Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps. 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. Ben Bradlee, editor of the Washington Post during Watergate, told me that Pakula spent so much time with each of us. 1996 - 2023 American AcademyofAchievement. Kenneth Starr has served as a judge on the court of appeals, as U.S. solicitor general, and came to nat, Richard M. Nixon Bob Woodward may have achieved the greatest publishing success of his career with Fear, the inside story of turmoil inside the administration of President Donald Trump. Woodward was assigned to cover the breaking story, along with a younger but more experienced reporter, Carl Bernstein. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. It taught me the benefits of collaboration, and that collaboration is a wonderful thing. As of 1997 Woodward is an assistant managing editor of the CIA in Veil (1987), the Pentagon and the Gulf War in The Commanders (1991), and the Clinton White House in The Agenda (1994). So all the while that this was coming out, you were being very careful that there was enough confirmation of these things? It was a Saturday morning, I think the summer. The fastest-selling book in the history of its publisher, Simon & Schuster, it immediately topped The New York Times bestseller list, and within eight days of publication was already in its tenth printing. Woodward's strength was in investigation, so he focused on investigating the Watergate scandal. He had the mannerisms. I think the lead of his story was, Will the wonders of Watergate never cease?. Within a year, his byline was appearing on the front page. Did you? and he said, No. And the whole town shook, as far as Im concerned, because that was the first time we had been accused of getting anything wrong. I think pride is hubris. Goes Out newsletter, with the week's best events, to help you explore and experience our city. 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. The Iran-Contra Affair involved a secret foreign policy operation directed by White House officials in the national security counc, Truman, Harry S. It turned out that he hadnt been asked, and that interested us a great deal, because if the prosecution wasnt asking him those interesting questions, that suggested that there was a reason they werent, and the reason might be that they were trying to cover it up. They publicly tied prominent Washington figures, such as Nixons former attorney general, John Mitchell, to the scandal. So he didnt think it was a good idea. 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 ). Much to his chagrin. In The Choice, he uses his proven research methods for an illuminating examination of the quest for the presidency. . And when Redford wanted to film the movie in the Post, we told him he couldnt. Im sure it would have been more interesting. You want to spend time on it. To a certain extent, I was able to go my own way. 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. Woodward and Bernsteins account of the investigation, All The Presidents Men, became a national bestseller and was made into a popular motion picture. 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. So, yeah, I think they were friends. Bob Woodward: Interesting question. Passion and obsession intertwine in Fire of Love, With characters wise and reassuring, animated short The Boy, the Mole comforts. And she decided to do it. 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. Thats an astonishing thing for a journalist to say. It glosses over the scandals intricacies and discounts the far more crucial investigative work of special prosecutors, federal judges, the FBI, panels of both houses of Congress, and the Supreme Court. Legendary Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were guests on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" on CNN. One was Woodward and Bernsteins All the Presidents Men, the well-timed memoir about their reporting. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. LHW is a shallow division, this cancellation was just adding insult to injury. And we had to be sure the headline was right. Bobs sucking up to people. He spent a year in his research, which was published as a 25,000-word article in Rolling Stone magazine. By day, he circulated in the citys government offices, and pressed civil servants for every piece of information that might prove useful. We were reporting on the Presidents men, and the White House people, the Attorney General, John Mitchell, people in the Nixon campaign, the Committee to Re-Elect the President, and the focus was not Nixon. Without them, he likely would have served out his presidential term. [14] While there, he won first prize in New Jersey's press association for investigative reporting, feature writing, and news on a deadline. As a teen, he was a "pool shark," a leader of the Jewish service organization B'nai Brith, and a copyboy at The Washington Star. He said, Youre crazy. So he didnt think it was a good idea.. We were more expert than a lot of the government witnesses who testified against us. Pakula didnt want facts alone. Sometimes, people accuse us of bringing down a president, which of course we didnt do, and shouldnt have done,Graham said. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Elsa Walsh, a writer for The New Yorker. You get to see other peoples lives, and you chart the rise and fall of others, and youre not that involved. All stability. The notes from Pakulas interview with Ephron reveal a key to his understanding of Woodward and Bernstein. Whats not known? He dropped out of the University of Maryland and became a reporter in New Jersey where his investigative reporting caught the eye of the Washington Post, which hired him in 1966 (via Huffington Post). Youve said journalism should be called a practice, like law. But by end of 1976, they had an ugly breakup and went their separate ways. Bob Woodward: Of course. He attended Yale University on a Naval ROTC scholarship, and majored in history and English literature. Nonetheless, the heroic-journalist myth became so entrenched that it could withstand disclaimers by Watergate-era principals at the Post such as Graham. 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. So its not inevitable that the system works. In 1974, two years after the Watergate burglary and two months before Nixon resigned, Bernstein and Woodward released the book All the President's Men. By his own admission he failed at that". I think they were really out to get to the bottom of the story. George W. Bush's Iraq War, in particular, was enabled by a docile press corps and by a feckless generation of lawmakers and judges -- largely the generation that came of age when I did, during those languid Watergate summers. Thank God. Why is he interested in that? But every Republican in the country was interested in Chappaquiddick, and not a few Democrats, so I said, Find out what the hell he took it out for. 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. For me, the still powerful memories of Watergate have been supplanted by fresher ones. One day after Alfred E. Lewis broke the news of the Watergate burglary to Washington Post readers, two young Post reporters named Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein picked up the story. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. Mr. Bradlee, its important to remember that Nixon was re-elected during this period. 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. When Woodward left the Navy, American involvement in Vietnam and domestic opposition to the war were at their height. When you were a child, who most inspired you? NEW YORK . But it would have been I mean, there was a lot of money on the table. The Watergate scandal began in May 1972, when members of PresidentRichard M. Nixon's campaign team (known as Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President or CREEP) broke into the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the Watergate Hotel (per History). All the Presidents Men was published in June 1974 and quickly reached the top of The New York Times bestseller list, remaining there 15 weeks, through Nixons resignation and beyond. Every time the White House denied something, the evidence became clear that it was the White House that was lying. I cant remember, but there were so many. 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. 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. Id have drinks with him early all of late July and early August. The book inescapably promoted the impression Woodward and Bernstein were vital to Watergates outcome. The qualities that each other had -- the qualities that they needed [to report Watergate] -- they didnt like. Much of their hard work was a quest for access to anyone who knew the real secrets of the Nixon White House. [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]. 25 Feb/23. But together they did something that neither one of them could do individually. And I called my father, who was a judge at that point, or about to become a judge, and said, Im not going to law school, but have this job at a newspaper he had never heard of. He had gone to Vietnam as a soldier, so he had fought in Vietnam, but he got convinced that it was a quagmire and that it was a great mistake and that by releasing this study, he could shine light into the darkest corners and change the course of the world. As a 25,000-word article in Rolling Stone magazine didnt think it was quest! 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