Posts with the Spiro Agnew tag

Barris Beat

Paying tax with glee

Written by Ted Barris on . 1 Comment
Spiro Agnew, former vice-president in Nixon administration. New Yorker magazine.

I have a memory from the fall of 1973. At the time I was working part-time as a professor’s assistant in the broadcast faculty at Ryerson University. I had one eye on the students’ work I was editing, and the other on a TV monitor of the news. Suddenly, I saw the face of U.S. Vice-President Spiro Agnew. Of all things he was standing with Frank Sinatra at a golf course in Los Angeles. A member of the media scrum asked Agnew about charges of tax fraud recently levelled at him.

“Malicious leaks,” Agnew spewed. “I will not resign if indicted,” and he repeated it. And the audience of well-wishers applauded. (more…)

Barris Beat

Words R us

Written by Ted Barris on . 1 Comment
In 1966, Walter Cronkite made the cover of Time magazine. But he still couldn’t pronounce “February.” Photo Robert Vickrey.

I know Walter Cronkite did it and that made it OK. Walter Cronkite, the CBS TV news anchor from the early 1960s until 1981, was once considered “the most trusted man in America.” But just because he was most trusted didn’t make him the most correct. He still couldn’t pronounce the name of the second month on the calendar. All those years ago he still closed his show this way:

“And that’s the way it is, this Thursday, Febuary 7, 1963,” he’d say in his sign-off. “This is Walter Cronkite for CBS Evening News. Good night.”

(more…)

Barris Beat

Maybe Chaucer was right

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote "let sleeping dogs lie" in the 17th century with implications for 21st century politicians.

When my younger sister and I were growing up, our Greek-born American grandparents visited our home once a year. They came from the U.S. to stay during warm Canadian summer months. While visiting, my grandfather generally tolerated anything my sister and I did or said, with a few exceptions. We could never swear in front of him. We were never to call wrestling a “fixed” sport. And under no circumstances were we to criticize the U.S. president – in those years Richard Nixon – or the U.S. Vice-President (of Greek origin), Spiro Agnew.

“Let sleeping dogs lie,” my mother would warn us. By that, she meant that unless we really wanted to face my grandfather’s wrath, we should just avoid any discussion of Nixon’s near impeachment and Agnew’s resignation over tax evasion.

(more…)