Short Stuff: The Gaslighting of Martha Mitchell

Martha Mitchell emerges as a memorable figure in the political landscape, known for her candid and unrestrained commentary on political matters.

Martha Mitchell was an outspoken political commentator who frequently appeared on television and contacted journalists to share her views.

Hailing from the South, Martha Mitchell became known as "the mouth of the South," a nickname that reflected her willingness to speak her mind on the political stage. She operated under a guiding philosophy that rejected the notion of "no comment," and she became a familiar presence on television, often contacting journalists to offer her perspective.

As the wife of Nixon's attorney general John Mitchell, Martha became known as "the mouth of the South" for her willingness to publicly express controversial political opinions.

Martha was not only outspoken in her own right but also held a position of political significance as the wife of John Mitchell, Nixon's attorney general. Her frankness and willingness to express controversial political opinions in public earned her notoriety and the moniker that followed her throughout her time in the spotlight.

Martha's tendency to freely share her th ...

Martha's close ties to the Nixon re-election committee became a point of concern for the administration after the Watergate break-in, fearing she might reveal damaging information.

After the Watergate break-in, the Nixon administration became concerned that Martha's close ties to the re-election committee could lead her to reveal damaging information.

The Nixon inner circle fretted over the possibility that Martha held knowledge that could potentially harm them. In response, John Mitchell, a central figure in the Nixon administration, conceived a plan to isolate Martha from the media to prevent any damaging leaks.

John Mitchell ordered Martha to be kept away from the media and prevented from contacting journalists, fearing she would make the connection between the break-in and the Nixon campaign.

As part of Mitchell's plan, measures were taken to ensure Martha could not make any contact with journalists. The administration feared she would connect the dots between the Watergate break-in and the Nixon campaign.

When Martha eventually learned of James McCord's involvement and put two and two together, she tried to contact the press, prompting her to be forcibly detained and sedated by the administration.

Martha's epiphany came ...

In a distressing episode during the Nixon era, Martha was subjected to kidnapping and forcible detention orchestrated by the administration, an act designed to prevent her from speaking out and communicating with the media.

In a brazen act, the Nixon administration orchestrated Martha's kidnapping and forcible detention in a hotel room to prevent her from speaking to the media.

Martha was coercively held in a hotel room, an action taken to control her interactions and silence her from accessing news outlets or speaking to the media. This brazen act laid bare the administration's willingness to violate individual liberties to protect their own interests.

A doctor was brought in to sedate Martha against her will, demonstrating the administration's willingness to go to extreme lengths to silence her.

The gravity of Martha's situation was further compounded when a doctor was brought in to forcibly sedate her with a tranquilizer. Martha was held down and sedated against her will—a staggering abuse of power, directed by her own husband and carried out by a medical professional.

The administration's actio ...

The Nixon administration underwent great lengths to discredit and malign Martha, striving to portray her as deranged and unreliable, amidst a backdrop of grave allegations involving her unlawful confinement.

The Nixon administration launched a relentless smear campaign to discredit Martha and paint her as an unstable, unreliable person with a drinking problem.

Martha experienced a harrowing ordeal where she was kidnapped, held against her will, and forcibly sedated. However, upon securing her release and approaching the press with her story, the Nixon administration promptly began a character assassination campaign. They strategically framed Martha's narrative to appear as trivial gossip, suitable only for the "women's pages" of newspapers, rather than treating it as a grave and serious revelation.

The administration's strategy was to undermine Martha's credibility by relegating her accounts to the "women's pages" of newspapers, framing her story as mere gossip rather than a serious allegation.

The articles published about her capture and mistreatment were placed deliberately in less prominent sections of the newspapers, marked for topics considered less newsworthy or serious—the "women's pages." This was a calculated maneuver to trivialize her accounts and effectively minimize the public perception of her credibility.

Even after Martha's former bodyguard, James McCord, confirmed the truth of her ordeal, the administration continued to vilify her and distance themselves from the scandal.

Despite the veracity of Martha's experience being corroborated years later by James McCo ...