Henry Kissinger writes of Richard Nixon's "gruff pose of never paying attention to media comment", but this pose was broken on more than one occasion, usually in the face of defeat. During his 'Checkers' speech, Nixon accused his detractors in the media of being communists, as quoted by Haynes Johnson: "I was warned that if I continued to attack the communists in this government they would continue to smear me."

Following his loss in the California gubernatorial election, Nixon gave his infamous 'last press conference' in which he attacked the media in what Johnson calls "probably the most embittered, self-pitying farewell remarks ever made in American politics": 

"As I leave the press, all I can say is this: For 16 years, ever since the Hiss case, you've had a lot of - a lot of fun - that you've had an opportunity to attack me and I think I've given as good as I've taken ... But as I leave you I want you to know - just think how much you're going to be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference."

Throughout Nixon's presidency, he used his vice-president Spiro Agnew to launch attacks on the "liberal" media. Then, in his resignation speech following the threat of impeachment over Watergate, Nixon still felt the need to opine the positive media focus on the Kennedys in contrast to a lack of media interest in his own family: "Nobody'll ever write a book, probably, about my mother ... My mother was a saint. Yet, she will have no books written about her, but she's a saint."