The consternation came swiftly: How could the president pick a newsman — a television reporter, no less — for a government role of serious power and influence?

“Outrageous,” groused one European diplomat. Critics accused the White House of being media-obsessed, led by a president more focused on burnishing his image than pursuing policy goals.

Yet the job ultimately went to the television guy: the ABC News correspondent John A. Scali, who in 1973 was confirmed as President Richard M. Nixon’s ambassador to the United Nations.

He was not the only small-screen figure courted by Nixon’s circle. “Henry Kissinger asked me to be his under secretary for whatever the hell the press was called in those days,” Ted Koppel, the onetime “Nightline” host, recalled in an interview. “I must say I was interested.”