Journalism

The question was brought up whether anyone in class had any previous knowledge about the Watergate scandal. I’ve heard about it, in middle school we glided over it in history class, it gets referenced from time to time, but I couldn’t give you an actual summary about it.

I thought I would gain further background knowledge on the subject by watching the film “All the President’s Men” (1976), but, being blunt, I was disappointed. I thought that watching this movie would lead to a better understanding of what actually happened with the Watergate scandal, thus instilling me with an emotional reaction that I could use next time the scandal was referenced or brought up in conversation. In turn, and in playing increasingly close attention to the movie, I learned more about journalism than I did about the actual scandal.

To ease into what I learned, take for instance the immediacy that the reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward took in writing notes as soon as a conversation with someone ended. In fact, and if they could, they did their best to pull out notebooks during a conversation. While it’s not unexpected, I do recall reading a passage in our text “Telling True Stories” which hinted at being careful as to when you pull the notebook out and how you want to make the person you are interviewing think that it is not even there. As a side note of my journalism geekyness, I mimicked the reporter’s immediacy to writing the story after getting their notes, in writing this paper.

On a similar note (pun intended), there were a few interesting tactics which I noticed that Bernstein and Woodward used to acquire information. After all, there is no note taking if there is no information to write down. The first technique was quite obviously; get the person to like you. In one scene Bernstein had complimented and connected with a girl who in turn gave him some leads to follow. A second strategy was patience. During one phone conversation Woodward simply remained silent while the person on the other end would continuously add on to her story after a few moments of hearing no response from Woodward. She had felt obligated to continue talking. The last tactic I noticed was the infamous guilt trip. In a couple of scenes you found Woodward saying something similar to “we don’t want you to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable.” As a result, the person does what she was asked.

While on the subject of communication, there was a scene in which Woodward was speaking to someone who only knew Spanish. I feel there is an even greater need to know multiple languages in journalism. While there are plenty more translators, it’s a common understanding that people are more friendly and open to you when you attempt to speak to them in their language, when they feel that you are part of their culture and not an outsider.

Something that I feel that the majority of people underestimate about those in journalism is the level of critical thinking, philosophy, and reason in communication that the vocation requires. Woodward and Bernstein took an entirely different execution of good cop, bad cop in their interrogations. They had played off of each other to get the information they required to get answers or confirmations. As you likely noticed, there is an incredible amount of guess-work in reporting, but guesswork is perfectly fine when you can get confirmations. In order to get those confirmations, what do you have to do? Yes, you have to be persistent, but you must have an in-depth knowledge of how a person’s brain works.

All in all, the movie “All the President’s Men” clearly had the intention to divulge the lifestyle of a Journalist at the time, much more than communicating information of the Watergate scandal. The movie felt nothing like a documentary. To top this response off, here are a couple of my favorite lines.

“If you got’m by their balls, their hearts and minds will follow.”

“How do you keep going with something you don’t believe in?

You just have to start over again.”