. Nixon signed into law the National Research Act, one of his last major official actions before resigning on August 8. He was preoccupied by Watergate at the time, and there has been speculation about whether he would have done this under less stressful circumstances. But enactment of the NRA was a foregone conclusion. After a series of legislative compromises, the Joint Senate-House Conference Report was approved by bipartisan, veto-proof margins in the Senate (72-14) and House (311-10).

The NRA was a direct response to the infamous Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee whose existence and egregious practices disclosed by whistleblower Peter Buxtun were originally reported by Associated Press journalist Jean Heller in the Washington Star on July 25, 1972.  After congressional hearings exposing multiple research abuses, including the Tuskegee syphilis study, and legislative proposals in 1973, support coalesced around legislation with three main elements: (1) directing preparation of guidance documents on broad research ethics principles and various controversial issues by multidisciplinary experts appointed to a new federal commission, (2) adopting a model of institutional review boards, and (3) establishing federal research regulations applicable to researchers receiving federal funding.

This essay reflects on the NRA at 50. It traces the system of research ethics guidance, review, and regulation the NRA established; assesses how well that model has functioned; and describes some key challenges for the present and future. We discuss some important substantive and procedural gaps in the NRA regulatory structure that must be addressed to respond to the ethical issues raised by modern research." 

After meeting with North Korean dictator, Trump calls press America's 'biggest enemy'; CNN, June 13, 2018

Brian Stelter, CNN; After meeting with North Korean dictator, Trump calls press America's 'biggest enemy'

"Hours after returning from a trip where he lavished praise on one of the world's worst dictators, President Trump declared that America's biggest enemy is... "fake news."

He singled out NBC and CNN in his angry tweet on Wednesday.

Trump frequently portrays the news media as one of his enemies, but rarely has he been this blunt about it. Wednesday's tweet harkens back to February 2017, when he called several news outlets "the enemy of the American People!"

He was roundly criticized back then. This time, there's been a somewhat more muted reaction, perhaps because he is repeating himself. But it's important to recognize just how extreme this rhetoric is.

No modern American president has publicly spoken this way about the press.

Richard Nixon sometimes talked this way, but only in private.

"Never forget, the press is the enemy. The press is the enemy. The press is the enemy," Nixon told his advisors, according to Oval Office recordings"

Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein: Trump’s attacks on the press are more dangerous than Nixon’s; Washington Post, February 19, 2017

Avi Selk and Kristine Guerra; Washington Post; Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein: Trump’s attacks on the press are more dangerous than Nixon’s

"Trump was speaking to his 25 million Twitter followers when, after weeks of news reports on scandals and chaos in his White House, he called most of the major news organizations in the United States “enemies of the American People!"

“We're not enemies of the American people," Bernstein said on CNN. “In fact, we're the last resort of the American people to a dictatorial and authoritarian-inclined president.""

Why We Ask to See Candidates’ Tax Returns; New York Times, 8/5/16

Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times; Why We Ask to See Candidates’ Tax Returns:

"Until Donald Trump, every major-party presidential nominee since then had released his or her tax returns (except Gerald Ford, who released a summary in 1976). The simple reason is that, on at least one subject, Nixon got it right: The American people need to know if their president is a crook."