I believe there's too little patience and context to many of the investigations I read or see on television.
— Bob Woodward
Newspapers that are truly independent, like The Washington Post, can still aggressively investigate anyone or anything with no holds barred.
Suppose Watergate had not been uncovered? I'd still be on the City Desk.
It would seem that the Watergate story from beginning to end could be used as a primer on the American political system.
The failure of the system to deal quickly was attributable to Nixon's lying, stonewalling and refusal to come clean. So it took 26 months for the final truth to be known.
If you interviewed 1,000 politicians and asked about whether the media's too soft or too hard, about 999 would say too hard.
Nixon's attempts to order subversion of various departments was bound to come out in some form.
I suspect there have been a number of conspiracies that never were described or leaked out. But I suspect none of the magnitude and sweep of Watergate.
Watergate provides a model case study of the interaction and powers of each of the branches of government. It also is a morality play with a sad and dramatic ending.
I believe Watergate shows that the system did work. Particularly the Judiciary and the Congress, and ultimately an independent prosecutor working in the Executive Branch.
Some newspapers have a hands-off policy on favored politicians. But it's generally very small newspapers or local TV stations.
The number of illegal activities were so large that one was bound to come out and lead to the uncovering of the others. Nixon was too willing to use the power of government to settle scores and get even with enemies.
The central dilemma in journalism is that you don't know what you don't know.
Nixon's grand mistake was his failure to understand that Americans are forgiving, and if he had admitted error early and apologized to the country, he would have escaped.
Lawyers didn't seriously get involved in the Watergate stories until quite late, when we realized we were on to something.
