Woodward and Bernstein: Life In The Shadow of Watergate, by Alicia C. Shepard, looks beyond what one might expect. It is about one of the most infamous times in political history, but it also deftly tells the tale of two reporters who made the working man's odd couple.
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein may have been reporters, but the similarity ends there. They are as different as night and day, but they needed each other to break a scandal which kick-started them into journalistic fame. As a journalist herself, Shepard takes a detailed look at their unpredictable rise.
Bob Woodward was a Yale graduate and a Naval Officer before joining the Washington Post as a staff member. Work-wise, he had much to admire. Long hours ensured his accuracy and sources quoted correctly. However, there was one area where he failed miserably. He had no concept of writing as a journalist. Take 'lead' for example, referring to the opening paragraph of a story. It draws readers in to the end. Woodward, at the start of his career, didn't know what it meant. Management told Woodward he needed to get his feet wet with a smaller paper before being hired by the Post .
Carl Bernstein, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. Far from fitting the straight-laced, three-piece-suited corporate image, anti-establishment does not describe him accurately enough. Bernstein was notorious for missing deadlines. What he did have was a working knowledge of the nation's capital, having been born and raised there.
These two men probably would not have decided to team up if the choice were theirs alone. Watergate intervened. From the beginning, it seemed to be a blip on the radar not worth mentioning. The headquarters of the Democratic National Committee was housed at the Watergate hotel. When five men in business suits robbed it, they were quickly arrested.
When the identity of one robber was discovered to have a connection to President Nixon, this should have catapulted every newspaper into covering this potential bombshell. It did, but only after Woodward and Bernstein broke the story. In their own way, they worked well together.
Woodward was the detail person, and Bernstein figured out which aspects of the story should be followed up. Should ten people talk to them, he knew which three deserved to be the focus of an article the next day.
Were Woodward and Bernstein responsible for Nixon's resignation and national attention to a political mess, or did the FBI investigation bring Nixon down? Shepard clarifies the public controversy about this issue.
Off the journalism beat, the personal lives of these men was a rocky road. Despite both leaping to celebrity, a romantic relationship derailed more than once. Shepard suggests Woodward's sole focus on work was the biggest factor for him. For Bernstein, it seemed to be the tendency to party hard. The movie Heartburn was loosely based on his marriage to a well-known female director.
Woodward and Bernstein is a fascinating book. For someone like me, not yet in grade school when Nixon resigned, it offers a glimpse into why journalism is so critical in the world today. Woodward is well-known for his numerous books, but Bernstein's later work should not be discounted, either. Shepard has done a good job in relating a different side of this huge event in the political history of our country.
Article comments
1 - LB
I enjoy your CSI: New York reviews and thought I would check out this book review. I am very interested in Watergate and the Woodward-Bernstein team. Your review makes me more curious about this book and its contents. Nice review.