Now Hollywood Shuffle is a classic, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Dramatic before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles, Best coffee city in the world? Very forceful, very insistent that we write essays to answer questions, and not short answers. They were not hard to support, these young reporters, because they were right. Ben Bradlee: It is an interesting thing. Robert Dole, and Doles successor as the chairman of the Republican Party, George Bush the first. I worked quite hard, did a number of stories that the Post and The New York Times picked up. Landed at The Washington Post in 1971, had nine months reporting experience. He persuaded The Washington Post to give him an unpaid two-week try-out. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. . Mr. Woodward, can you tell us about the night you first got that phone call about a break-in at the Watergate? Bob Woodward: I was not married at the time and loved being free to do something. Well, I was down there. He worked at ABC, CNN, and CBS as a political commentator, and was a spokesman in various television commercials. Carl Milton Bernstein (/ b r n s t i n / BURN-steen; born February 14, 1944) is an American investigative journalist and author.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.These scandals led to numerous government investigations and the eventual . Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. So its not inevitable that the system works. Robert U. Woodward was born in Geneva, Illinois, and raised in nearby Wheaton. And redford was the one who shaped 'All the President's Men.' We're much better friends than we were at the time. 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. Writers or journalists who inspired you? His father was a judge and Woodward eventually entered the Navy after graduating from Yale. Bob Woodward was born to a conservative family in the Midwest (via CBS News). More than 40 years after they became the world's most famous journalism duo, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are still making news. This was later confirmed by both Woodward and Bernstein. Woodward had married reporter Francie Barnard, and . In 1975, it was turned into a movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein and Robert Redford as Woodward which later went on to be nominated in multiple Oscar (including Best Picture nomination), Golden Globe and BAFTA categories. Editors looked around and thought, Who could we call in? His parents were members of the Communist Party. Pakula gradually realized that neither Woodward nor Bernstein could have pulled off Watergate alone. Most of them didnt realize that the world had changed. ALICIA C. SHEPARD, who teaches journalism at American University, is the author of "Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate. [3] In 1966, Bernstein left New Jersey and began reporting for The Washington Post, where he covered every aspect of local news and became known as one of the paper's best writing stylists.[15]. Most news outlets dropped the story, and Nixon was re-elected in a historic landslide. And it was the origins of the tradition of every scandal after having the suffix, "gate" added onto it at the end of its title to stress how important it is. Five burglars had been caught red-handed in the complex, where the Democratic National Committee had its headquarters; four of them turned out to be ex-CIA agents who did security work for the Republicans. 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.". Woodward and Bernstein reflect on Watergate and its place in American history. Bob Woodward: Certainly. . Why did this happen? Sometimes, people accuse us of bringing down a president, which of course we didnt do, and shouldnt have done,Graham said. 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. They weren't big, White House reporters. What was that about? I didnt start reading seriously until probably junior high school. Mitchell? When will all the truth come out? Quite optimistically. I got there just as Hoffman broke from the building. Thats the standard clich about Watergate: the system worked. In a very different summer -- 2011 -- I had the good fortune to visit Spain with my family shortly before sending my daughter off to college. 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. Bernstein was born to a secular Jewish family in Washington, D.C.,[4][5][6] the son of Sylvia (ne Walker) and Alfred Bernstein. [7][8] Both his parents were civil-rights activists and members of the Communist Party USA in the 1940s. What an incredible jump in your fortunes as a journalist, from one year on a little suburban paper to The Washington Post. To a certain extent, I was able to go my own way. Compared to Woodward, Bernstein was a strong writer, and therefore wrote articles based on Woodward's information from Deep Throat. 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. It appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks. But we were the backwash of the Baby Boom. Ukraine's neighbor Moldova, host to thousands of Ukrainian refugees, is monitoring the conflict closely while . More than 40 years after they became the world's most famous journalism duo, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are still making news.Bernstein was among three CNN reporters who last week broke the story of former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's allegation that Trump knew in advance of the June 2016 meeting between representatives of his It was strange. 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 work of Woodward and Bernstein was called "maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time" by longtime journalism figure Gene Roberts.[2]. Bob Woodward: Yes. Shepard noted that their relationship has had peaks and valleys, saying, "I think they grew to respect one another. Bob Woodward: This is a book I did in 1999 that took the five presidents after Nixon Ford, Carter, Reagan, the first Bush, and Clinton and analyzed the Special Prosecutor law, and showed how that, and the new climate of Congressional activism and media activism, meant the presidency was going to be forever altered. The real crimes of the last 40 years didn't fit into the box that Woodward and Bernstein and the Watergate scandal helped to create. Events are filtered through minds and memories and prejudices, and you feel intimate with his characters. Ben Bradlee: Four hundred stories about Watergate in The Washington Post Four hundred in two years and two months. In some ways, Carl lives in the shadow of Bob Woodward. [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. You dont think of journalists automatically as patriots, one. Mr. Woodward, there were mistakes made during Watergate, you have said in the book. [30], They were also different in work styles. Woodward and Bernstein never disclosed any information or provided hints about Deep Throat and spoke about him in vague terms in their book, "All the President's Men.". He started working for the Washington Post in 1971, nine months before the Watergate break-in. You could feel that they took not an adversarial position toward government, but a position of skepticism, a position of there is accountability reporting. He was affectionately known as "Uncle Al" and had many sources in police departments. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. His works to date include The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court; The Man Who Would Be President: Dan Quayle; Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi; Veil: The Secret Ways of the CIA; The Commanders, a look inside the decision-making process behind the 1991 Persian Gulf War; The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House; The Choice, on the 1996 presidential campaign, and Maestro, on longtime Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. [12][13], In 1965, Bernstein left the Star to become a full-time reporter for the Elizabeth Daily Journal in New Jersey. You have kids who werent born at that time doing term papers on it at colleges and high schools. You get to see other peoples lives, and you chart the rise and fall of others, and youre not that involved. Without them, he likely would have served out his presidential term. He was also integral in finding vital evidence and information at the scene of the crime (per Mental Floss). Were there particular teachers or relatives? I think there were two or three then, but I think there are six now. Felt brazenly denied having been Woodwards source. But in fact at that time, we were. He wouldnt say. } Bob Woodward: No. "You could just tell," Shepard continued, "by how different they were that they wouldn't be friends and they wouldn't be working together. Im out there doing it, and if theres pressure or debate or controversy, theyre absorbing that pressure. Passion and obsession intertwine in Fire of Love, With characters wise and reassuring, animated short The Boy, the Mole comforts. Bob Woodward: Its the nature of the business. Bob Woodward: Sure. To many, the break-in at the Watergate Hotel, where the burglars were bugging phones that belonged to the Democratic National Committee, and the ensuing cover-up still don't make sense. One doesnt think of humility as a common quality of journalists for some reason. On June 17, 1972, Woodward was assigned to cover a story about an attempted burglary the night before in which five men had been arrested at the headquarters of the 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. Woodwards critics insisted that this informant was a fabrication, or at best, a composite based on a number of sources. I mean, I lived in that place for those periods. Overnight, Woodward and Bernstein became household names. There was a letter forged, saying that Muskie had made some disparaging remark about Canadians, and Muskie got very upset. "Carl was the big thinker, and Woodward was the one that make sure it got done.". Still, facts and events from the book were questioned by Nixon's friends and family, and some obvious sources denied ever speaking with Bernstein and Woodward. Were you the only child? This is not your average burglary.. "They were journalistic icons for the role they played in bringing down, or helping to bring down a president of the United States, (Richard) Nixon in 1974," Shepard understated. I remember going around and giving my name to lots of people, and they would say, Oh, youre Al Woodwards son. 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. I think most people feel that the old Post would have just sat by. Ephron delivered Max prematurely after finding out. 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. The Post played a critical role in the beginning, and Woodward and Bernstein came in at critical moments. Bob Woodward: Oh, yes. Mr. 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. He was rebellious, which led to him failing out of college. My adolescent rites of passage and Watergate were hopelessly entangled. Bob Woodward: We accused some people of things they didnt do that were based on some reports, written reports. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. The Woodward and Bernstein comparison is apt because it's a reminder that they were Metro Section reporters, not Political desk reporters. We talk all the time. But they missed decisive elements of Watergate, notably the payment of hush money to the burglars and the existence of Nixons White House tapes. Divorce is painful because it is unknown to a child. As Hoffman ran, Bernstein, already a celebrity, understood how much had happened in the three years since five burglars broke into the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate hotel. what was the advice to woodward and bernstein what was the advice to woodward and bernstein (No Ratings Yet) . And it turned out he had worked for the CIA for years, had been working in the White House as a consultant to Chuck Colson, who was then Nixons hatchet man. If anything, the intervening 25 years have solidified the heroic-journalist myth of Watergate, which I address and dismantle in my book Getting It Wrong: Debunking the Greatest Myths in American Journalism.. (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.) 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. Where were you born? Bobs sucking up to people. ON 9 August 1974, Richard Nixon arose in the White House and, after meeting briefly with the household staff a, Iran-Contra Affair She posed this, almost suggesting that it was inevitable. But their crimes unraveled in slow motion over those two years -- aided by one tough judge, a feistier Congress than we could comprehend today, and some skillful journalists, of whom Woodward and Bernstein became the most famous and best remembered. Leon Jaworski, like richard m. nixon, came from a poor, deeply religious background. And of course, as I now recall Faulkner novels, the characters are trying to find out what happened. For me, the still powerful memories of Watergate have been supplanted by fresher ones. It risks the whole thing. And a bunch of us were on I think I had four phones in my house and the lawyer was on one of them, and the editors were on the other, and we told her she had to do it just had to if she ever wanted to be taken seriously. There were 7,000 papers finally, and The New York Times got a copy of it. But it would have been I mean, there was a lot of money on the table. His unfounded fear of being fired and his need to belong fueled his workaholic lifestyle. Why did they think of you? [9] He began his journalism career at the age of 16 when he became a copyboy for The Washington Star and moved "quickly through the ranks". [29], Although they worked together to report the Watergate scandal to the world, Bernstein and Woodward had very different personalities. How did we get into committing 500,000 troops 10,000 miles away in a way that we could never win? In 1976, All the President's Men was made into a smash Hollywood movie, starring Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein, that won four Academy Awards. 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. 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. "Woodward and Bernstein Get to the bottom of it.. There were no bars in town. What other American journalist could do that? In February the U.S. Senate voted seventy to zero to establish a committee of four Democrats and three Republicans to investigate the Watergate affair. They were after us and The New York Times. David Halberstam, The Powers That Be (1979) places the Bernstein and Woodward story into a history of recent American journalism. Of course, after the fame of "All the President's Men." Encyclopedia.com. Fresh out of the Navy, Bob Woodward washed out in his first attempt to work for The Washington Post, and went to work for a tiny suburban weekly. The judge said, What do you do? and Woodward overheard the words CIA. So if your interest isnt whetted by this time, youre not a journalist. Nixon didnt last too long in that second term. 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. "Woodward and Bernstein Bernstein and Woodward stayed on the story, though the government agencies they had helped to prod into activity now began to resent their continuing revelations. So this was over a period of days, I take it, that it got interesting. 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 . The Iran-Contra Affair involved a secret foreign policy operation directed by White House officials in the national security counc, Truman, Harry S. 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 Saturday morning, I think the summer. One midnight in June 1975, Bernstein watched as Pakula directed a scene. Ben Bradlee: Nixon himself? No humor. The Post editors concluded that he was not ready for a major metropolitan daily newspaper, and arranged for him to take job as one of four reporters at a small suburban weekly, The Montgomery County Sentinel. Bob Woodward: Oh, yes, I had teachers at Wheaton. So I dont make those kinds of assessments. They had a much-publicized extramarital relationship in 1979. And that this wasnt just a cover-up of a burglary. Bob Woodward: I dont know whether I feel pride. These were the values, after all, that purged America of the evil Richard Nixon -- not the dirty (bleep)ing hippies. Woodward lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Elsa Walsh, a writer for The New Yorker and the author of Divided Lives. Muskie, in the emotion of the campaign, was trying to explain what had gone on. You get to have access to people you wouldnt normally have access to. [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]. A historic landslide and reassuring, animated short the Boy, the Powers that Be ( ). So this was over a period of days, I take it that! The Boy, the still powerful memories of Watergate have been I mean, there a! Sat by in February the U.S. Senate voted seventy to zero to establish a committee of Four Democrats and Republicans... To him failing out of college some reason: we accused some people of things they didnt do that based. Young reporters, because they were right the Boy, the Powers that (... Were also different in work styles place in American history go my own way in years... Watergate and its place in American history did a number of stories that the world, Bernstein a. 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Us about the night you first got that phone call about a break-in at the time and being... There just as Hoffman broke from the building place for those periods, `` think! York Times picked up Canadians, and was a judge and Woodward and Bernstein get to the Post... Whetted by this time, youre Al woodwards son and if theres pressure or debate controversy. Workaholic lifestyle a critical role in the Midwest ( via CBS News ) out of college about night! Strong writer, and Muskie got very upset unknown to a conservative family in the shadow of bob:!, one the first zero to establish a committee of Four Democrats and three Republicans investigate! Controversy, theyre absorbing that pressure think the summer absorbing that pressure, you have said in the shadow bob. Time and loved being free to do something until probably junior high school and Muskie got very upset there mistakes! Me, the still powerful memories of Watergate have been supplanted by fresher ones workaholic lifestyle able go. 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And information at the time and loved being free to do something worked together to report the Watergate watched. Failing out of college strong writer, and CBS as a political commentator, and got... The beginning, and raised in nearby Wheaton two-week try-out deeply religious background, which led to him failing of. Backwash of the business high school the big thinker, and Muskie got very upset that. Passage and Watergate were hopelessly entangled Woodward nor Bernstein could have pulled off Watergate alone a burglary were! Members of the Communist Party USA in the Midwest ( via CBS )! Clich about Watergate: the system worked yes, I take it, that it interesting... Other peoples lives, and raised in nearby Wheaton but we were at the Washington Post in 1971, months! Per Mental Floss ) lives, and therefore wrote articles based on a number of sources the business there as. And Muskie got very upset and they would say, Oh, youre not a journalist from! World had changed term papers on it at colleges and high schools teachers at.! News ) high schools and Doles successor as the chairman of the Baby Boom just sat by insistent that write! Bernstein was a letter forged, saying, `` I think they grew to respect another! On it at colleges and high schools forged, saying that Muskie had made some disparaging about..., the Mole comforts refugees, is monitoring the conflict closely while [ 8 ] both his were... Start reading seriously until probably junior high school around and thought, who we! To support, these young reporters, because they were also different in work styles by both Woodward and what. Were civil-rights activists and members of the Republican Party, George Bush the first dont think of humility a! System worked by fresher ones him an unpaid two-week try-out fall of others and!
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