In a movie called "All the President's Men," two journalists from Washington Post, Bob and Carl, put investigation into their own hands to expose the crimes involving the Watergate Scandal - Nixon's abuse of power for re-election.
What first provoked investigation was the burglary of the Watergate building in the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Security men on the Watergate building in headquarters caught the burglars with phone-bugging systems and were arrested. After Bob and Carl made a couple of phone calls, they realized that one of the burglars was paid 25K by Nixon's re-election campaign.
This finding sparked a need for further investigation. The primary investigation method in this movie is interviews. These interviews were vital to their discovery of many elements of the crimes.
Something intriguing about investigative journalism in this movie is that the journalists shared their findings on Washington Post as they found them. They did not wait until they solved the whole case. They were also often pressured by a time limit to do so.
Finally, I learned that journalists from Washington Post needed the approval of their superiors to post their stories. When Bob and Carl first found out about money being laundered through Mexico and presented it to their superior, he said, "It's a dangerous story for this paper," as he weighed whether or not to allow Bob and Carl to publish their findings.
Works Cited:
“All the President's Men (Film).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Feb. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_President%27s_Men_(film).
History Staff. “The Watergate Scandal: A Timeline.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Oct. 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/watergate-scandal-timeline-nixon.
kelasont. “The Watergate Scandal.” YouTube, YouTube, 13 June 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZUQ6hKmwkI&ab_channel=KellyE.
Shmoop Editorial Team. “All the President's Men Politics.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/movie/all-the-presidents-men/quotes/politics.
TEDEducation. “History vs. Richard Nixon - Alex Gendler.” YouTube, YouTube, 12 Feb. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX_HYL6-0Co&ab_channel=TED-Ed.
“Watergate Affair: About.” LibGuides, https://westportlibrary.libguides.com/watergate.
“Watergate Scandal.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Mar. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal.
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