History of Watergate and Its Lasting Effects on Investigative Journalism

The origins of journalism date far back in history, but a commonly accepted date stems from the creation of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1456. Since then journalism has immensely evolved into the mainstream, splitting into several specific and specialized topics, some of these being narrative, literary, informative and the more recent investigative journalism. The role of an investigative journalist is to research a specific topic of interest and potential speculation in an attempt to uncover corruption or truth. Origins of investigative journalism date back to the early 1900's when Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, an investigative report on the meat-packing industry which popularized the genre. In the years to come, reporters across the country would begin to delve deeper into the affairs of government officials and big-business owners. These "muckrakers," as they would soon be known as, helped uncover and report on scandals such as the Teapot Dome scandal of 1921 which involved bribery and oil reserves. These investigative journalists gave information to the public that it could not possibly be discovered without their intervention. Despite the previous advancements made in the field, they all paled in comparison to the Watergate scandal of 1972-1974, an uncovering so monumental to the genre and the American people that it forever changed investigative reporting.

A brief statement from the Toronto Star describes a standard day at the White House: "Today in the U.S capital, congressional committees investigate White House campaign practices. So do packs of hungry reporters... It's the post-Watergate world" (source: Toronto Star). This scene was much different before the Watergate scandal, the result of which created a high-tension, watchful eye from reporters on actions of prominent political figures. The scandal is believed to have started on June 17^th, 1972, when five men broke into the Watergate hotel in downtown Washington D.C. with unknown intentions. Virgilio González, Eugenio Martínez, Bernard Barker, James W. McCord, Jr. and Frank Sturgis were all arrested with charges of burglary and attempted wire-tapping of telephone lines. The hotel at the time was the headquarters for the Democratic National Committee, making them the initial assumed target of the five men. Upon a further investigation of who the men were and what their intentions and motives may have been, police found out that several of the men were former agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), later finding the hotel rooms of the burglars with several thousands of dollars stashed away.

Further investigations compounding with pressure from the media brought the story into the national spotlight. Police and the FBI were able to trace the actions of the five men back to several high-ranking members of the executive branch and even President Richard Nixon himself, who approved of not only the formulation of this "dirty tricks" squad (as it would later be known as) but approved illegal funding for it. The were all directly employed by President Nixon's Committee to Reelect the President (shortened to "CREEP"), with their intentions and actions in the Watergate hotel not fully found out until much after the event, reported on in 1992 by Mike Wallace and CBS News: "What were they looking for? Part of the confusion stems from the little-known fact that there were two break-ins. The first was actually undetected, but when the burglars discovered that one of the wiretaps they had planted wasn't working, they went in a second time to make sure they could listen to the conversation of the Democratic National chairman" (source: CBS News).

Another controversy surfaced with the discovery of secret tapes President Nixon had made while in meetings with other White House staff. When asked to hand the tapes over to proper authorities, he claimed that it would be a threat to national security if anyone else handled them. This prompted the Supreme Court case of United States v. Nixon, when an 8-0 decision ordered Nixon to submit the audio tapes, which he did a few days after. One tape, later known as the "smoking gun" tape, supplied proof that Nixon know about the Watergate break-in and called it a "matter of national security," saying that the FBI should not further investigate it.

Other illegal actions approved by President Nixon were later uncovered, such as the existence of certain committees to spy on the political "enemies" of Nixon (police discovered an "enemy list" Nixon himself made) and a slush fund hidden away to pay for the burglaries. Connections made to these actions resulted in many high-ranking officials of the executive branch being convicted and sentenced time in jail. Many of these officials included Attorney General John N. Mitchell, White House Chief of Staff H.R Haldeman and other assistants to the president. The resignation and dismissal of several officials soon followed, along with Nixon's resignation on August 8^th, 1974. In a controversial move, the next President Gerald Ford offered a pardon for whatever crimes which may or may not have occurred during the Nixon administration, one which resulted in extreme disapproval from the American people.

While police and the FBI did much of the uncovering of details, the Watergate scandal would not have become so aware to the public in such a short time span if it were not for the actions of two reporters from the Washington Post, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. Their influence on Watergate began with a phone call to Bernstein from the Post: "The phone rings, and it's the city editor at the Post saying, 'There's been a burglary at the Democratic headquarters'--could I come in? It's Saturday. I'm not scheduled to work. I like to salute, so I did" (source: CBS News). After reporting on the initial break-in, Bernstein spoke with an anonymous informant who worked in the White House, only known by the name "Deep Throat" (much later revealed in 2005 to be Mark Felt, a former Associate Director for the FBI). Deep Throat spoke of the illegal committees being formed and approved by Nixon, which set Bernstein and the then rookie Woodward to find other, possibly public sources for confirmation. Deep Throat had an exceptionally influential role in the reporting of the Watergate scandal, as the Washington Post later reports: "As the two reporters pursued the story, Woodward relied on Mark Felt, a high ranking official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as a confidential source. With access to FBI reports on the burglary investigation, Felt could confirm or deny what other sources were telling The Post reporters. He also could tell them what leads to pursue" (source: Washington Post). With Deep Throat serving as a sort of "guiding hand," Bernstein and Woodward were able to effectively research and uncover larger aspects of the story.

While searching for that public source, they uncovered and reported on several other stories of potential conspiracy which drew connections from Watergate, such as "GOP Security Aid Among Those Arrested," which explained the role burglar James McCord had in the government, and "Bug Suspect Got Campaign Funds," which detailed an amount of $25,000 being deposited into the bank account of Maurice Stans (the former Secretary of Commerce who served as Nixon's chief fundraiser and was believed to be linked to Watergate), money which was traced back to Nixon's reelection campaign (source: Washington Post). These articles brought attention not only to the reporters who wrote them but also the Washington Post, which at the time was a smaller newspaper (in respect to the New York Times or Time magazine which both kept an eye on the scandal). While the White House attempted to deny the stories published from the Post, calling their reporting biased or misleading, Bernstein and Woodward continued to report on the scandal and wrote several other incriminating articles, namely "FBI Finds Nixon Aides Sabotaged Democrats," which uncovered a "massive campaign of political spying and sabotage on behalf of Nixon's reelection effort" (source: Washington Post), and another story which brought attention to the secret fund John Mitchell created to finance a campaign to gather information on the Democrats.

Throughout the following weeks, Bernstein and Woodward slowly pieced together the actions and intentions of the government officials involved, dedicating much of their time, patience and skill as investigative reporters to the cause. Initially their work was not appreciated or recognized by the public, evident by Nixon's successful reelection in 1972 (noteworthy that it was considered a landslide victory for Nixon). But as the reporters delved deeper, Nixon's role in Watergate became more apparent and the story was brought to a national spotlight. Without the pressure from the media the two reporters helped create, it is questionable whether or not Nixon's actions and the actions of those in his cabinet would have ever been uncovered. It was the first time in history that the media helped uncover a political scandal so influential, with strings being pulled so high that it resulted in the resignation of the president. The journalism community recognized the investigative techniques and skills employed by Bernstein and Woodward, culminating in the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service being awarded to the Washington Post in 1973.

The Watergate scandal had a large impact on the American people once it gained recognition. People lost faith in the actions of the Republican Party, resulting in the Democrats gaining five seats in the Senate and a 49 in the House of Representatives during the following election. It also resulted in several new laws being drafted to prevent further campaign-funded scandals from happening, laws such as the Freedom of Information Act of 1976 which granted exposed of previously disclosed government documents and files.

Aside from the effects it had on the government, the scandal resulted in a much higher demand in investigative journalism from the public. Journalist more than ever were responsible for being a "watch dog" to government actions and acting as a "check and balance" to keep government actions in order. A new wave of journalism started which resulted in a more in-depth look at the lives of people in positions of power, a change which was welcomed by the public as current journalists are able to catch scandals and illegalities which they previously were not ready for. Other political scandals since Watergate have occurred, such as President Bill Clinton's supposed affair with Monica Lewinsky in 1995 which led to his impeachment and acquittal, a scandal which dominated nearly every major media outlet in the 90's. Reporter Kelvin Childs commented on Watergate's lasting effect on journalism: "The sentiment was that... more young people entered the field of journalism; reporters, by and large, are better educated, better trained, and have lives outside the job; newspapers are better written, better packaged and more attractive; the press stopped cozying up to the people and institutions they cover; and the constitutional system, with the help of the press as a watchdog, worked" (source: Editor & Publisher).

The public shift of demanding more attentive journalists has not changed since the time after Watergate. Many modern news stations offer a streaming "ticker" on the bottom of newscast which offers "up-to-the-minute" headlines on stories of varying subject. Several news networks even run 24 hours a day, offering up-to-date information as soon as they receive it. Journalism pre-Watergate certainly was not like this, when the public relied on daily newspapers and radio broadcasts for their information. Journalists in the early 20^th century also did not examine as hard an issue as they do today, due to the "cozying up" mentality which existed between journalists and the subjects being reported on. Today, with the Internet nearly at everyone's fingertips information and current news are just a few seconds away. While the actions of Bernstein and Woodward could not have helped create the medium through which content can be quickly supplied, they certainly helped fuel the constant demand of content.

Watergate developed into an extremely prominent and influential event in American history, despite former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger predicting that it would become a minor footnote and that the American people would remember Nixon as a great president. Watergate revealed to the public that there were government actions going on behind the public eye, actions which deeply affected the general public if they had been surfaced. It served as a turning-point for journalism, and since Watergate journalism has profoundly changed for the better. Journalists all across the country now keep a strict eye on the actions of prominent figures not only in politics but of also industry and entertainment, and because of the work of Bernstein and Woodward the American public will never be kept uninformed again.

Works Cited:

Childs, Kelvin. "Watergate 25 Years Later." Editor & Publisher Magazine (1997): 16. Print.

Harper, Jennifer. "At 25, Watergate's details have gotten hazy; Americans have grown used to scandal." The Washington Times 17 June 1997.

Jackson, David. "Watergate's legacy Twenty-five years ago today, police exposed the plot - and changed politics." The Toronto Star 17 June 1997.

"The Watergate Story." The Washington Post 2009 Web.16 Apr 2009.

Wallace, Mike. "Watergate: The Secret Story." CBS News Transcripts (1992).

"Watergate.info - The Scandal that Destroyed President Richard Nixon." watergate.info. 2008. 16 Apr 2009

Witcher, Russ. After Watergate: Nixon and the Newsweeklies. University Press of America, 2000.

Woodward, Bob, and Carl Bernstein. All the President's Men. 2nd ed. Simon & Schuster, 1994.