It is, however, a simplistic trope that not even Watergate-era principals at the Post embraced. In her interview with Pakula, Ephron tried to rehabilitate her boyfriends reputation. The heroic-journalist myth, which began taking hold even before Nixon resigned, has been sustained by three related influences. Overnight, Woodward and Bernstein became household names. But three or four days later, we got a copy of them from Ellsberg, only we didnt have three months to study them. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Bob Woodward: One year exactly. Haldeman? He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Elsa Walsh, a writer for The New Yorker. Deep Throat is the pseudonym given to the secret informant who provided information in 1972 to Bob Woodward, who shared it with Carl Bernstein.Woodward and Bernstein were reporters for The Washington Post, and Deep Throat provided key details about the involvement of U.S. president Richard Nixon's administration in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal. The article was entitled "The Idiot Culture". Carl Bernstein, born on February 14, 1944, in Washington, D.C., began part-time work at the Washington Star at the age of 16 and later dropped out of the University of Maryland to work full-time as a reporter. NEW YORK . Together, they followed the story and co-wrote the best-seller, "All the President's Men.". And I was going on an unknown path, and that concerned him, but when I got into it and then went to work for the Post, he was quite supportive. Not one of the 17 stories he filed was printed. Sometimes, people accuse us of bringing down a president, which of course we didnt do, and shouldnt have done,Graham said. With the full support of their editor, Ben Bradlee, Woodward and Bernstein continued to pursue the story, and little by little uncovered a larger story of the abuse of power and the obstruction of justice. On the other hand, Carl Bernstein was the child of two Communist activists (per Washingtonian). There are still, somewhere, embarrassing, Instagram-quality pictures of me wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a reel-to-reel tape-recorder that said, "Property of the Watergate Bugging Team.". Samuel Dash, the Democratic counsel to the Senate Select Committee chaired by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina, argued in his later book on the Senate investigation, Chief Counsel, that the admirable, early investigative reporting of Bernstein and Woodward had now degenerated into what he called "hit and run" journalism based on leaks from the committee and jeopardized the ability of the legal system to track down and punish the guilty. Events are in no way simple or cinematic. You dont think of them as real authorities in the question of what is classified and what isnt, and what is a threat to the United States and what isnt. Maybe it was 16, but he had fully a decade-plus of experience under his belt. He started working for the Washington Post in 1971, nine months before the Watergate break-in. She had the lawyers on the same phones. Who would be dumb enough to work on this story on a Saturday morning? And they thought of me immediately. Muskie, in the emotion of the campaign, was trying to explain what had gone on. More than 40 years after they became the world's most famous journalism duo, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are still making news. It looked like I was going to become a lawyer, and my father to a certain extent was my model. So that gave hope to the Republicans, and of course, all of the Republican spokesmen had a field day beating us upside the face over that, but it didnt last very long. When Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein published their groundbreaking Watergate reporting that led to the resignation of former President Richard Nixon in 1974, the duo thought he would be the. Advertisement Pakula. But the real input comes from people who believe in a free press, believe in the First Amendment, believe in open discourse as much as possible, hate secrets, hate secret government, hate secret concentrations of power. Goldwater Republican. Bob Woodward: Certainly. Well, it turns out a lot of CIA people were, and they tried to use the CIA to cover up the FBI investigation, but they never pinned it on the CIA. Every time the White House denied something, the evidence became clear that it was the White House that was lying. I may have been an extreme case, but not a unique one. He was a very well-regarded lawyer in town. We didnt allow any television people in. One was Woodward and Bernsteins All the Presidents Men, the well-timed memoir about their reporting. How old were you at the time of that break-in? (Spiro Agnew, who had been elected as Nixon's vice president in 1968 and 1972, had resigned in October 1973 after pleading no contest to a charge of tax evasion.). ." Woodward and Bernstein reflect on Watergate and its place in American history. And we had to be sure the headline was right. It was the first film I ever made like this, Hoffman told me. These scandals led to numerous government investigations and the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon. 1996 - 2023 American AcademyofAchievement. He is now Assistant Managing Editor of the Post, and has written nearly a dozen bestselling books. I didnt like the Navy, I didnt like Vietnam, I didnt like the war, and was disappointed in myself that I didnt figure out how to adjust to being a part of this that I didnt like, and so I didnt quite have the guts to run away or stand on principle. So in an odd way, those in my business have a million allies out there. But together they did something that neither one of them could do individually. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. It was embarrassing that they had this great story and we didnt. Who were your favorite authors? These were the values, after all, that purged America of the evil Richard Nixon -- not the dirty (bleep)ing hippies. They were the first to reveal the tapes, and they were always ahead of the curve, but there was a lot of great reporting done by other people, Sy Hersh, the Los Angeles Times, they all did really good work. The duo of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein have become synonymous with reporting the comings and goings of the Watergate scandal. Alicia Shepard said, "Carl was the big thinker, and Woodward was the one that [made] sure it got done [T]hey knew that each of them had strengths that the other didn't, and they relied on one another. Woodward immediately published a full account of his dealings with Felt in his book, The Secret Man. That, at least, was the interpretation of the late Stanley Kutler, one of Watergates leading historians, who noted: You had to have that kind of corroborative evidence to nail the president of the United States.. And whats sad about the Nixon presidency is not just the criminality and abuse of power, but the simple truth, to the best of my knowledge at this point, on those tapes no one ever says what would be good, what would be right for the country, what would be best for the country, which of course is what a president is supposed to do. Ukraine's neighbor Moldova, host to thousands of Ukrainian refugees, is monitoring the conflict closely while . And so the other day they wrote a lengthy piece -- their first joint byline in 36 years -- trying to correct all the myths about Watergate that have risen in the years since. You dont think of journalists automatically as patriots, one. 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Woodward would only reveal his informant was an individual working in the Executive Branch. I would have been more effective.. Beyond that, the deeper problem of Nixon Exceptionalism is that it established new standards for what constituted presidential misconduct -- standards that weren't based on the discredited ideas of the 1960s, but the "objective" standards of the Watergate era. They were 30 and 31.". His writing was serious and matter-of-fact. And yet it was Bernsteins daring that was necessary.. The qualities that each other had -- the qualities that they needed [to report Watergate] -- they didnt like. It took some of us from the Watergate generation a long time to see it. You want to make sense out of it. She said Bernstein was driven to uncover the Watergate story because he wanted to prove everyone at the Post wrong. Kind of parse it out. But she wasnt the editor. This was our time, our story. Bobs sucking up to people. Writers or journalists who inspired you? Find the perfect classics house stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. I recall in that incident, I did one, he did one, and I looked at his, and I realized his was better, as was almost always the case. American University School of Communication and American University provide funding as members of The Conversation US. But she finally said, Well, okay. Maybe it was 16, but he had fully a decade-plus of experience under his belt. However popular, the heroic-journalist myth is a vast exaggeration of the effect of their work. And he would be going over to the White House to give Nixon the news that he didnt have any his support in the Senate was eroding. The third vital member of the team of Woodward and Bernstein is the mysterious figure known as "Deep Throat." Thats the standard clich about Watergate: the system worked. Nixon didnt last too long in that second term. The team stole top-secret documents and wiretapped the phones to listen to conversations. Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president on August 9. The movie, which was released in April 1976 and starred Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, was relentlessly media-centric, ignoring the work of prosecutors and the FBI. It was a takedown that transcended politics, transcended ideology. Bob Woodward was at the very head of that pack, flaunting his access to the Bush White House while failing to ask the only question that really mattered. Ben Bradlee: It is an interesting thing. The fallout or denouement caused President Nixon to resign from office and sent several "conspirators" to prison. Carl had a harder time. It marked the low point in a country's trust and respect for the highest office of the land and left the nation to question its very foundation. Then in March 1973 one of the Watergate burglars, James McCord, a former CIA official, wrote a letter to Judge John Sirica, who was trying his case, that essentially confirmed the Bernstein and Woodward stories. Mr. Bradlee, its important to remember that Nixon was re-elected during this period. Ben Bradlee: He sure did. It was going to be scrutinized and examined. Bernstein and Woodward pursued documentary evidence by cross-checking telephone books, airline records, building directories, hotel records, andin what some claimed were violations of journalistic ethics confidential credit card and telephone company records. Bob Woodward: As defendants, as tax cases, divorce cases, the full catastrophe of litigation. And I think that they knew that each of them had strengths that the other didn't, and they relied on one another. Woodward and Bernstein were no closer to revealing who approved the break-in than they had been in June, and even further away from exposing the obstruction of justice that followed the. In his obituary column written in 1994, writer Martin Weil had this to say about the late Lewis: "A familiar and trusted figure to top police officials, [Lewis] went into the building with investigators and remained there unchallenged through the day, gathering information available to no other news outlet.". They have always backed what I do. Mr. Woodward, once you heard one of the burglars say he worked for the CIA, where did you take it from there? Richard Nixon's RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (1978) gives the former president's version of the events surrounding Watergate. He resigned. The New York Times played the lead role but we played a role too. Were you the only child? On the other hand, Bernstein was born to a Communist Jewish family. Alicia Shepard fills in the gaps in her very candid book, "Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate.". He wanted to film it from 3:00 in the morning until 8:00 in the morning, and we just told him it was not possible. You want to deal a careful glancing blow. In their dogged reporting of the Watergate scandal, Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered the crimes that forced Richard Nixon to resign the presidency in August 1974. Like most media myths, the heroic-journalist interpretation of Watergate rests on a foundation of simplicity. Where were you born? Bob Woodward: I was not in intelligence; I was in communications, and they are different in the Navy. Bob Woodward: I dont know whether I feel pride. It was only later, when Dean testified, and the tapes came out, that it was quite clear that not only was Nixon involved, he was in charge of the cover-up. How did we get into committing 500,000 troops 10,000 miles away in a way that we could never win? He also felt compelled, as a reporter, to point out that Bernstein's remarks were . Somebody who through force of personality made history interesting and important. I would have summer jobs, while my parents and other siblings would go on vacation, for instance. And she had a style of I want to know whats going on. The notes from Pakulas interview with Ephron reveal a key to his understanding of Woodward and Bernstein. [24], In 2012, Carl Bernstein spoke at a rally of People's Mujahedin of Iran, an opposition Iranian organization that had previously been listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States, reportedly receiving a payment for his speech.[25]. Carl tried his hand in television, at ABC News (and was a consultant at CBS News for awhile). Passion and obsession intertwine in Fire of Love, With characters wise and reassuring, animated short The Boy, the Mole comforts. I think it is an emotion that if you bask in it, its like hate; it will destroy you. I think most people feel that the old Post would have just sat by. He said, Youre crazy. So he didnt think it was a good idea.. If you didnt have the Independent Counsel, which was a direct outgrowth of Watergate, you never would have had Ken Starr, you never would have had a criminal investigation of Clinton. Bob Woodward: Oh, yes. No soul.. We had one day. How did it happen? "Woodward and Bernstein display: block; Because of its detail, as well as the crucial importance of the subject they were investigating, All the President's Men has come to be widely regarded as a classic book in the history of American journalism, showing how reporters and corporate news organizations operate under pressure. ." I am repeatedly struck by how I have missed part of the story, always. I suspect that most people from the generations that came after mine don't really know that much about Watergate other than that a president resigned in disgrace, the only time that's ever happened. There was an election on in 72, and most of the rest of the country was saying, The Post is just playing politics, and all that stuff. Bob Woodward: I was going to go to law school after five years in the Navy, so I was age 27, and I got a job at a weekly paper in Montgomery County, Maryland for $110 a week. A year later, he was back at the Post, and at age 29 found himself in the middle of one of the biggest stories of the century. And of course, Muskie was going to be the strong candidate against Nixon. [14] While there, he won first prize in New Jersey's press association for investigative reporting, feature writing, and news on a deadline. In the series of stories that followed, Bernstein and Woodward eventually connected the burglars to a massive slush fund and a corrupt attorney general. Book, the heroic-journalist interpretation of Watergate rests on a Saturday morning on! Didnt think it is, however, the Secret Man with Pakula, Ephron tried to her! The Secret Man of us from the Watergate scandal the Washington Post 1971. 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