For the team that took down President Nixon, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein followed this format to a tee. Pakula wrote that Redford would have to scrap his charm. Available for both RF and RM licensing. Woodward gained valuable information through an unnamed informant, nicknamed Deep Throat, by Post managing editor Howard Simon. Not, "What did the president know and when did he know it? 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.". Just it was terribly, critically important that we do it right and that we not brag, not seem to be bragging, and that we didnt allow any television in there for days. 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. Encyclopedia of World Biography. And redford was the one who shaped 'All the President's Men.' 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). He'd started at age two, I think. The reporters were all there, and the editors were there, working on the copy, and there was some guy writing for the next morning. Bob Woodward: Not really. But as Pakula began to understand Woodward, he wondered if the charming, handsome Redford, then 39, could play someone so different from himself. And it in many ways is, I think, the principle under which she and her son, Don Graham, tried to run The Washington Post. ", 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. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. 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. He wanted to understand Woodward and Bernstein deeply so he could capture their true characters and motivations for the movie. What was that about? Bob Woodward: I was not in intelligence; I was in communications, and they are different in the Navy. Encyclopedia.com. That we had done stories, but it is a process of the judiciary, the Congress, the Supreme Court, that led to Nixons demise. Some people haven't seen it yet. 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. I had worked for the Post for nine months. 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. Were there siblings? I now do my books alone, but I have a full-time assistant who is kind of my collaborator. She had the lawyers on the same phones. 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. Woodward also got a dig in about Bernsteins famed love of the ladies, recalling Bernstein got a list of people who worked on the Richard Nixon re-election campaign from an ex-girlfriend. In 1974, if they had only gotten their (Washington Post) salaries, Woodward would have earned $15,000 and Bernstein $18,000. 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. 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 show how Pakula came to view his protagonists. Bob can formulate and Carl can draw conclusions.. Mr. Bradlee, by the time of the Watergate affair, the Post had already come into conflict with the Nixon administration over the Pentagon Papers. The best show recs delivered to your inbox. Bob Woodward: Oh, yes. "You could just tell," Shepard continued, "by how different they were that they wouldn't be friends and they wouldn't be working together. You want to deal a careful glancing blow. Richard Nixon's RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (1978) gives the former president's version of the events surrounding Watergate. Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift still good friends - 8 Days - 8Days.sg. Im sure it would have been more interesting. It was a takedown that transcended politics, transcended ideology. Ben Bradlee: I was at The Washington Post, and I couldnt believe it. And she decided to do it. 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. Bob Woodward: Certainly. Maybe it was 16, but he had fully a decade-plus of experience under his belt. How do I pay someone back, either good or bad, for what they have done to me?. The idealized journalist of the Watergate era and beyond was wedded to the highest ethical standards and driven only by truth, not by ideology. Where were you when he resigned, and what were your feelings? Bernstein and Woodward's All the President's Men (1974) and The Final Days (1976) capture the excitement of the chase, the enormity of the constitutional crisis, and the agony of the downfall. But together they did something that neither one of them could do individually. Perfect. 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. That the difficulties they put up to prevent the truth from coming out had been overcome. Think of that! He knew all about my mother, brother -- everything. (Jason Robards, who played Bradlee, is on screen only 10 minutes.). A community high school history teacher named Elizabeth Duncan who taught American history and was a great teacher. Some people think I was in intelligence. Ben Bradlee: Four hundred stories about Watergate in The Washington Post Four hundred in two years and two months. But they missed decisive elements of Watergate, notably the payment of hush money to the burglars and the existence of Nixons White House tapes. From the time of the break-in, and through the fall and winter of 1972-1973, Bernstein and Woodward, under increasing public attack from White House spokesmen, worked virtually alone on the story. Didnt you have a chat with the Posts publisher, Katharine Graham, in the midst of all of this? Following the 1972 arrests, journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post investigated the scandal relentlessly. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. 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. 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. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. It was one of the most incredible feelings that Ive had in my life because, you know, it had been a long time since we had started to work on the story, and I didnt exactly know who I was or who he was -- existentially, it was sort of a total mind----. 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. When you were a child, who most inspired you? The follow-up story was based primarily on their arraignment in court, and it was based on information given our police reporter, Al Lewis, by the cops, showing them an address book that one of the burglars had in his pocket, and in the address book was the name Hunt, H-u-n-t, and the phone number was the White House phone number, which Al Lewis and every reporter worth his salt knew. 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. This week marks the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in and, of. One was Woodward and Bernsteins All the Presidents Men, the well-timed memoir about their reporting. With astonishing regularity, Woodward has continued to produce bestselling books on previously hidden aspects of American life. Will the luck of the Irish affect the Oscars? ON 9 August 1974, Richard Nixon arose in the White House and, after meeting briefly with the household staff a, Iran-Contra Affair Woodward cautiously would have to go from one step literally to another. Most of them didnt realize that the world had changed. Few in the room could recall a joint public appearance by the famous Washington Post reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal that brought down a president. ALICIA C. SHEPARD, who teaches journalism at American University, is the author of "Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate. Robert Upshur Woodward, born on March 26, 1943, in Geneva, Illinois, attended Yale University on a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship, after which he served for five years as a naval officer. Maybe it was appropriate that most of America slept through the occasion. 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. Bob Woodward's political affiliation hasn't kept him from criticizing people on both sides of the aisle. It came out in the Ervin Committee hearings in the Senate. Bob Woodward: In the family I was raised in: a brother, a sister, two stepsisters, a half-sister. Bob Woodward: Yes, we are. He went to jail for that. When the Post persevered with the investigation, President Nixon induced the FCC to challenge the licenses of the Posts television stations. He sat down with Woodward, then 32, Bernstein, then 31, their editors, their friends and the two women at the center of the reporters' lives. "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. Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss are "still good friends", a source has insisted, despite rumours the pair might have fallen out. Goldwater Republican. 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. President Nixon attempted to use the office of the presidency to cover up the crimes and his involvement with any break-ins. What does the American Dream mean to you? But we were the backwash of the Baby Boom. 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. Get our L.A. 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? Our lawyers were telling us that and this New York judge had ruled that the statute says whoever has reason to believe that publication of certain information will threaten the national security of the United States shall be this was a civil suit, but the criminal equivalent, which they would certainly have done had they convicted us, would have put us in jail, put us all in jail, including Katharine Graham, or the possibility of it. A judge told the Times they couldnt publish it, so a judge would tell us the same thing. 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. But in the end, its only a glancing blow. Its that square, straight, intense, decent quality of Woodwards that works. Mr. Bradlee, at what point did you get the inkling that the Oval Office was involved? We actually published three papers with it before they stopped us, and then we were in the courts for 12 days. So he didnt think it was a good idea. 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? Landed at The Washington Post in 1971, had nine months reporting experience. 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. Woodward and Bernstein did disclose financial links between Nixons reelection campaign and the burglars arrested June 17, 1972, at headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, in what was the signal crime of Watergate. Woodward stayed at The Washington Post. 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. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Ben Bradlee, editor of the Washington Post during Watergate, told me that Pakula spent so much time with each of us. Woodward has written best-selling books on the last ten presidentsNixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. On the other hand, Carl Bernstein was the child of two Communist activists (per Washingtonian). We said Haldeman had controlled the secret fund, according to the Grand Jury testimony of the Nixon Committee treasurer, and he had not testified to that. And in that same space of time, Woodward's written five books. As a colleague of ours at the Post, Bill Greider, wrote the day they disclosed the secret taping system in the White House. I think journalism is a practice, like law, that you keep learning. 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. Bob Woodward: Yes. The fallout or denouement caused President Nixon to resign from office and sent several "conspirators" to prison. Some questioned the credibility of the work due to the lack of footnotes and named sources, even though many acknowledged that it would have been impossible to write without the promises . And that in a little way, and often in a significant way, thats realized. And she said, When will we know the full story of Watergate? The whole reputation of the paper was hanging on that by the time. Robert Redford played Woodward; Dustin Hoffman played Bernstein. Richard Matthew Pious We led the paper that day with Tricia Nixons wedding. Ben Bradlee: Its a good story. 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. These actions would lead to his resignation in August 1974. So you had a certain amount of independence? If you need to flag this entry as abusive. The book inescapably promoted the impression Woodward and Bernstein were vital to Watergates outcome. But glaring gaps remain. 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. 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.. It was so important. And I was going on an unknown path, and that concerned him, but when I got into it and then went to work for the Post, he was quite supportive. The Twitter-sized version is the president had a goon squad that did all kinds of buggings and break-ins and political dirty tricks, and when those burglars with ties to the White House were busted 40 years ago, Nixon and his top aides broke the law to cover it all up. Its our job to figure them out.. Bob Woodward was born to a conservative family in the Midwest (via CBS News). [31] Due to their different styles, other journalists described them as a perfect team. Bob Woodward: June 17, 1972. Woodward would only reveal his informant was an individual working in the Executive Branch. 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