[4] Seeing Joel McCrea play a trench-coated reporter in Alfred Hitchcock's wartime thriller Foreign Correspondent further fuelled his personal ambition to become a journalist.
Nash and some former staff members from Canadian High News then bought up two neighbourhood newspapers, but with little advertising revenue, both papers quickly ran out of money and went out of business.
After a few months, Nash also started to write original feature articles, and was also sent to cover the Ontario provincial legislature as well as professional sports events in Toronto.
In 1949, he was promoted to manager of BUP's Vancouver office, where he covered the protests by the "Sons of Freedom" sect of Doukhobors, and interviewed various celebrities, including Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee.
Among other stories, he covered the death of William "Red" Hill Jr., who died trying to emulate his daredevil father by going over Niagara Falls in a floating contraption; and the 1951 Canadian royal tour of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
His work with IFAP made Nash a world traveller, with a dozen trips to Europe by steamship, plus visits to Mexico and Central America as well as Africa.
It also brought him in contact with many notables, including Pope Pius XII, Dag Hammarskjöld, Lord Boyd Orr, Dwight D. Eisenhower and future Dutch prime minister Barend Biesheuvel.
Two hours later, after some introspection, Nash realized that he was agreeing to government interference in the CBC's reportage, and modified his Telex to instead call for "responsible journalistic professionalism".
[22] Nash was candidly self-critical about his role in allowing the two hours of self-censorship, and later wrote, "I certainly was not skeptical enough about what Pelletier had said to Davidson and let my nationalism override my journalistic values.
"[23] Nash believed in the power of television to educate Canadians about their own history, and was instrumental in getting several series of "docudramas" on air despite protests from the entertainment and drama department that he was treading on their turf.
In an effort to prop up falling ratings, the initial "current affairs" focus of the show drifted towards entertainment, but audiences did not respond and the program was pulled after two seasons.
[30] During his tenure as anchor, Nash covered the 1979 Canadian federal election,[31] the sudden fall of the Joe Clark minority government and the re-election to power of Pierre Trudeau,[32] the 1980 Quebec referendum on sovereignty,[33] the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit that nominated Ronald Reagan and the subsequent election of Reagan to the U.S. presidency,[34] the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, to Lady Diana Spencer,[35] the 1983 Conservative leadership review that saw Joe Clark replaced by Brian Mulroney, the February 1984 resignation of Pierre Trudeau after his "walk in the snow", and the 1984 Canadian federal election that saw John Turner fall to Brian Mulroney.
[36] Nash was also in front of the camera on January 11, 1982, when The National was controversially moved from its customary timeslot of 11 p.m. to 10 p.m., lengthened from 15 to 20 minutes, and joined to a new 40-minute current affairs program, The Journal, with hosts Barbara Frum and Mary Lou Finlay.
John Mitchell called it "fascinating reading for anyone interested in a first-hand account of the political and social events of the 1950s and 1960s", and wrote of Nash's style, "His prose is crisp and precise.
"[38] Nash subsequently wrote eight more books about his career, journalism, politics and Canadian broadcasting[39] including Microphone Wars: A History of Triumph and Betrayal at the CBC,[40] which traced the history of public broadcasting in Canada from its beginnings in the 1930s to the mid-1990s, chronicling the inside struggles at the CBC as programmers fought against the frequent short-sightedness of corporate executives while both sides coped with the hostility of federal politicians who refused to provide adequate, long-term funding.
[41][42] Harry J. Boyle, a veteran CBC insider and one-time chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), summed the book up this way: "While it exposes corporate stupidities, political meddling and boozing executives, it vigorously endorses public broadcasting.
"[43] Nash's books continued to garner favourable reviews, with critics often mentioning his in-depth research and personal knowledge of events and notable people.