Thats why we all joined this business. Mr. President, the media is not fake news. Bob Woodward: We had done some of the early stories, that it led to the Senate Watergate Committee, led to the House Judiciary Committee and impeachment investigation. Bob Woodward: Not really. Im sure it would have been more interesting. His writing was serious and matter-of-fact. At that period, what did you like to read? They wrote that history has shown that Watergate was even worse than we thought it was at the time: In the course of his five-and-a-half-year presidency, beginning in 1969, Nixon launched and managed five successive and overlapping wars -- against the anti-Vietnam War movement, the news media, the Democrats, the justice system and, finally, against history itself. I cant remember, but there were so many. I mean, I shudder to think the way we put it. WASHINGTON Watching Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on stage at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner on Saturday night was like a Simon and Garfunkel reunion. White bread. I mean, I believed it, because it was I knew it was coming. 1996 - 2023 American AcademyofAchievement. Carl had a harder time. But in his interview with Woodward, Pakula discovered that the reporter could surprise: Other peoples secrets fascinated and obsessed him. He quickly tired of the routine assignments his position offered, and began to hunt for news on his own. But it would have been I mean, there was a lot of money on the table. She pointed out that, "Woodward grew up in the Midwest, Republican household, went to Yale, was in the Navy. Bob Woodward: One year exactly. Bob Woodward: Yes, we are. There was competition. How would you summarize that? Bob Woodward: As defendants, as tax cases, divorce cases, the full catastrophe of litigation. We understand you got started in the newspaper business right out of the Navy. ALICIA C. SHEPARD, who teaches journalism at American University, is the author of "Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate. What an incredible jump in your fortunes as a journalist, from one year on a little suburban paper to The Washington Post. While single, in the 1980s, Bernstein became known for dating Bianca Jagger, Martha Stewart, and Elizabeth Taylor,[16] among others. Carl, in 1999, signed a book contract to write the biography of Hilary Rodham Clinton, and it was supposed to be out in 2003, and it's still not finished. Sunburned from swimming laps in the forced labor of summer recreation camp, I raced home so I could catch John Dean's afternoon testimony before the Senate Watergate committee, and the next summer I read the paperback version of the committee's report by flashlight at a campground along the Delaware River, while raccoons scurried under my tent. How did we get into committing 500,000 troops 10,000 miles away in a way that we could never win? The heroic-journalist myth, which began taking hold even before Nixon resigned, has been sustained by three related influences. At 2 a.m. yesterday, the Watergate scandal turned 40. (They later discovered that Sloan meant to communicate to them that Haldeman was guilty, but that Sloan had not said so to the grand jury because he had not been asked.) 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. I mean, he was no rank amateur himself. She had what I call Mind on, hands off. She was intellectually engaged in the news, but her hands were not directing, not saying, Investigate this, dont investigate that, give the emphasis here. That was Bradlee and the editors job. The burglary was revealed as part of an extensive program of political espionage and sabotage run by Nixon subordinates at the White House and its political campaign organization, the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CRP, or, as referred to in most later press coverage, CREEP). Mr. Bradlee, there is a scene early in the book and the movie, All the Presidents Men, in which you criticize Woodward and Bernstein for their approach to a story about E. Howard Hunt, and his interest in Chappaquiddick and Ted Kennedy. He'd started at age two, I think. 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. Obviously, theres not one American dream. Encyclopedia.com. Bernstein noted he learned from Woodward to not only, follow the money but follow the lies, and to remember that, sources are human beings whom we need to listen to and empathize with, and understand not objectify simply as the means to get a story., 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Daily Shows Roy Wood Jr. to headline White House Corresponents' dinner, Justin Trudeau COVID-positive days after mingling with Biden in LA, First daughter Ashley Biden has COVID, bails on another Jill Biden trip: WH, Blinken tests positive for COVID-19 after Correspondents' Dinner. Jiri and Rakic are still injured, Ankle-Ayev and Jan just fought (and no one wants to see it again), Oezdemir/Smith are game but definitely past their prime, and then there's weirdsmobiles like Walker, Craig, Krylov, and Spann who are too hot-and-cold to truly put together a title run. Despite their stark differences, they needed each another. shaka wear graphic tees is candy digital publicly traded ellen lawson wife of ted lawson what was the advice to woodward and bernstein. No soul.. Bernstein's biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton, A Woman In Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, was published by Alfred A. Knopf on June 5, 2007. How did you get interested in those things? Some people think I was in intelligence. [26] Bernstein and second wife Ephron already had an infant son, Jacob, and she was pregnant with their second son, Max, in 1979 when she learned of her husband's affair with Jay. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Carl Bernstein (born 1944) and Robert Woodward (born 1943), investigative reporters for the Washington Post, wrote a series of articles about the Watergate scandals that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. 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. Woodward was soon joined on the story by Bernstein, and together the two young reporters undertook a series of investigative reports that gradually revealed the connections between the burglary and a converging pattern of crimes that finally implicated President Richard M. Nixon himself, forcing his resignation in the face of otherwise certain impeachment. Watergate was the biggest political scandal of the century. 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. American University School of Communication and American University provide funding as members of The Conversation US. Whats secret? He worked at ABC, CNN, and CBS as a political commentator, and was a spokesman in various television commercials. His detailed notes, first made public in December 2005, were donated by his wife to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after his death in 1998 in an automobile accident. 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. You probably didnt sleep a whole lot that night. Nixon Exceptionalism and the triumph of objectivity kept a focus on "what did the president know and when did he know it," the provable fact-based lie, liberated from anything that might be corrupted by debatable policy or ideas. The young protesters were arguably unlearning the false lessons of Watergate, that meaningful social change had to come from pounding the pavement, not just from pounding a keyboard. Thank God. The Watergate scandal may officially date to June 17, 1972, but August 8, 1974 was truly the night they drove ol' Dixie down, as it were; I watched with a sense of awe and disbelief on a 13-inch black-and-white set as our President Nixon resigned, refusing to go to bed, watching his "political obituary" until they finally signed off and played the Star Spangled Banner at 2 a.m. By the time the movie of "All the President's Men" -- the tale of how Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward broke some of the big stories of Watergate -- hit the theaters, I was 17 and seeing it with my first girlfriend. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. I think they were really out to get to the bottom of the story. Although Woodward was reluctant to talk about himself as a reporter, he was determined to expose other peoples secrets. "[32], Differences between Bernstein and Woodward, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, A Woman In Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, "Carl Bernstein on Trump and the Current State of Journalism", "Yes, kids, there is life after high school", "He Went From Watergate to 'Heartbun,' From Investigative Superstar to Celebrity Dinner Guest. Woodward and Bernstein Carl Bernstein (born 1944) and Robert Woodward (born 1943), investigative reporters for the Washington Post, wrote a series of articles about the Watergate scandals that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Somebody who through force of personality made history interesting and important. Woodward's strength was in investigation, so he focused on investigating the Watergate scandal. She said Bernstein was driven to uncover the Watergate story because he wanted to prove everyone at the Post wrong. Landed at The Washington Post in 1971, had nine months reporting experience. Would I run like that again?. Woodward had married reporter Francie Barnard, and . It was the first film I ever made like this, Hoffman told me. Few in the room could recall a joint public appearance by the famous Washington Post reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal that brought down a president. It took some of us from the Watergate generation a long time to see it. It was going to be scrutinized and examined. Alfred E. Lewis, a veteran police reporter for the newspaper, wrote the first story of the break-ins at the Watergate Hotel a day before the first Woodward and Bernstein article. Ben Bradlee: Its a good story. For example, talk about how it affected Muskie. It was, after all, the courts unanimous ruling in July 1974, ordering Nixon to surrender tapes subpoenaed by the Watergate special prosecutor, that sealed the presidents fate. And no one goes back or slows down or digs enough, particularly me. Writers or journalists who inspired you? Woodward and Bernsteins account of the investigation, All The Presidents Men, became a national bestseller and was made into a popular motion picture. And of course, as I now recall Faulkner novels, the characters are trying to find out what happened. Bob Woodward: And problems. The movie All the Presidents Men placed Woodward and Bernstein at the decisive center of Watergates unraveling. 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. All stability. This was later confirmed by both Woodward and Bernstein. Professor of Communication Studies, American University School of Communication. The American escalation in Vietnam had just begun. One midnight in June 1975, Bernstein watched as Pakula directed a scene. Carl Bernstein has some strong words for what his former colleague's revelations mean for the Trump presidency and democracy itself.On Wednesday The Washington Post published a preview of Bob Woodward's forthcoming book, Rage, in which Trump told Woodward in March that he knew COVID-19 was serious but "wanted to always play it down." Six months later, 190,000 people have died in the U.S. from . A great many of the participants in the Watergate story have written books about their parts in the events. Where were you when he resigned, and what were your feelings? 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. Now Bernstein's Back with an Evocative Book on his Embattled Childhood, but he's still Carl After All These Years", "Daewoo Carl Bernstein 1995 commercial (korea)", "Carl Bernstein on John Paul II's great victory", "Hawes Publications Adult New York Times Best Seller Lists for 2007", "Watergate Journalist Carl Bernstein Spoke at Event Supporting Iranian 'Terrorist' Group", "Get real ageing's not all Helen Mirren", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carl_Bernstein&oldid=1136904458, This page was last edited on 1 February 2023, at 19:51. There were 7,000 papers finally, and The New York Times got a copy of it. Overnight, Woodward and Bernstein became household names. Redford can get that compulsive drive. While a young reporter for The Washington Post in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original news reporting on the Watergate scandal. We wanted to be sure that it wasnt sabotaged in some way by, you know, printers slipping in the F word or something like that that was going to screw it up. Yes. And my last year, I served in the Navy here in Washington and lived over on P Street and decided I would get a subscription to a paper called The Washington Post that had a young, very feisty editor named Ben Bradlee, and started reading the Post, and during that year, 1969-1970, you could just feel the energy in the newspaper. Things that seemed to be simple and innocuous but were quite devastating, false press releases, and accusing people of various activity and so forth, and a kind of sowing the seeds of discord. I called my father and said Im not going to law school, but have this job at a newspaper he had never heard of. But of course, that all became academic when the tapes came out. Few people had heard of these journalists when they began compiling relevant facts about . [citation needed], Two years after leaving ABC News, Bernstein released the book Loyalties: A Son's Memoir, in which he revealed that his parents had been members of the Communist Party of America. Make no mistake (as Nixon himself was fond of saying), what Woodward and Bernstein accomplished from 1972 to 1974 was incredible and deserving of all the accolades they received at the time. ." It was going to be reproduced in the history books, and we wanted to be sure that we got it right, and be sure that some there wasnt a typo. HARRY S. TRUMAN of Independence, Missouri, once remarked that three experiences prepared a man for, Woodward, Bob 1943- (Robert Upshur Woodward), Woodward, Daniel 1931-2007 (D.H. Woodward, Daniel H. Woodward, Daniel Holt Woodward), https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/woodward-and-bernstein. For example, the newspapers publisher during Watergate, Katharine Graham, pointedly rejected that interpretation during a program 25 years ago at the now-defunct Newseum in suburban Virginia. Were there other people that inspired you? Ben Bradlee: It is an interesting thing. After the Times had been estopped by a judge, we decided to publish them. It was strange. And that this wasnt just a cover-up of a burglary. Richard Nixon's RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (1978) gives the former president's version of the events surrounding Watergate. Shepard discussed it with co-anchor Harry Smith on The Early Show Tuesday. Bob Woodward said that Lewis "laid the foundation for what the paper was able to do in reporting the story." Both men continued to work for the Post. Anyway, it took two days, and we got confirmation that there was, and in fact there was a slush fund of $750,000. It was a Saturday morning, I think the summer. He was affectionately known as "Uncle Al" and had many sources in police departments. ON 9 August 1974, Richard Nixon arose in the White House and, after meeting briefly with the household staff a, Iran-Contra Affair And there came a time when we had to get her, okay, and the lawyers started off by telling her the lawyer was one of the greatest men, even though he didnt approve of publishing it but the way he told her that was just so important. And she decided to do it. We didnt allow television in for six months, I dont think. Speaking to the crowd of around 2,000 reporters at the Washington Hilton where President Trump was not among them they talked about what they had learned from each other during their long stint reporting together in the Seventies. Didnt you have a chat with the Posts publisher, Katharine Graham, in the midst of all of this? 39 or 40 people in this White House staff went to jail. }, First published on December 26, 2006 / 7:23 AM. I had a friend who read books like Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. I mean, I lived in that place for those periods. She posed this, almost suggesting that it was inevitable. Available for both RF and RM licensing. police in blue helmets fought young people in the street, great men were gunned down in their prime. The work of Woodward and Bernstein was called "maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time" by longtime journalism figure Gene Roberts.[2]. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. In 1974, if they had only gotten their (Washington Post) salaries, Woodward would have earned $15,000 and Bernstein $18,000. Their editors at the Post allowed them to keep most of their sources confidential, but demanded that alleged facts be confirmed by more than one witness. And she said, When will we know the full story of Watergate? You should let it, He put $40,000 on credit cards to make his first film. Woodward was able to soldier on and write 14 books. My God, it looked like the end of the world! I have forgotten which one it was. Pakulas notes, dated May 2, 1975, indicate that hed concluded this about the two reporters: * Bob thought Carl was hype, no follow-through. Since 2003, he has written four books on President George W. Bushs conduct of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: Bush at War, Plan of Attack, State of Denial and The War Within. Democratic National Committee in the Watergate complex. He had the mannerisms. The distinct memories I have of books are from college. He was a very well-regarded lawyer in town. [22] A CBS News end-of-year survey of publishing "hits and misses" included A Woman in Charge in the "miss" category and implied that its total sales were somewhere in the range of perhaps 55,00065,000 copies. In general, Shepard said, "They had a hard time. A few weeks after receiving his bachelors degree in 1965, he entered the United States Navy for a four-year tour of duty. The American Academy of Achievements interview with Bob Woodward is combined with an interview with his longtime editor and mentor, Ben Bradlee (1921-2014). He said, Youre crazy. And at the same time, it was my decision. Kenneth Starr has served as a judge on the court of appeals, as U.S. solicitor general, and came to nat, Richard M. Nixon He was assigned to the police beat, from 7:00 in the evening to 3:00 in the morning, but he did not limit his work activities to his assigned hours. What was that about? One was Woodward and Bernsteins All the Presidents Men, the well-timed memoir about their reporting. There had been some disparaging remarks made elsewhere about his wife, and he cried, in the snow, in New Hampshire, standing on the back of a flatbed truck, and its generally believed that was the end of his candidacy. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Haldeman? You want to make sense out of it. We were more expert than a lot of the government witnesses who testified against us. (February 22, 2023). Not one of the 17 stories he filed was printed. "Woodward and Bernstein 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. The qualities that each other had -- the qualities that they needed [to report Watergate] -- they didnt like. We shouldnt do that. That doesnt mean there wont be more scandals and maybe even larger scandals, but in a sense, the vision or the dream of the people who wrote the Constitution has, at least in part, been realized. Starting with the Watergate burglars, the two young reporters traced the money used to finance the break-in, following it by October 1972 to John Mitchell, formerly Nixon's attorney general and at the time of the break-in the He persuaded The Washington Post to give him an unpaid two-week try-out. Were 7,000 papers finally, and was a Saturday morning, I shudder to the! And had many sources in police departments peoples secrets way that we could never?... Business right out of the world stories he filed was printed }, first published December..., and the New York Times got a copy of it you to. Full story of Watergate lot that night finally, and began to hunt for news on his own judge. As `` Uncle Al '' and had many sources in police departments he was determined to expose other secrets! 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