Bernstein and Woodward

Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were two lucky guys. You can give them credit for amassing a hefty amount of headlines drawing links between the coming elections and the Watergate burglary, and for pursuing it. You can’t give them complete credit though, because they only uncovered enough to say there were parallels. They didn’t have enough information to make any direct, conclusive statements about the scandal, until of course, they found “Deep Throat.” If he didn’t give them the insider on what was going on with the Nixon campaign, Nixon would not have been put into the motions of impeachment. Still, after they got that information, I can begin to acknowledge their efforts again. After their breakout story on October 10th, 1972, the pressure was on. The rest is history.

Yeah, they were lucky. But if they didn’t accidently stumble on the scandal, it would’ve gone on longer. There would be far less pressure on the party if Bernstein and Woodward weren’t on their tails. If they weren’t cornered by the two journalists, I wonder how history would be affected, if at all. I say “if at all” because I don’t see why the FBI or someone loosely involved with the government or group wouldn’t catch on. The discovery might come late, but Nixon could still be charged for it. Lucky that the guys found it out when they did, soon enough to quell it before the elections. In Bernstein’s words: "At the same time, we were in the right place at the right time and did the right thing." Couldn’t agree more.

They were definitely dedicated to their jobs though, and went far to get this story. Both started with their journalism careers pretty early. Carl started as a copy boy when he was 16, and stayed in the journalism field up to the scandal. Woodward, I was surprised to find, didn’t start as a journalist but as a marine. When he left, he considered law school and was accepted into Harvard; he did not attend. Instead, he steered to journalism. I was also surprised to find that Woodward was so dedicated to improving his ability as a journalist (he was turned down by the Post at first) that he continued to interview people and recon for info beyond his working hours, meaning, he wasn’t getting paid for it. That’s some powerful motivation. The same that probably drove him to follow the scandal.