Reflection on “All The President’s Men”

The work of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during the Watergate Scandal of the early 1970s forever shaped investigative journalism as we know it.

Before Watergate, one of the United State’s biggest scandals, investigative reporting was not very popular in the journalism world. With the work of Woodward and Bernstein and the rest of the Washington Post team, they were able to prove that journalism is not simply just about writing a story, but about piecing it together.

The movie “All the Presidents Men” gives its audience an inside look at the investigative journalism that ultimately unraveled some of the most crucial pieces of the Watergate Scandal. The audience is able to see each detailed step that both journalists took to put together a story.

The “Paul Williams Way” of investigative reporting can clearly be seen throughout the film. At the beginning of the movie, conception can be seen as Woodward and Bernstein meet with editors, Harry Rosenfeld and Howard Simons to discuss plans for how to uncover this story.

After looking deeper into the scandal, at first the editors did not think that this story could be done by an inexperienced and young writer such Woodward, but they decided to let him take it on. In terms of feasible study, Woodward and Bernstein had to put a lot into consideration.

Going into this story, they were aware that it would be difficult to find sources who would talk, but they decided that persistence was key. When it was time to make the decision whether this story would be a go or a no-go the journalists were confident that they could access enough information to build a story.

A big part of the Paul Williams Way is planning, but what I found through this movie is that investigative journalism is often difficult to plan and often times as more information is accessed, things begin to take unexpected turns.

While the journalists did plan out a good amount of the information they wanted to seek out, I found that most of the information just unexpectedly came as they went along with the investigation.

The amount of sources used to uncover this story were almost too many to count. That being said the majority of sources used were primary. There is a scene in which Woodward and Bernstein are sorting through documents at the Library of Congress.

One of those primary documents was Bernard Baxter’s phone and money records.This particular file provided information that Baxter had several checks from Mexico, one that was to Kenneth H. Dahlberg from the Committee to Re-Elect the President, for $25,000.

The use of face to face interviews was a huge component of this investigation. While Woodward and Bernstein had a hard time getting people to talk due to threats, their persistence and hard work payed off.

Deep Throat was a prominent source who would meet with Woodward in a parking garage to reveal information. In terms of whistleblowers, one of these sources was Hugh Sloan who was a resigned CREEP treasurer.

While this investigation entailed a lot of controversy, especially with threats being involved to a good amount of sources that the reporters tried to interview, I found that both reporters did a very good job in terms of ethics with uncovering their story.

While they were persistent and urged sources to speak with them, they were very respectful to each of their sources and did not force anyone to speak. They were able to verify accuracy of their research by confirming with police officials, other sources and documents.

The Watergate Scandal was historically important for a number of reasons. Not only did it change American history, but it also changed journalism history.

Here we have two, young unexperienced writers who unraveled a huge investigation through speaking with sources, putting together information, researching documents and in conclusion piecing all of the details together.

They now provide a good example of what it looks like to investigate a scandal such as this. That being said, this investigation was not easy for them by any means.

They ran into the trouble of sources refusing to talk. Throughout the movie they would knock on doors of CREEP employees and they would get turned away.

There were also sources who would deny allegations they had made previously. This whole story was difficult because most of the sources were either covering up the scandal or being told to cover it up.

One of the biggest ways this topic was researched was through information from Deep Throat. Aside from getting people to talk, the reporters also used documents from the Library of Congress, records of CREEP members, and funds from various accounts.

I wonder if this story would have been done a lot easier in this day and age. Rather than physically accessing documents, so much can be accessed digitally these days. I think it would be interesting to see the difference in investigating a scandal such as this today compared to back then.

I found an article titled “ Mitchell Controlled Secret GOP Fund,” from the Washington Post by Woodward and Bernstein. This articles contains quotes from John Mitchell, Powell Moore, The General Accounting Office and the spokesman of the Justice Department.

Each of these sources added a significant piece of information to the story. Throughout the story I found that a good amount of the information from the sources was denial, which in some ways might seem to detract from the story. That being said, all of these denials are what built the story and revealed the coverup of this scandal.

I found the relationship between the editors and the reporters in this movie to be very interesting. It seemed as though the editors did not really treat the reporters with very much respect.

Like I mentioned, at the beginning, the editors did not thing Woodward would be able to handle this story, which sort of led to them underestimating his skills. It seemed as though the reporters and the editors disagreed a lot throughout the movie, however usually would come to some sort of compromise or agreement in the end.

I think it is very important for the editors and the reporters to have a strong relationship and be on the same page. This investigation was not just the work of Woodward or Bernstein, but the work of a team. Disagreements are inevitable, however it is important that conflict is resolved so there is consistency in research and writing.

I learned a lot about reporting from this movie, but I think the top main aspect I learned about was perserverence. The reporters could have easily chosen to give up come when they realized the difficulty in front of them, yet they stayed strong and continued to press on.

Throughout the whole entire movie, the two journalists were working hard to uncover this story, and never once did they hold back. Even when they got turned down by sources they were respectfully persistent to try to get information out of them.

Another aspect I learned about is teamwork.Often when I think about journalism I envision one person doing all of the work. In the case of Watergate, the unraveled scandal could not have just been done by one reporter.

I found throughout the movie that the two reporters worked together and also worked with the editors to ultimately access different information and sources.

Aside from Woodward and Bernstein, I found that Deep Voice, Rosenfeld, Simons, Sloan and the CREEP bookkeeper all had important roles in this story.

Deep Voice, though anonymous at the time, revealed so much information to Woodward that helped him put together a story. Both editors, Rosenfeld and Simons, worked with the two reporters to plan research strategies and plans of action.

Sloan and the bookkeeper gave significant information to the reporters because they were some of the only two that were willing to talk.

I would like to ask Woodward and Bernstein what they learned about themselves personally from investigating this story. I want to know if they had underestimated themsevles beforehand and were surprised they actually changed history, or they were confident from the beggining that they could do this.

I want to know what exactly kept them so motivated to keep pushing forward even when things became difficult. Thanks to their hard work, they have become a solid model for investigative reporters all over to look at and to imitate.

Through teamwork and solid perserverance, Woodward and Bernstein forever changed investigative reporting.

On my honor, I have watched “All the President’s Men” in its entirety.