Discerning truth is an ongoing battle, a challenge to resist giving in to distorted narratives.
Like many journalists working today, I didn’t learn about the Watergate scandal from the news. Instead, I first encountered it in a high school classroom through the 1976 film, “All the President’s Men.”
Tomorrow, July 26, the Pickford Film Center continues its film series Truth-Tellers and Whistleblowers with a screening of “All the President’s Men.” The series will run each Saturday through Aug. 30, showcasing films that hold truth to power.
“All the President’s Men” follows Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they investigate the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex. With guidance from Woodward’s secret source using the alias Deep Throat, the reporters follow the money — uncovering conspiracy, cover-up and illegal funding that reached the highest levels of the Nixon administration.
For some, Watergate was lived history; to many of us, it’s a story that’s been warped over the decades. Recently, conservative commentor Tucker Carlson suggested a deeper conspiracy. Carlson found it strange that Woodward, a Yale graduate and former Navy communications officer, was quickly hired by the Washington Post and assigned the biggest news story of all time, for which he happened to have access to the deputy director of the FBI. He suggested a deeper federal operation to force Nixon out of office.
Facts tell another story: Woodward was not a Navy intelligence officer. He did not immediately get hired at the Post, and he wasn’t assigned Watergate as his first story. He failed a two-week trial at the Post in 1970 due to lack of experience and then worked a weekly paper in the D.C. suburbs for a year before returning.
Unsurprisingly, Nixon named three journalists on his “Opponents List,” made public in 1973 during hearings with the Senate Watergate committee.
This year, President Donald Trump has threatened to sue or has sued CNN, the New York Times, CBS and the Wall Street Journal, and cut funding to PBS and NPR. This campaign to restrict press access, call for firings of reporters and file expensive lawsuits creates a hostile environment discouraging journalists and whistleblowers from holding power to account. I wonder how many journalists are on Trump’s list.
Unlike Nixon’s famous “I am not a crook” speech, Trump dismisses scandals with statements like, “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?”
But taking Deep Throat’s advice and following Epstein’s money reveals suspicious wealth transfers, billion-dollar deals and likely cover-ups involving high levels of government.
Trump calls it a Democratic hoax. Yet, this ongoing battle over truth is a test, a challenge to resist giving in to distorted narratives over time.
A high school friend of mine recently said that decades from now, when reading about Trump in history books, he won’t seem as scandalous or controversial as he does today. I disagreed; Nixon still seems as scandalous as he did in the ’70s.
His response? “What did Nixon do?”
— By Sam Fletcher
I wasn’t yet alive when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s reporting led to Richard Nixon’s downfall, but I saw “All the President’s Men” in my first-ever journalism class nearly 20 years ago.
To many millennial-age reporters, the movie still stirs pride and conviction in the mission of investigative and watchdog journalism, even as the film loses some luster behind more recent and equally good journalism flicks like “Spotlight” and “The Post.”
In 2022, I was fortunate enough to interview Bob Woodward over the phone, in an article previewing his appearance at the Mount Baker Theatre. It was a pleasure to hear him recount some of his memories about his early reporting career — in a time before the internet or “fake news” — as well as his opinions of the industry’s current state.
Woodward told me that he still felt journalism was the best job in the world, even with the many changes the occupation has endured since he was first tasked with investigating a seemingly innocuous break-in at the Watergate Hotel.
“By definition, what we do is not supposed to be boring,” he said. “It’s what’s relevant in people’s lives.”
— By Matt Benoit
Also read in Salish Current:
• “‘Lyra’ sheds light on power, dangers of journalism,” July 14, 2023
• “Trust in truth of news is a casualty of the information wars,” Nov. 11, 2022
• “Local journalism is key for healthy communities: forum,” March 18, 2022
• “Commentary: Erosion in local news threatens democracy,” Nov. 27, 2020