you have a memo from herb klein to chuck colson in the nixon years. "for your eyes only, please."deman, nixon, they are all involved in this, 1970. the following is a summary of the most pertinent conclusions from my meeting with the three network chief executive spirit one, the networks are terribly nervous over the uncertain state of the law, the recent state decisions and granting congress access to tv. they are also apprehensive about us. why did you put that memo in the book? tom: because of the licensing control that was vested in washington, ostensibly, in an independent regulatory agency, but the factor, there is political control. and the nixon administration had a very pointed policy to talk to the network chiefs, particularly the presence of the news divisions, at the three network, cbs, and bc, and to tell them -- cbs, nbc, abc and to tell them they were not happy with the reporting, with the content and they would look at regulatory options. they would look at the fairness doctrine and foresman and look at licensing issues and make things difficult for the corporation

here is chuck colson around the same issue, december 15, 1972, talking to president nixon on the phonegood. i was going to ask him. chance.ver got a he said, ok, see me. i said i have one thing to talk to you about. i said "i cannot see you tomorrow." he did not want to talk. i am seeing him monday at 1:00. i was a say that you guys are crazy. they are probably going to put somebody on the air, not mess it was going to get balanced. -- not unless it was going to get balanced. i will make a real pitch out of that. >> all right, sure. >> that would help us. client timeve the and money. host: what are you hearing? guest: the chilling effect. and that is what is not supposed to happen with the regulatory structure. we have the first amendment in the united states. congress should make no law abridging freedom of speech or the press. that is an effort to abridge freedom of speech and of the press. fairness doctrine challenges that do involve free, equal time . license renewals that are set aside for hearings. in some cases, denied, potentially. host: if he was alive today, would he be as af

prosecutors determined that purpose came from inside the legal office of nixon's white house, counsel chuck colsoningling out elseberg saying it would be all right if a couple heads were knocked. colson denied that and other allegations at the time. one of the reason the incident didn't get more legal attention according to the memo is that the justice department didn't think it could win the case for that particular crime. noting the evidence gathered on the plot wouldn't be sufficient to indict colson. prosecutors wrote they might indict colson on a coverup instead of the crime if he lied about it to the grand jury. there would be a case, quote, to indict him for perjury in that instance. it also reveals new context for why prosecutors saw watergate as more than a single break-in. other officials provided testimony like former nixon lawyer john dean and were named in the memo as witnesses or bystanders such as karl rove and roger stone. the memo that we're airing for the first time was written by nick ackerman, then a 25-year-old federal prosecutor on the watergate prosecution special force and