Page 165 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

WOODWARD, ROBERT U., AND BERNSTEIN, CARL
154
SOURCE: John Anthony Maltse, Spin Control, The White House Office of Communi-
cation and the Management of Presidential News, 1992.
Pamela J. Shoemaker and Michael J. Breen

WOODWARD, ROBERT U. (1943), AND BERNSTEIN, CARL (1944). In
an age when national television anchors and reporters are the media stars, Carl
Bernstein and Bob Woodward were a throwback to the turn of the century,
when newspaper reporters' names were household words. They were little-
known local reporters for the Washington Post when a burglary was foiled at
Democratic National Committee headquarters one night in June 1972. Wood-
ward, a Yale graduate, had turned to reporting after a five-year stint as a navy
officer and turned down a Harvard Law School admission opportunity. Bernstein
was a University of Maryland dropout when he started reporting. They teamed
up in what must be one of the most persistent examples of reporting in modern
journalism history. The tentacles of the break-in were tracked relentlessly. They
were the first to reveal that the Watergate burglars were connected to Howard
Hunt, an ex-Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative. Their reporting tactics
weren't new, it is generally agreed, but their persistence and doggedness were
matchless. When the story began to lead to the White House, Post executive
editor Ben Bradlee made the decision to keep the Woodward-Bernstein team on
the story rather than turning it over to the national reporters. Although no one
credits them with single-handedly toppling President Richard Nixon, most ob-
servers credit their stories with keeping the pressure on the White House that
led to the revelations by one of the burglars, James McCord, of the high-level
involvement. The movie version of the book All the President's Men, which
followed the articles, further ensured the team a place in the American con-
sciousness for decades to come. This book was followed by one on the period
before Nixon's resignation, The Final Days. Of this work, Nixon said, "I respect
[some members of the press]; but for those who write history as fiction on third-
hand knowledge, I have nothing but contempt. And I will never forgive them.
Never."
The sourcing of these two books, as well as others that have followed from
the pens of Woodward and Bernstein, has sometimes stirred journalistic contro-
versy. For example, Woodward's solo work, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA,
1981-1987, often lacks direct clear attribution, leading to nonfiction that reads
like fiction, in a now-you-are-in-the-room-with-the-political-greats approach.
The two have gone their separate, but productive, ways. Woodward is still
on the Post staff, now as an editor. Bernstein works primarily as an independent
author.
SOURCE: Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein, All the President's Men, 1974.
Wallace B. Eberhard