From Watergate to your Backyard: the Elements do not Change

By Katie Thompson

Journalists are pounding away on typewriters, running throughout the office with cigarettes dangling from their mouth’s, and decked out in a sea of plaid shirts and bell bottom pants, a clear signal of a 70s style newsroom.

This is a scene from William Goldberg’s 1976 film, All the President’s Men, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.

The film tells the true story of two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward (Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Hoffman), who were responsible for first breaking the Watergate scandal to the nation.

The technique and style of journalism employed by these two men revealed that the elements of journalism, as described in Bill Kovach’s book, are just as applicable in the 1970s during one of the greatest scandals in history as they are today in the smallest of hometown newspapers. The elements do not change.

Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth. This fact was the driving force behind Woodward and Bernstein’s coverage of the Watergate scandal as it unfolded. They stayed with the story, despite being doubted, mocked and even put in physical danger, because they knew it was their responsibility to uncover the truth.

In the process of uncovering the truth comes the difficult and often time consuming job of verification. Sources must be confirmed as reliable and accuracy is essential. Woodward and Bernstein found it a tedious task to verify their sources, or even get sources to go on the record for that matter, but knew that if they were to break a story of this magnitude it had to be perfect.

Their editor, Ben Bradlee, stressed the discipline of verification to them. In the early stages of their investigation, Bradlee held the story from print several times citing that they needed to “get some harder information”. He knew that the reputation of The Washington Post rode on whether the sources named (or more often unnamed due to the nature of the story) could be verified and made it clear to his reporters what was needed in order for their report to print.

The full story did eventually print and the men involved in the Watergate scandal were exposed and indicted. This was only possible because of the diligent and responsible journalism conducted by Woodward and Bernstein. They never stopped in their pursuit of the truth, and in the end neither they nor the nation were denied of it.