Guest post by Gerry Lanosga.
“FBI Finds Nixon Aides Sabotaged Democrats,” read a headline in The Washington Post 50 years ago this coming Monday. Running across the top of the front page in two decks, it was set in extra-large font befitting the importance of the news. The following year, the story was one of nine articles about the Watergate scandal that The Post submitted in the annual Pulitzer Prize competition. Its entry went on to win in the most prestigious category, the coveted public service award.
Watergate and its aftermath gave rise to a powerful touchstone for contemporary journalists about the ability of their work to effect change in society, even at the highest levels of official power. After all, the scandal led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974. To this day, it’s not uncommon to see references to Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein having “toppled the president.” But historians have shown that idea to be a hyperbolic and oversimplified view of media power, and Woodward himself has acknowledged as much, telling a historian in 2004 the idea was “horseshit.” Indeed, if you read The Post’s big scoop from October 10, 1972, as well as some of the other stories, it’s quite clear that Woodward and Bernstein were often reporting about the findings of a government-led investigation.
Joseph Campbell and other media historians have traced the persistence of journalism’s Watergate mythology to Woodward and Bernstein’s bestselling book, All the President’s Men, and the popular film based on it that was released in 1976. While anniversary observances sometimes make for bad history, I wanted to screen the film in this 50th year after the Watergate break-in and The Post’s prize-winning reporting to cultivate a meaningful conversation about the true nature of journalism’s power to create change in politics and society.
To be sure, much of Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting was first-rate and groundbreaking at a time when The Post was often isolated in its attention to the Watergate scandal. Some historians have argued that by keeping it in the public eye, they also kept the pressure on various government investigators to continue the work that ultimately did topple the president. Just how much that mattered is still very much debated, judging from a panel discussion I participated in last month at the American Journalism Historians Association’s annual conference.
Regardless, there is little doubt that the news media can and do often prompt important policy changes and reforms. Stanford economist James Hamilton, for one, has shown how an investment in investigative reporting can produce substantial societal benefits. Journalistic investigations don’t always lead to reforms, of course, nor do important stories always get the attention they need. But at its best, investigative journalism can serve as a valuable counterpoint to the powerful institutional forces that shape today’s complex society.
In reminding us of that crucial media role, All the President’s Men is an important film. And although there are others more qualified to say how it holds up as cinema, I think it’s a compelling drama in its own right. I’m looking forward to watching it again, and I hope you’ll be there as well. I’ll be joined for a post-screening discussion by author and journalist Martin Schram, who will talk to us about his personal experiences covering the Watergate scandal as a competitor of Woodward and Bernstein.
Thanks to the IU Cinema, the Media School and its journalism faculty, the Michael I. Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism, and the Center for Documentary Research and Practice for supporting this screening.
All the President’s Men will be screened at IU Cinema on October 13 followed by a Q&A with Washington journalist, editor, and author Martin Schram.
Gerry Lanosga, PhD, is an associate professor in the Media School at Indiana University, where he teaches and researches in the areas of journalism practice, media law and journalism history. His work has been published in journals including American Journalism, Journalism, Journalism Practice, Journalism Studies, and Digital Journalism. Previously, he had a 20-year career as a print and broadcast journalist in Indiana, covering government, writing a weekly column, and producing investigative projects that won national recognitions including the George Foster Peabody award, Sigma Delta Chi’s national public service award, and the Freedom of Information Medal from Investigative Reporters and Editors.