This button displays the currently selected search type. We made one mistake in a story in which we said that Woodward and Bernstein said that there was a slush fund of $300,000 set up in the Committee to Re-elect the President, and it was controlled by Haldeman, and that one of the witnesses had testified to that slush fund to the grand jury investigating Watergate. Woodward is the fifth branch of government! You have to remember that the Attorney General, who prosecuted us was the first and only Attorney General in the history of the United States to go to jail. In 2005, the mystery surrounding the identity of Watergate informant Deep Throat was ended. Woodward's strength was in investigation, so he focused on investigating the Watergate scandal. #inline-recirc-item--id-abdd83c2-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d ~ .item:nth-child(5) { He joined the Washington Post's metropolitan staff in 1966, specializing in police, court, and city hall assignments, with occasional self-assigned feature stories. Mr. Bradlee, when did it become clear to you that the Watergate break-in was something more than a simple burglary? But it would have been I mean, there was a lot of money on the table. Give him a story, any story, and he runs with it. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. Were there other people that inspired you? What about you? You are an observer and you have to work pretty hard to preserve your outsider status, but that is what you get to do as a reporter. 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. 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 . 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. What are you most proud of, looking back on your career so far? He quickly tired of the routine assignments his position offered, and began to hunt for news on his own. The American escalation in Vietnam had just begun. During his marriage to Ephron, Bernstein met Margaret Jay, daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan and wife of Peter Jay, then UK ambassador to the United States. They were tireless young reporters, fearless and not intimidated by the very powerful people they were investigating. [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. Are you and Bernstein still friends? Famously portrayed by Dustin Hoffman (Bernstein) and Robert Redford (Woodward) in the 1976 movie classic All the Presidents Men, the pair are far from best buddies and though they did not sit together on the dais, it appears some ice has thawed. 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.". LHW is a shallow division, this cancellation was just adding insult to injury. Compared to Woodward, Bernstein was a strong writer, and therefore wrote articles based on Woodward's information from Deep Throat. We're much better friends than we were at the time. And most jobs, if you are a lawyer or a doctor, you have to deal with clients, patients who have boring problems or diseases that are routine, and of course, the definition of news is non-routine. Whats going on in the town in culture, in the nation, in the world is news, and you get to work on that. 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. The arrest of the Watergate burglars may have happened in the dead of night, but what came in the months ahead was truly an awakening. Watergate was the biggest political scandal of the century. 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. 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. Encyclopedia of World Biography. And my reaction was, I told her, Well, Carl and I think that it will never come out, that Nixon and his White House are so good at obscuring things, of sealing off information, preventing disclosure, that well never know. She looked at me quite stricken and said, Never? People had troubles, and people had secrets. You get to have access to people you wouldnt normally have access to. He wanted to understand Woodward and Bernstein deeply so he could capture their true characters and motivations for the movie. This. } What made you decide that this had to be done? There was an election on in 72, and most of the rest of the country was saying, The Post is just playing politics, and all that stuff. Bobs sucking up to people. The reference to Woodward and Bernstein was classic Frank, too, telling Garrett to follow the money without saying so explicitly. It taught me the benefits of collaboration, and that collaboration is a wonderful thing. How does this affect me, Nixon, the president? Ben Bradlee: Its a good story. Bob Woodward: Yes, and then later, my parents were divorced, and my father remarried a woman who had three kids also. Muskie, in the emotion of the campaign, was trying to explain what had gone on. What attracted you to the newspaper business? It was mysterious always, his writing, but of great emotional impact. She had the lawyers on the same phones. I was worried about the Posts image of all of this, and that there would be a segment of society who said, you know, They were out to get him, those bastards, and they got him. And it was going to be we were just very careful. But by end of 1976, they had an ugly breakup and went their separate ways. And he was the one who said that. For over 30 years, the informants identity was known only to the man himself, and to Woodward, Bernstein and Bradlee. Thats the standard clich about Watergate: the system worked. Some people think I was in intelligence. People who went to Wheaton College had to sign a pledge: no drinking, smoking, dancing, movies, playing of cards. Woodward has written best-selling books on the last ten presidentsNixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. That was the key. Bob Woodward: Its the nature of the business. It was one of those families that was glued together.. I was the lowest-paid reporter at The Washington Post, because they would only give you credit with the Newspaper Guild if you had worked for a daily, and I had worked for a weekly. On the eve of the 2016 election, Woodward returned to the Watergate story one more time. 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. ALICIA C. SHEPARD, who teaches journalism at American University, is the author of "Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate. Even Woodward has disavowed the heroic-journalist interpretation, once telling an interviewer that the mythologizing of our role in Watergate has gone to the point of absurdity, where journalists write that I, single-handedly, brought down Richard Nixon. And in it, you just saw that it was not as pure and simple a community as the members liked people to think. President Nixon attempted to use the office of the presidency to cover up the crimes and his involvement with any break-ins. Bob Woodward: Who knows whether its that? 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 I recall in that incident, I did one, he did one, and I looked at his, and I realized his was better, as was almost always the case. Later, along with Vatican expert Marco Politi, he published a papal biography entitled His Holiness. 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. Woodward! At that period, what did you like to read? Sometimes I was thought to be the more cautious one, but Carl (Bernstein) could be cautious, and I could be aggressive or overly aggressive. "Carl was the big thinker, and Woodward was the one that make sure it got done.". It was very complicated, then and now. Where were you when he resigned, and what were your feelings? Alicia Shepard fills in the gaps in her very candid book, "Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of. Redford can get that compulsive drive. 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. Whereas the Bernstein and Woodward stories in the Washington Post had consisted of straight investigative reports, All the President's Men told not only the story of Watergate but the story of Woodward and Bernstein. Do you see President Clintons impeachment related to Watergate? And there we watched thousands of "indignados" flood the streets of Madrid, the precursor to Occupy Wall Street back home. 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. Bob Woodward: Quite late. How did you get interested in those things? In those days, you worried terribly about typos. Whats not known? NEW YORK . It seemed to always be about Nixon. It looked like I was going to become a lawyer, and my father to a certain extent was my model. Bob Woodward: We accused some people of things they didnt do that were based on some reports, written reports. Bob Woodward: I was born in a hospital in Geneva, Illinois but lived in Wheaton, which is the home of Billy Graham, the evangelist, so it was very fundamentalist Christian. 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 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). Thats why we all joined this business. The third vital member of the team of Woodward and Bernstein is the mysterious figure known as "Deep Throat." www.8days.sg 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. 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." She said Bernstein was driven to uncover the Watergate story because he wanted to prove everyone at the Post wrong. 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. However, Bernstein was the first of the pair to think that the Watergate case could be related to President Richard Nixon. All of us do! So you had the White House. The processes that caused [Nixons] resignation were constitutional., Grahams words, however accurate and incisive, scarcely altered the dominant popular interpretation of Watergate. Ben Bradlee: By an overwhelming margin, as we were reminded so often. People who are basically truth-tellers, want to help somebody, know that the truth is cleansing, that the truth is a good thing, that the society needs to function on that. Its not clear, its obscure. 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. Mr. Woodward, there is an interesting scene in the book and in the film All the Presidents Men where you tap out a story and Carl Bernstein immediately starts rewriting it, and youre miffed. Ephron delivered Max prematurely after finding out. You are trying to understand somebodys reasoning and their emotions and the demons they may or may not have. One doesnt think of humility as a common quality of journalists for some reason. Each of these presidents had their own way of responding. 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). And most of us had served in World War II. 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. Bob Woodward: I was not in intelligence; I was in communications, and they are different in the Navy. In fact, it probably doesnt work that often. The notes from Pakulas interview with Ephron reveal a key to his understanding of Woodward and Bernstein. ", But, "Is what the president doing moral?". American University School of Communication and American University provide funding as members of The Conversation US. Bob Woodward: Yes, and each week it got more and more interesting. Probably one of my favorite books is All the Kings Men, Robert Penn Warrens book about political corruption in Louisiana and about a reporter who watches this and gets to participate and see, but doesnt have all of the full consequences of the action fall on him. So much has happened since then. Get our L.A. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. A drone. We worked her over very hard, but so did the lawyers. The tapes were crucial to determining that Nixon had obstructed justice. Get to the bottom of it.. Encyclopedia.com. 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 ). But the following morning, Dan Schorr of CBS we saw on CBS Morning News shoved a microphone in front of this guy and said, The Post says you did this. Carl knew he needed [that quality] but despised it in Bob. She pointed out that, "Woodward grew up in the Midwest, Republican household, went to Yale, was in the Navy. Think of that! 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. We've received your submission. 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 . He said, Youre crazy. So he didnt think it was a good idea.. 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. Hes a reporter doll. 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. Lewis was with the Post from 1935 until his retirement in 1985. Alicia Shepard fills in the gaps in her very candid book, "Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate.". He was a much better writer. [10], At the University of Maryland, College Park, he was a reporter for the school's independent daily, The Diamondback. And when Redford wanted to film the movie in the Post, we told him he couldnt. What is this secret government we have? Kind of parse it out. But she wasnt the editor. This was later confirmed by both Woodward and Bernstein. Where were you born? He met his Deep Throat source secretly to get as much information as possible. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps. It was inconceivable that Nixon wasnt. We just didnt sleep a hell of a lot. Bob Woodward: Interesting question. Together, they followed the story and co-wrote the best-seller, "All the President's Men.". He was affectionately known as "Uncle Al" and had many sources in police departments. 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. All the President's Men was made into a hit motion picture starring Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein (1976). The duo of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein have become synonymous with reporting the comings and goings of the Watergate scandal. Id have drinks with him early all of late July and early August. (The Academy of Achievement interviewed both Bob Woodward and Ben Bradlee, the Executive Editor of The Washington Post, on May 1 during the 2003 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. Their interviews are combined here.). Ben Bradlee: Well, right away, with Hunts name and the White House telephone number in there. No soul.. 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. It was already changing, but he certainly speeded it along. Was he the more experienced journalist at the time? [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. 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. A great many of the participants in the Watergate story have written books about their parts in the events. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Mr. Bradlee, by the time of the Watergate affair, the Post had already come into conflict with the Nixon administration over the Pentagon Papers. Bob Woodward: An immense amount of independence. We talk all the time. Mr. Woodward, tell us what it felt like to you personally when Nixon stepped down. He soon became the papers leading reporter, and by September 1971, the Post was ready to give him another try. 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. Woodward and Bernsteins account of the investigation, All The Presidents Men, became a national bestseller and was made into a popular motion picture. Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president on August 9. Were there particular teachers or relatives? His daughter, Tali, attends the University of California at Berkeley. There was competition. You could feel that they took not an adversarial position toward government, but a position of skepticism, a position of there is accountability reporting. They both got married during the heady days of Watergate, Carl most famously to Nora Ephron. Well, I was down there. There was even a movie made about the scandal and their role in it, "All The President's Men.". However popular, the heroic-journalist myth is a vast exaggeration of the effect of their work. Leon Jaworski, like richard m. nixon, came from a poor, deeply religious background. The best duos complement the other's strengths. How would you summarize that? The Supreme Court ordered the president to turn over his tapes, which really sunk him the smoking gun tapes at the end. I think pride is hubris. Bob Woodward: Or The Sound and the Fury, which is his great book. Im thinking of the bookAs I Lay Dying, which is from all different characters points of view, like interviewing people for a story. How did it happen? On September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for any crimes he might have committed while in office, thereby cutting off further criminal investigation of the former president. Bob Woodward is an associate editor of The Washington Post, where he has worked since 1971. Yes. And when, the next day, Woodward this is probably Sunday or maybe Monday, because the burglary was Saturday morning early called the number and asked to speak to Mr. Hunt, and the operator said, Well, hes not here now; hes over at such-and-such a place, gave him another number, and Woodward called him up, and Hunt answered the phone, and Woodward said, We want to know why your name was in the address book of the Watergate burglars. And there is this long, deathly hush, and Hunt said, Oh, my God! and hung up. However, the wiretapped failed to work properly and on June 17, five of the men broke back into the DNC's office in the Watergate Hotel. Im not really like that anymore, Bernstein said in the interview. Hed started at age two, I think. 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. The next year, when I entered college determined to be a reporter just like the guys that Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman had portrayed on the screen, there was a surge in enrollment in journalism schools. [14] While there, he won first prize in New Jersey's press association for investigative reporting, feature writing, and news on a deadline. Thanks to their investigation and reporting, the American people had a deep look into Nixon's role in the break-ins and cover-ups. Woodwards critics insisted that this informant was a fabrication, or at best, a composite based on a number of sources. They had a much-publicized extramarital relationship in 1979. [19] He began investigating the secret cooperation between the CIA and American media during the Cold War. His father was a judge and Woodward eventually entered the Navy after graduating from Yale. Three Post editors were portrayed by award-winning character actors: Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee, Martin Balsam as Howard. Back at home, you could cross out the word "party" and replace it with "Nixon." After filling their mantles with every journalism prize . Ben Bradlee: We were being very careful. When will all the truth come out? Quite optimistically. Bob Woodward: Yes, we are. And she decided to do it. Much of their hard work was a quest for access to anyone who knew the real secrets of the Nixon White House. Nixon was a full-blown hater, and if you listen to the tapes, its chilling and frightening. Ben Bradlee: Probably the first or second day, really. Were there siblings? He yelled, Stop! They show how Pakula came to view his protagonists. By his own admission he failed at that". When you began to work as a journalist, what was the reaction of your family? Divorce is painful because it is unknown to a child. And of course, Muskie was going to be the strong candidate against Nixon. 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. Harry S. Truman But in fact at that time, we were. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. During Watergate, no matter how well Bernstein reported the story, he was pegged by Post editors as the bad boy of the duo -- always late, unreliable and quick to hype his leads.
