Appearing as a guest on the January 4 boradcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show, Republican Gov. Bill Owens echoed recent conservative talking points by claiming that former President Gerald R. Ford's 1974 pardon of former President Richard M. Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal is “now universally regarded as having been the right thing to do.”

Similarly, Newsradio 850 KOA host Mike Rosen praised Ford's pardon, saying on the January 2 broadcast of his show that Ford's “decision to pardon President Nixon was, in retrospect, the right decision, even though it was controversial at the time.” Rosen further opined that “even a Democrat would have pardoned Nixon, I believe, unless it was a vindictive one. That's what the times called for.”

As Media Matters for America has noted, New York Times columnist David Brooks claimed on the January 2 edition of PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer that Ford's pardon of Nixon “is now universally celebrated,” despite his own newspaper's December 28 editorial, which recalled that the Times' editorial page in 1974 “condemned the pardon as 'a profoundly unwise, divisive and unjust act' that in a stroke had destroyed the new president's 'credibility as a man of judgment, candor and competence.' ” The editorial concluded, “Our own bottom line continues to be the same: that the nation is strong enough to endure almost anything but burying the truth.”

In addition, Media Matters' Eric Boehlert noted in his January 4 column that, in recent years, Ford's defenders have portrayed his pardon of Nixon as nation-saving because it “avoid[ed] a lengthy Watergate criminal trial.” Among the “lofty” Ford apologists, Boehlert pointed to Peggy Noonan, a Wall Street Journal contributing editor and former speech writer for President Ronald Reagan, who in a December 29 Journal editorial likened Ford's pardoning of Nixon to having
“thr[own] himself on a grenade to protect the country from shame, from going too far. It was an act of deep political courage, and it was shocking. Almost everyone in the country hated it, including me. But Ford was right.”

Boehlert also noted that Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward -- who broke the Watergate story with fellow Post reporter Carl Bernstein -- told “CNN's Larry King on December 27 that Ford's pardon was 'a courageous act,' a 'gutsy' move, and praised Ford for being 'fearless.' ” But, as Boehlert observed, Ford admitted to pardoning Nixon more for personal reasons than for national concerns in a 2005 interview with Woodward:

What's so peculiar about Woodward's more recent pardon praise is that in 2005, he received exclusive insight from Ford himself, insight that raised serious doubts about the preferred narrative of the pardon being a selfless act of patriotism designed to free the nation from the shackles of Watergate. Instead, Ford, plucked from political obscurity by Nixon to be his VP and who just weeks prior to Nixon's resignation was still giving speeches insisting Nixon was innocent of any impeachable offense, told Woodward he issued the full pardon because he wanted to get his good friend out of a jam. “I looked upon him as my personal friend,” Ford told Woodward in 2005. “And I always treasured our relationship. And I had no hesitancy about granting the pardon, because I felt that we had this relationship and that I didn't want to see my real friend have the stigma.”

From the January 4 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

OWENS: He was a great guy. I -- I got to know him a lot better later. He did a fundraiser for me when I was running for governor. I, I was privileged to have dinner with he and Betty about a year ago in Beaver Creek. And just, just a great man.

BOYLES: Was he one of the guys that told stories?

OWENS: He did tell stories. And, of course, I love history. And so --

BOYLES: Oh, yeah.

OWENS: -- so I would be asking him about things that he had, had been through.

BOYLES: Did you talk to him about that moment where they make the decision on Nixon? Did he talk about that?

OWENS: You know, we didn't, but I've read a lot about --

BOYLES: I have too.

OWENS: -- and, gosh, it's now universally regarded as having been the right thing to do. But at the time, and as a young and active Republican at the time, it destroyed my party's chance to win.

BOYLES: Oh, yeah.

OWENS: Jimmy Carter did use it --

BOYLES: Absolutely.

OWENS: -- against Jerry Ford --

BOYLES: Absolutely used it.

OWENS: -- and, but it sure helped bring us together so that by 1980, President Reagan was able to start, you know, winning the Cold War and getting our nation back on track.

From the January 2 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show:

ROSEN: And it's interesting to note about Jerry Ford that virtually nobody has had an unkind thing to say about him. I had a chance to meet him a few times after he was president. He lived in Vail and I saw him up there. I did some programs from the Jerry Ford golf tournament for a few years. Very, very nice man. And that's what everybody's been saying, by and large. He was a good person who was probably the right man for the job at that point in history.

He wasn't a controversial president. He didn't launch any major initiatives. He wasn't really all that ideological. He was a -- a centrist, Jerry Ford. He certainly wasn't a Ronald Reagan, nor was he a Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was smooth and slick and articulate. Ronald Reagan was a great speaker. But Ronald Reagan was, was very ideological -- and I use that term favorably. Ideology combines two words that I value: ideas and logic. Ronald Reagan had a calling. He had an agenda. Jerry Ford, being a congressman from Michigan, was more of the collegial type. And his decision to pardon President Nixon was, in retrospect, the right decision, even though it was controversial at the time. And I suspect that even a Democrat -- and, of course, a Democrat wouldn't follow Nixon in that job; the chain of succession would dictate that a Republican would replace Nixon as president -- but even a Democrat would have pardoned Nixon, I believe, unless it was a vindictive one. That's what the times called for.

So, there aren't going to be very many people with strong opposition to Gerald Ford because he didn't take strong positions. He was kind of a transitional, caretaker president, but a really good person. And I'll say also an excellent, classy ex-president, as compared to Jimmy Carter, who has really departed from the traditional behavior of ex-presidents. Jimmy Carter's been parading around the world criticizing the United States for years.