# Spiro Agnew **Vice President of the United States (1969–1973)** under [[Richard Nixon]]. The first American vice president to deploy systematic **anti-media rhetoric** as a political strategy — the template that runs directly from Agnew's "nattering nabobs of negativism" through [[Fox News]]'s media-critique posture to Trump's "enemy of the people." Agnew also pioneered the use of the vice presidency as an **attack dog** role: the senior official who says what the president cannot, targeting elites, intellectuals, antiwar protesters, and the press with alliterative invective crafted by speechwriters [[Pat Buchanan]] and [[William Safire]]. Agnew resigned on October 10, 1973, as part of a plea deal on **criminal corruption charges** — bribery and tax evasion stemming from kickback schemes during his tenure as Baltimore County Executive and Governor of Maryland. He was replaced by [[Gerald Ford]], whose own ascension to the presidency after Nixon's resignation eight months later was a direct consequence of Agnew's criminal exit. ## Background Born November 9, 1918, in Baltimore. Son of a Greek immigrant (the family name was Anagnostopoulos). Law degree from the University of Baltimore (night school). Rose through Maryland Republican politics: Baltimore County Executive (1962), Governor of Maryland (1966). His gubernatorial record was moderate — he signed open-housing legislation and appeared reformist. Nixon selected him as a running mate in 1968 precisely because he was a border-state moderate who could help execute the [[Southern Strategy]] without the explicit segregationist associations of figures like [[Strom Thurmond]]. ## The Anti-Media Template Agnew's historical significance lies not in his governance but in his rhetoric. Working with speechwriters Buchanan and Safire, he developed the most sustained anti-media campaign by a senior government official in American history up to that point: - **"Nattering nabobs of negativism"** (September 11, 1970) — Safire's alliterative coinage became the era's signature phrase, framing media criticism of the Nixon administration as elite negativity rather than journalism. - **"An effete corps of impudent snobs"** (October 19, 1969) — Targeting antiwar protesters as privileged dilettantes. - **"Hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history"** — Another Safire alliterative assault on media and academic critics. - **Des Moines speech** (November 13, 1969) — Agnew's most consequential address, directly attacking television network news as a monopoly of unelected liberal elites who distorted news coverage to serve their own agenda. The speech explicitly argued that a small, unaccountable group of network executives and anchors wielded more power over public opinion than elected officials. The Des Moines speech is the **founding document of conservative media critique as political strategy**. Every subsequent iteration — from Reagan's "liberal media" to Gingrich's media-bashing to Fox News's business model to Trump's "fake news" — descends from Agnew's 1969 framework: the media is not a neutral watchdog but an ideological opposition that must be discredited, circumvented, and ultimately replaced with friendly alternatives. ## The Corruption and Resignation While serving as vice president, Agnew continued receiving cash bribes — literal envelopes of money delivered to his office in the White House — from Maryland contractors he had done business with as county executive and governor. The investigation, conducted by the U.S. Attorney's office in Baltimore, produced evidence of systematic kickbacks totaling over $100,000. Facing federal indictment, Agnew negotiated a plea deal: he pleaded *nolo contendere* (no contest) to a single count of tax evasion, resigned the vice presidency on October 10, 1973, received three years' probation and a $10,000 fine, and avoided prison. The timing was consequential: Agnew's departure just weeks before the Saturday Night Massacre (October 20, 1973) meant that when Nixon himself resigned in August 1974, the presidency passed to Ford rather than to a criminally compromised Agnew. ## The Trump Parallel The Agnew-to-Trump line is one of the clearest rhetorical genealogies in modern Republican politics: | Agnew (1969–1973) | Trump (2015–present) | |-------------------|---------------------| | "Nattering nabobs of negativism" | "Fake news" | | Media as "effete corps of impudent snobs" | "Enemy of the people" | | Des Moines speech: TV networks as liberal monopoly | War on mainstream media; preference for friendly outlets | | Attacking antiwar protesters as elitist | Attacking protesters as "thugs," "antifa" | | Vice presidency as attack-dog role | Presidency itself as constant attack mode | | Criminal corruption concurrent with anti-corruption rhetoric | Criminal indictments concurrent with "witch hunt" framing | The structural parallel extends to the corruption: both men used populist anti-elite rhetoric to build political careers while simultaneously engaging in the exact kind of self-dealing they accused elites of practicing. ## KB Significance 1. **The anti-media template.** Agnew invented the specific rhetorical strategy — delegitimize the press as a liberal ideological project rather than a democratic institution — that now structures the entire right-wing media ecosystem. Without Agnew's 1969 framework, there is no Fox News, no "liberal media bias" discourse, no "fake news." 2. **The attack-dog vice presidency.** Agnew established the model of the VP as the administration's rhetorical hit man — the figure who says what the president should not. This role was inherited by Dan Quayle (culture wars), [[Dick Cheney]] (national security hawkishness), and in Trump's case, absorbed into the presidency itself. 3. **The corruption-as-populism paradox.** Agnew's combination of populist rhetoric and personal corruption anticipated Trump's identical pattern. The anti-elite posture provides cover for elite self-dealing; the base's identification with the rhetoric makes the corruption invisible or acceptable. ## See Also - [[Richard Nixon]] — The president Agnew served under - [[Pat Buchanan]] — Agnew's speechwriter who extended the anti-media project into his own career - [[Southern Strategy]] — The electoral strategy Agnew helped execute - [[Donald Trump]] — The direct rhetorical successor - [[Gerald Ford]] — Agnew's replacement, who inherited the presidency when Nixon fell - [[Media Ecosystem]] — The right-wing media infrastructure Agnew's rhetoric helped justify