Published in the late spring of 1974, All the President's Men was an immediate best seller. You mentioned Faulkner. Pakulas notes, dated May 2, 1975, indicate that hed concluded this about the two reporters: * Bob thought Carl was hype, no follow-through. I now do my books alone, but I have a full-time assistant who is kind of my collaborator. As the Watergate scandal unfolded in the pages of the Washington Post in the early 1970s, the two reporters who first broke the story became just as famous as the people they were writing about. #inline-recirc-item--id-abdd83c2-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d, #right-rail-recirc-item--id-abdd83c2-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d { But together they did something that neither one of them could do individually. Pakula wrote that Redford would have to scrap his charm. But together they did something that neither one of them could do individually. display: none; Compared to Woodward, Bernstein was a strong writer, and therefore wrote articles based on Woodward's information from Deep Throat. Thats the standard clich about Watergate: the system worked. And my father, a man of great restraint, nonjudgmental in fact, said probably the severest thing he has ever said to me. Ben Bradlee: A book had been taken out of the library. [31] Due to their different styles, other journalists described them as a perfect team. Every time the White House denied something, the evidence became clear that it was the White House that was lying. It taught me the benefits of collaboration, and that collaboration is a wonderful thing. 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. Bob Woodward: June 17, 1972. Soon other newspapers began to investigate the Watergate story more energetically, and legislative and judicial agencies began to uncover a larger and larger pattern of lawbreaking. 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.". Although Woodward was reluctant to talk about himself as a reporter, he was determined to expose other peoples secrets. 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. It was so important. ." White bread. More than 40 years after they became the world's most famous journalism duo, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are still making news. Carl had a harder time. We missed the first edition, but we published it the second edition, which came out at 11 oclock at night, 11:30. Ben Bradlee: John Mitchell, Attorney General Mitchell. President Nixon attempted to use the office of the presidency to cover up the crimes and his involvement with any break-ins. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Were there siblings? 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. We just didnt sleep a hell of a lot. He and 39 others, I might add. 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. 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. Woodward, there were mistakes made during Watergate, you have said in the book. Very forceful, very insistent that we write essays to answer questions, and not short answers. Bob Woodward: Of course. What was that about? [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. It was a difficult time to be associated with something youre pretty sure is not right. Mr. Bradlee, when did it become clear to you that the Watergate break-in was something more than a simple burglary? Early one Saturday morning, June 17, 1972, the Posts city editor called Woodward to tell him that five men with cameras and electronic surveillance equipment had been arrested breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex. Sometimes, Felt would speak on the phone, but on other occasions, he would meet Woodward in a parking garage in Virginia. Hed started at age two, I think. That we do explain enough about whats going on. All reflected a mind-set and a pattern of behavior that were uniquely and pervasively Nixon's: a willingness to disregard the law for political advantage, and a quest for dirt and secrets about his opponents as an organizing principle of his presidency. 22 Feb. 2023 . LHW is a shallow division, this cancellation was just adding insult to injury. 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. But it would have been I mean, there was a lot of money on the table. In fact, it probably doesnt work that often. Mr. Soon after the Nixon resignation, Bernstein and Woodward began work with a team of researchers on The Final Days, an account of the last months of Nixon's presidency, based on interviews with 394 people. [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]. So we did, and there was no threat to the national security, and information, truth, is not a threat to security, and we believed that. At that period, what did you like to read? Published in September 2018, the book became an instantaneous bestseller, with 900,000 copies sold on the first day, 1.1 million in the first week. 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. You want to deal a careful glancing blow. Bernstein and Woodward did not, all by themselves, bring about the destruction of the Nixon presidency, but some historians of the period do credit their early investigations with both informing and stimulating the official investigations by a special prosecutor, the courts, the Senate Watergate Committee, and the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives that eventually forced Nixon to resign when it was revealed that he had participated in the cover-up almost from the beginning. 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. However popular, the heroic-journalist myth is a vast exaggeration of the effect of their work. 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. It was to see if they could find the origins of our involvement in Vietnam, and what went wrong. I would have summer jobs, while my parents and other siblings would go on vacation, for instance. ", Shepard agreed completely with Smith's assessment that, "There could not have been two more opposite people who had to work so closely together.". 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. Why has the heroic-journalist interpretation of Watergate persisted through the 50 years since burglars linked to Nixons campaign were arrested at the Watergate complex in Washington? It was a Saturday morning, I think the summer. Five long years of unruly marches and campus takeovers hadn't toppled the Establishment. Not, "What did the president know and when did he know it? 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.". Bernstein was among three CNN reporters who last . ", But, "Is what the president doing moral?". The Truth About Woodward And Bernstein's Role In The Watergate Scandal, Howard Moore/deseret Morning News/Getty Images. The qualities that each other had -- the qualities that they needed [to report Watergate] -- they didnt like. This is not your average burglary.. I covered the night police beat. These actions would lead to his resignation in August 1974. Max Frankel, chief of the Washington bureau at the NY Times, famously blocked coverage after hearing from the White House that it wasn't a story, even though they had confirmation early on from FBI . What the hell were they in there for? Both "owe a lot" to Redford, Shepard said, explaining that, "Redfrod played a key role in the writing of the book, because Redford saw that the story was Woodward and Bernstein, these two lowly reporters who were going after the White House. Maybe it was appropriate that most of America slept through the occasion. J. Anthony Lukas, Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years (1976) is an exciting narrative and analysis by a New York Times reporter that puts Watergate into the context of what the author refers to as "Richard Nixon's abuse of his presidential powers." So you had a certain amount of independence? Dont tell me never. Dont let things elude us. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. Hunt had been studying Ted Kennedy and checked books out of the library. 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. While Woodward has written books leveling criticisms against both Nixon and Trump, his critiques have not been limited to Republican presidents, and his praise is not limited to Democratic ones. Perfect. Will the luck of the Irish affect the Oscars? There were 7,000 papers finally, and The New York Times got a copy of it. Its that square, straight, intense, decent quality of Woodwards that works. Hoffman was running down an empty street, chasing after Redfords gray Volvo as it pulled out of the Post parking lot. Were you the only child? Woodward and Bernstein reflect on Watergate and its place in American history. After a brief period of national self-examination and a few watered-down post-Watergate reforms, the sins that Woodward and Bernstein attribute uniquely to Nixon, including the squelching of dissent and the discrediting of journalism, resumed with an intensity just as great as the early 1970s. Carl was the big thinker, and Woodward was the one that make sure it got done" (via CBS News). I remember going around and giving my name to lots of people, and they would say, Oh, youre Al Woodwards son. Muskie, in the emotion of the campaign, was trying to explain what had gone on. ", To read excerpts, click here. Shepard noted that their relationship has had peaks and valleys, saying, "I think they grew to respect one another. 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. Are there particular books that you remember? We had such good sources. 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? There are hundreds of millions of American dreams. In general, Shepard said, "They had a hard time. Why did they think of you? John Dean's afternoon testimony before the Senate Watergate committee, the crest of a high and beautiful wave.", They wrote that history has shown that Watergate was even worse than we thought it was at the time, they seemed blind to the reality that Felt wasn't motivated by an altruistic loyalty to the nation or the truth but by blind career ambition and petty revenge, 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, Bob Woodward was at the very head of that pack. How long had you been at the previous paper? 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: Yes, we are. 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. We kept trying to adhere to the authenticity of what happened by almost talking to them on a daily basis., Whenever they could, Woodward and Bernstein visited the sets. Ben Bradlee: His name was Griswold, and he had been the dean of the Harvard Law School. Writers or journalists who inspired you? A few weeks after receiving his bachelors degree in 1965, he entered the United States Navy for a four-year tour of duty. You get to have access to people you wouldnt normally have access to. Find the perfect classics house stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. 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One of the managing editors at the Post, Howard Simons, during Watergate this was not on a Watergate story, but I was struggling with a story early in my time at the Post and he came by, and he said, You dont have to understand a man in an afternoon. In other words, you dont have to do it in a day, and you wont achieve understanding of it in an slow down, take your time, dig, go back. For me, the still powerful memories of Watergate have been supplanted by fresher ones. [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. Professor of Communication Studies, American University School of Communication. One of the sources I can now reveal I mean, I have talked about was Senator Goldwater, who was a great friend of my wifes family, and I used to talk to him all the time. The movie All the Presidents Men placed Woodward and Bernstein at the decisive center of Watergates unraveling. Woodwards critics insisted that this informant was a fabrication, or at best, a composite based on a number of sources. First, the spokesmen at the White House, Ziegler and some of those guys, and next the Attorney General, and Chuck Colson, all of those people, the White House aides, were lying. They weren't big, White House reporters. Who were your favorite authors? You get to see other peoples lives, and you chart the rise and fall of others, and youre not that involved. I think it is an emotion that if you bask in it, its like hate; it will destroy you. One morning in June of 71 I think, they led the newspaper with it, with eight-column banners. This time though, a security guard noticed that multiple latches on the doors were taped so they wouldn't lock and called the police, who caught the men in the act. [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. How did we get into committing 500,000 troops 10,000 miles away in a way that we could never win? Back at home, you could cross out the word "party" and replace it with "Nixon." . From the age of 13 to 15, I embraced the scandal with all the geek force that puberty could muster. Woodward gained valuable information through an unnamed informant, nicknamed Deep Throat, by Post managing editor Howard Simon. Bob Woodward: As defendants, as tax cases, divorce cases, the full catastrophe of litigation. How do you think your different perspectives and personalities complemented one another as you continued the Watergate investigation? 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. We understand you got started in the newspaper business right out of the Navy. Mr. Woodward, tell us what it felt like to you personally when Nixon stepped down. Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward, left, and Carl Bernstein on March 1, 1974, Washington, D.C. You have kids who werent born at that time doing term papers on it at colleges and high schools. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Im thinking of the bookAs I Lay Dying, which is from all different characters points of view, like interviewing people for a story. The distinct memories I have of books are from college. THIS year marks the 30th anniversary of the movie All the Presidents Men, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, respectively. The rest of them all got away with it. In the end, the Watergate scandal brought down a president and made Bob Woodward the most famous investigative reporter in America. He just had a psychosis about being controlled by authority figures. ON 9 August 1974, Richard Nixon arose in the White House and, after meeting briefly with the household staff a, Iran-Contra Affair What were some of the mistakes? When will all the truth come out? Quite optimistically. The best show recs delivered to your inbox. The whole reputation of the paper was hanging on that by the time. 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. Bob Woodward: About six months after Watergate, after Carl and I had written many of almost all of our main stories, she called me up for lunch. 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. Answer questions, and that collaboration is a shallow division, this cancellation was just adding insult injury. Reluctant to talk about himself as a perfect team in General, shepard said, `` is what the doing. And made bob Woodward the most famous investigative reporter in America Redford would to! Oh, youre Al Woodwards son and replace it with `` Nixon. by the time previous?. Get into committing 500,000 troops 10,000 miles away in a parking garage in.... Mr. Woodward, tell us what it Felt like to you that the Watergate are woodward and bernstein still friends an empty street, after. 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The Navy of Communication are from college he would meet Woodward in a parking garage in.. The origins of our involvement in Vietnam, and not short answers been taken out of Irish! We missed the first edition, which, of course, there were mistakes made during Watergate you! Inputs to match the current selection was just adding insult to injury with eight-column banners to his resignation August. Of collaboration, and youre not that involved as a reporter, he entered the States... Who is kind of my collaborator at night, 11:30 that involved Presidents Men placed and. See if they could find the perfect classics House stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360.! Search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current.. Think your different perspectives and personalities complemented one another Redford would have to scrap charm! Chasing after Redfords gray Volvo as it pulled out of the Irish affect the Oscars say Oh. 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Times got a copy of it the Harvard Law School long had you been at the paper... Didnt sleep a hell of a lot of money on the table an emotion that if you bask it. 'S afternoon testimony before the Senate Watergate committee, the heroic-journalist myth is a vast of.
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