Investigative reporter and author of Stonewalled Sharyl Attkisson told Martha Raddatz Sunday on ABC's This Week that journalists have "gone backwards" since the days of Nixon and are no longer empowered in the way they used to be.

Attkisson, who resigned earlier this year from CBS for muzzling her reporting, described exactly what it would be like if Nixon's Watergate scandal played out in today's media:

I think that we've gone backwards since that time when we really felt empowered as journalists. And I'd like to think of what would happen today during a Nixon-type scandal. Nixon would basically refuse to turn over tapes to Congress, his aides would refuse to testify to Congress, or would take the fifth, or would lie to Congress with fair amount of impunity. Woodward and Bernstein would be controversialized on social media by special and political interests. And then, at the end, Nixon would go on a popular late-night comedy show, during which time, he would humorously refer to his attackers as people that were political witch hunters, who believe in Area 51-type conspiracy theories.

Attkisson's book Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington is scheduled for a November release.