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Although I am ashamed to admit it, the first time I ever
heard about the Watergate scandal was from watching the movie “Dick” starring
Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst. I can’t recall a lot about that movie, but
I do remember that Nixon came across as a scumbag. In every article, book,
movie, etc. I’ve come in contact with since “Dick,” they all depict him as just
that, a scumbag. It amazes me that the general public couldn’t see that while
he was in office. I guess that is the whole point of politics; who can be the
best actor as well as be responsible for an entire country? But I digress.
I chose this chapter for a few reasons. 1. Bob Woodward and
Carl Bernstein are the Frank Sinatra and James Dean of journalism; translation,
they are legends. They are a constant reminder that a journalist is responsible
for providing the public with the information they need to lead free and
self-governing lives. They also set the bar and redefined “Investigative
Journalism.” 2. I can’t imagine what would go down if a Watergate type scandal
happened today. And if it did, I hope their would be some journalists willing
to ignore the dollar signs, and find the truth.
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| Image: 'All the President's Men' http://www.flickr.com/photos/8344872@N05/4080089682 |
Within the first four paragraphs of this chapter
Streitmatter states “The reporters and the courageous newspaper (Bernstein,
Woodward, & the Washington Post)
they worked for demonstrated, perhaps more clearly than at any other time in
history, the value of the Fourth Estate joining the official branches of the
government to serve the American people.” While this is true, the entire
chapter makes it very clear that when it comes to the government, especially in
modern day, the Fourth Estate can be easily shut out.
Maybe that isn’t what was supposed to be taken away from the
chapter, but it is certainly what I got out of it. Yes, Bernstein and Woodward
were on the case from the beginning. For those of you who live under a rock,
the Watergate scandal was all kicked off by the “third-rate burglary” or
whatever you want to refer to it as, when five men were caught inside the
Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate office complex in
Washington D.C. These men were attempting to place listening devices inside the
complex. While most newspapers thought it was just that, a burglary, the post
and it’s now infamous journalists, Bernstein and Woodward, decided to dig a
little deeper.
The inclination to dig a little deeper is what I call a
journalistic instinct. When you are a great journalist, you know that nothing
comes at face value, ESPECIALLY in politics. When all the other newspapers
turned their backs on the post, the post stayed true to fulfilling their duty
as part of the Fourth Estate.
While the other three branches of the government ultimately
led to Nixon’s resignation (the only U.S. president to ever resign from
presidency), it was the Fourth Estate, and the journalists who stayed dedicated
to their duties as part of the Fourth Estate, which left the trail of
breadcrumbs for the government to find.
I find it fitting to end this blog on this note. Katharine
Graham, publisher of the Washington Post,
was quoted saying this when accepting an award for her contributions to
American Journalism, “Constitution singled out the press as an institution
whose freedom could not be limited… Nothing illustrates better that the
Founding Fathers sought to keep the forces of inquiry—the transmitters of
information, the instruments of free debate—as varied, numerous, and
independent as possible. Freedom of speech and of the press was the essential
counterweight to government, the basic check against abuses of official power.”
If ever there was a quote to reinforce the “watchdog” duty which comes from
being a journalist and therefore part of the Fourth Estate, this quote would be
it.
I guess the only way I can tie this to the present is that
most reporters nowadays are playing “mouthpiece journalism,” mainly because we
have become a society that is obsessed with money. That is why I have so much
respect for independent journalists, they risk their lives every single day
just to stay true to our motto “a journalist is responsible for providing the
public with the information they need to lead free and self-governing lives.”
May we all go forward and take advantage of the rights we as
a country were so luckily given. “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of
grievances.” The first amendment is the reason our country differs from so many
others, and yet we are all too afraid to exercise our rights.
Or we were too afraid. My generation, the generation of
pampered children and adulterous presidents, are raising their voices to change
the course the world is on right now. And I believe it is journalists like Bernstein
and Woodward that give us the confidence to speak when everyone else is silent,
and point fingers when everyone else is looking the other way. That is America.
