It was so important. And yet it was Bernsteins daring that was necessary.. It seems that there are very few long, extensive investigations into corruption where an editor lets reporters work on a story for a couple of years. Was he the more experienced journalist at the time? When you began to work as a journalist, what was the reaction of your family? It came out in the Ervin Committee hearings in the Senate. 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. Mr. Woodward, in your bookShadowyou talk about how Nixons presidency affected the presidents whove come since. But the new Woodward and Bernstein piece was remarkably good, in a sense, of placing the crimes of the Nixon White House in a broader campaign of a war against lawful dissent to the Vietnam War that expanded to the media and the opposition Democrats. It was very complicated, then and now. Bernstein wrote in the 1996 book that the Pope's role in supporting Solidarity in his native Poland, and his geopolitical dexterity combined with enormous spiritual influence, was a principal factor in the downfall of communism in Europe.[21]. You had a lot of Cuban or Spanish-speaking guys in masks and rubber gloves, with walkie-talkies, arrested in the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at 2:00 in the morning. [20], He then began working for ABC News. head of the CRP. Maybe it was appropriate that most of America slept through the occasion. Bob Woodward: Is the CIA connected to this? The notes from Pakulas interview with Ephron reveal a key to his understanding of Woodward and Bernstein. Sometimes, Felt would speak on the phone, but on other occasions, he would meet Woodward in a parking garage in Virginia. AllRightsReserved. Robert Redford played Woodward; Dustin Hoffman played Bernstein. Its our job to figure them out.. ", Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Review: Michael B. Jordan is the one to fly now with Creed III, Hunger Games star Jena Malone says someone I had worked with sexually assaulted her, Review: The gorgeous new movie Pacifiction will hypnotize you. I know a lot about that story because my son was the editor at the Boston Globe who ran that investigation, and I think thats a perfect example of how newspapers can persist in the face of denials and correct wrongs. Where were you born? It was strange. Editors at the WaPo said that Lewis' early reporting and evidence findings are what convinced them that the story was greater than a simple break-in. Will the luck of the Irish affect the Oscars? My father was a lawyer there, and I worked as a janitor in his law office when I was in high school, and started reading the files and discovered that the projection that people in the town made about their own lives was in fact not who they were, that lots of them had secrets, and many of them were in my fathers law office files. Since the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan closed the lid on the post-Watergate era, we've seen a president who WASN'T impeached for evading Congress to cut secret arms deals in Iran and fund a secret war in Nicaragua, a president who WAS impeached for lying about his sex life, and a president who WASN'T impeached for lying the nation into a war that killed thousands of American soldiers and innocent civilians, while carrying out torture and other violations of human rights more "perverse" than anything during Nixon's presidency. She said Bernstein was driven to uncover the Watergate story because he wanted to prove everyone at the Post wrong. But they missed decisive elements of Watergate, notably the payment of hush money to the burglars and the existence of Nixons White House tapes. It was embarrassing that they had this great story and we didnt. Dont tell me never. Dont let things elude us. In 1982, for ABC's Nightline, Bernstein was the first to report[citation needed] during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon that Ariel Sharon had "deceived the cabinet about the real intention of the operationto drive the Palestinians out of Lebanon, not (as he had claimed) to merely establish a 25-kilometer security zone north from the border". . 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 You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. How does this affect me, Nixon, the president? One midnight in June 1975, Bernstein watched as Pakula directed a scene. The five Watergate burglars and several other Nixon subordinates, including former U.S. Attorney General Mitchell, were sentenced to prison terms. [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". That goes back to the idea of family secrets. He soon became the papers leading reporter, and by September 1971, the Post was ready to give him another try. More so than the book, the cinematic adaptation of All the Presidents Men placed Woodward and Bernstein at the decisive center of Watergates unraveling. He told me first that he was going to resign, wasnt sure when, and for Gods sake dont write it as hard, because he wont. Bob Woodward: We read pretty much the range of classics, and nothing really jumped out or are books that I had distinct memories of. 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. Encyclopedia of World Biography. That writing was actually on the wall the whole time. ", Fame, Shepard observed, "played a huge role in changing their lives forever. }, First published on December 26, 2006 / 7:23 AM. My God, it looked like the end of the world! Margaret later became a government minister in her own right. What about you? Where the hell? You want to make sense out of it. The first report featuring the now legendary journalists came on June 19, 1972, two days after the break-ins and arrest of the conspirators (via Constitution Center). Woodward's strength was in investigation, so he focused on investigating the Watergate scandal. Woodward and Bernstein did disclose financial links between Nixon's reelection campaign and the burglars arrested June 17, 1972, at headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, in what. Kind of parse it out. But she wasnt the editor. [16] Bernstein and Woodward's discoveries led to further investigations of Nixon, and on August 9, 1974, amid hearings by the House Judiciary Committee, Nixon resigned in order to avoid facing impeachment. He'd started at age two, I think. 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. It's the system. How would you summarize that? And once you are convicted of a felony, you cant own television stations, so it would have cost us all the television stations. Ben Bradlee: By an overwhelming margin, as we were reminded so often. On a Saturday in June 1972, Bernstein was assigned, along with Bob Woodward, to cover a break-in at the Watergate office complex that had occurred earlier the same morning. He went to jail for that. police in blue helmets fought young people in the street, great men were gunned down in their prime. It was a takedown that transcended politics, transcended ideology. It was the first film I ever made like this, Hoffman told me. I called my father and said Im not going to law school, but have this job at a newspaper he had never heard of. They deposited, at the end of 1974, over $600,000. They were not hard to support, these young reporters, because they were right. It was a difficult time to be associated with something youre pretty sure is not right. What it turned out was that the question hinged on whether or not he had told that to the grand jury, and since he hadnt, he was able to say No. He wasnt asked was there a slush fund, which, of course, there was. In her interview with Pakula, Ephron tried to rehabilitate her boyfriends reputation. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. The reference to Woodward and Bernstein was classic Frank, too, telling Garrett to follow the money without saying so explicitly. This was the lesson of Watergate: Nixon Exceptionalism, that the 37th president was so "uniquely and pervasively" corrupt that the fair and decent American "system worked" and removed him on the basis of the objective, indisputable fact of his evil. He attended Yale University on a Naval ROTC scholarship, and majored in history and English literature. He said, I think on balance I am against it. I mean, he didnt tear his hair out and say, God damn it, Katharine, you cant do this. They wanted to have a whole presidency where they could do what they wanted and no one would examine them or scrutinize them, and they got in trouble, a lot of them, because of this. But three or four days later, we got a copy of them from Ellsberg, only we didnt have three months to study them. Neither of those marriages could withstand all that pressure and that fame and money. " In 2005, the mystery surrounding the identity of Watergate informant Deep Throat was ended. There were spies in all the Democratic candidates campaigns that had been planted and paid by the Nixon campaign. [17] A second book, The Final Days, was published by Bernstein and Woodward in 1976 as a follow-up chronicling Nixon's last days in office. With the full support of their editor, Ben Bradlee, Bob Woodward and his Post colleague Carl Bernstein continued to pursue the Watergate story, after other news outlets had dropped the story. Mr. Bradlee, when did it become clear to you that the Watergate break-in was something more than a simple burglary? I remember going around and giving my name to lots of people, and they would say, Oh, youre Al Woodwards son. They were 30 and 31.". Bob needed Carl because Carl was pushy. Woodward had married reporter Francie Barnard, and . Nixon didnt last too long in that second term. So we were terribly worried, and we didnt its a big newspaper and a lot of people in it, and you cant control all of them even if you wanted to. 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. Three Post editors were portrayed by award-winning character actors: Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee, Martin Balsam as Howard. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. W. Mark Felt, Sr., a retired associate director of the FBI, revealed that he had provided Woodward with details of the Watergate cover-up. We want to thank you for talking with us today. And it in many ways is, I think, the principle under which she and her son, Don Graham, tried to run The Washington Post. Bernstein was among three CNN reporters who last . ON 9 August 1974, Richard Nixon arose in the White House and, after meeting briefly with the household staff a, Iran-Contra Affair Ben Bradlee, editor of the Washington Post during Watergate, told me that Pakula spent so much time with each of us. 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