Watergate saga continues to make waves, draw crowds

October 6, 2007 | Filed under 2007: Washington, D.C.

Watergate saga continues to make waves, draw crowds

SARAH ALFAHAM / The Working Press

Just like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Anthony Mirones had a hunch.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein discussed Watergate. (Photo by Heidi Greenleaf/The Working Press)

An investigative journalist for WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, Mirones kept trying to figure out why nearby creeks showed no signs of life. He wasn’t sure where the story would lead, but he “kept knocking on doors.”

Eventually, he learned that the airport had been draining pollution into the streams.

Mirones was one of more than 750 people who packed into a room Saturday to hear the legendary reporters talk about the hunch they pursued 35 years ago. It led a president to resign.

“It was interesting to see Woodward and Bernstein admit that they didn’t know where the story was going, and that they persisted,” Mirones said.

Woodward, who today is an editor at The Washington Post, and Bernstein, who recently wrote a book about Hillary Rodham Clinton, answered questions about their reporting on the 1972 break-in at Democratic Party offices at the Watergate hotel. They eventually traced the crime to associates of President Nixon.

Woodward and Bernstein also talked about “All the President’s Men,” the 1976 movie about the Watergate investigation and journalism in general.

Bernstein said that it took a long time for him and Woodward to connect the dots, and that they might not have had the same success had the break-in happened today.

“The two driving forces in journalism today is lots of speed and impatience. Good reporting is the opposite. It’s a slow and patient job,” Bernstein said.

Woodward added that taking it slow can be helpful on some stories.

“If you let people talk and you listen to them, the stories will go places you never would have expected,” Woodward said.

The session was the highlight of the day, but journalists were disappointed when the audio failed about halfway through the discussion. Those not lucky enough to get a seat in the packed ballroom stood in the back of the room or sat on the floor.

Joining Woodward and Bernstein on stage were Ben Bradlee, the Post executive editor who oversaw the Watergate coverage; Scott Armstrong, an investigator on the Senate Watergate Committee; Alicia Shepard, who recently wrote “Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate;” and journalist Daniel Schorr, who covered Watergate for CBS and is now a news analyst for NPR.

Bob Schieffer of CBS News moderated the discussion.

Schorr said what Woodward and Bernstein did changed the face of journalism. He called it the “Watergate syndrome” and said that afterward, people started to question authority more.

“We should not assume that when the presidents or the press secretaries speak, they are saying the truth. And we had that example,” Schorr said. “It’s really about investigative reporting.”

Becky Dickerson, publisher for The Community Current Newspaper in St. John, Wash., said she would not have missed the session for anything.

“I picked this workshop to attend because it seems ridiculous growing up in the 70s during Watergate, to watch “All the President’s Men” in college and not take this opportunity to hear from them first hand,” she said.

At the end of the workshop, after a standing ovation from the audience, Woodward and Bernstein were given two potted plants. During their reporting, Woodward moved a potted plant to his balcony to signal “Deep Throat,” his source during the Watergate investigation, that he wanted to meet.

655 Comments

Luzia
April 17, 2012 • 7:29 pm

OK, so the 70s has Animal House, Harold and Maude (in my all-time top 5), Annie Hall, this ^ movie (never seen) and Rocky Horor.But the ’80 s? We’ve got Caddyshack, Airplane, Ordinary People, BreakSfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, About Last Night, Amadeus, The Lost Boys, The Big Chill, Blue Velvet, This is Spinal Tap, Dangerous Liaisons, Diner, The Dead Poets Society, The Hunger, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Ghostbusters, and for the love of G-d HEATHERS, all came out in the 1980s. (Not to mention one of YOUR faves, Raising Arizona.)You can have the 70s I’ll take the 80s, and if you are lucky you can oobrrw some of my dvds.

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Watergate saga continues to make waves, draw crowds

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