A Detailed Account on the Watergate Scandal as Reported by Woodstein

1972 the United States was in a social turmoil. Vietnam was at its height and three of the biggest rock-and-roll artists of all time had just died, Riots were all the rage; hippies and radicals were everywhere, The country was inupraisinge.

And thanks to two reporters on the Washington Post, the infamous Watergate scandal was revealed; just a little more fuel for othe free of the the late 60s and early 70s. For the second time in our history, impeachment was brought upon a president.

For the first and only time in our history, the President resigned.

On June 17, 1972, Bob Woodward, a reporter for the Washington Post, got a call to follow a case involving the Watergate offices. Five men had been arrested in the Democratic headquarters. carrying no less than two thousand dollars in cash and a few thousand dollars in highly technical equipment for listening to othepeople’ses conversations, He was assigned to the story with a fellow reporter, Carl Bernstein.

It looked, on the surface, to be a very basic story. However, more and more questions kept coming up. These were questions about who people were and why they were in the five arrested men address books. There were two pieces of legal paper addressed to Mr. Howard Hunt, so Woodstein (the culmination of Woodward and Bernstein’s names used to describe the duo) called the White House to ask him why the five men would have letters for him. That is where the story begins. Mr. Hunt never denied having been involved, instead, ad he said, In view that the matter is under adjudication, | have no comment.

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Woodstein worked day and night getting ists of people’s names of people who worked for the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP; better known as CREEP) and going to their houses. The two reporters imposed on people’s personal lives and made many political people very angry. Yet their major problem was that everyone would tell them something, yet no one would go on the record and tell them something that they could quote. Woodstein started using anonymous sources, but because those tend to be unreliable, their editor, Ben Bradlee, told them to slop.

Woodward then came across what could be the best-kept secret in journalism, Deep Throat, Deep Throat was an inside source who would talk only with Woodward and only very late at night in very private places. Even then, he would give no solid information, only cryptic clues and only Off the record. Woodward then had to go find sources to give him the information. And after allof thatt, Woodstein had to find sources to confirm the information and go on the record to be quoted.

Woodstein got a list of Grand Jurors determining the indictmentofthee the five men arrested and approached many of their homes, knowing this was obstruction of justice. As a result of this, Woodstein was asked to report to a hearing over the Presidents tapes by Judge Sinica. He reprimanded the entire courtroom for approaching Grand Jurors, but never actually accused Woodstein,  Someone who knew what was going on and wanted it revealed was indirectly giving them a warning. But they had to be more careful.

Woodstein were writing stories daily to be published for the Washington Post, but the White House was denying all of the accusations they could. The White House was denying all the ite facts, throwing out minor details that could be inaccurate, However, then Woodstein called Hugh Sloans attorney and asked if they had the basic story right, the maintained a No Comment status; in essence confirming everything CREEP was being accused.

Afterall ofthe hard work Woodstein had put in, on March 1, 1974 the Washington Grand Jury Indicted seven former White House and campaign aids with conspiracy to obstruct justice, Those indicted were: H. Robert Haldeman, John Erichman, Charles Colson, John Mitchell, Gordon Strachan, Robery Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson.

To those who will decide i he should be tried for high crimes and misdemeanorsthe House of Representatives And to those who would sit in judgment at such a trial i the White House impeachesthe Senate And to the man who would preside at such an impeachment trialthe Chief Justice of the Untied States, Warren Burger And to the nation.

The President said, | want you to know that | have no intention whatever of ever walking away from the job that the American people elected me to do forthe people of the United States. Cari Bernstein and Bob Woodward changed the world of journalism for a while, if not forever. However, they cid itin such a way that, though while t was considered creative reporting at the time, is considered now to be extremely unethical.

During this whole thing, one doesnt realize how many laws Woodstein proceeded to break. They approached Grand Jury witnesses. (Woodward, Bernstein 201) That is highly illegal and according to Socrates, i one lives in a country wilingly then surely one must agree with the laws. Plato and to knowingly disobey the law is wrong. However, neither Woodward nor Bernstein has been teprimanded for breaking any laws.

Nonetheless, because the Republican Party was breaking laws that obstructed justice, and tampered with ballots, were Woodward and Bernstein really in the ight for exposing the Republican Party? According to Aristotle to be good is to find a median between two extremes. Not only does one have find the median, one has to have good intentions and a good way of getting to the median, Woodstein didnt find a median, but was there really a median to be found in this incident? To be a 900d reporter one must find all the facts, and then present them to the general public.

To get the facts, Woodward and Bernstein not only approached Grand Jurors, but Bernstein produced a fake FB. identification card to get people to talk to him. Woodward climbed a balcony to get pictures of Donald Segrett, an attorney involved in the Watergate incident. Bemstein iteally Pushed his way into the Nixons book keepers house and got her taking (ofthe record, of course) and then wrote down all that he remembered.

Those types of things are invasive of peoples privacy, and they are illegal. However, because Woodstein was working forthe greater good, does that make it okay? No, according tothe philosophies of both Socrates and Aristotle Woodstein went too far and therefore are not good people. However i they hadnt investigated the arrests of those five men s0 deeply, the American pubiic might have re-elected former Present Noxon, who was breaking the law.

Woodward and Bernstein were both unethical and creative in their reporting and coverage of the Watergate Incident. Some ofthe things they did were ilegal, but most were just creative. However according to both Aristotle and Socrates Woodward and Bernstein both went too far and broke the Jaw, s0 they were not truly good in their actions during the coverage of the Watergate incient.

But regardless of how A¥istotle and Socrates woul view this, Woodstein changed the ways of reporting forever. Reporters today are more pushy, they are more forthright and they are less ikely to sugarcoat something the government is doing wrong. Reporters now look to uncover the real story, and not take things so much at face value. Good, bad or indifferent, Woodstein changed the way things work in the news business.