Watergate and American Journalism

1
Watergate and American Journalism

• By Kelli Daffron

2
Product

• This student worked with a committee after school
  to do a school newspaper for her product. Her
  mentor was a journalist.

3
Watergate Overview

• GOP burglars caught in Watergate Hotel DNC
  headquarters in June of 1972
• Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
  investigated for the Washington Post
• Woodstein traced case up into the White House
  to Nixon himself

4
Woodsteins Sources

• Director of White House communications and former
  Post reporter, Ken Clawson
• White House sources
• Committee to Reelect the President (CRP) members
  and officials
• Deep Throat (former FBI Associate Director, W.
  Mark Felt)

5
Government Cover-ups

• CRP members put under close watch to prevent
  leaks
• Documents shredded and burned
• Key testifiers beat up before testimony
• Witnesses not called
• 18½ minute gap on one of Nixons subpoenaed taped
  conversations

6
Motivation behind Watergate

• Tap the Office of Governors outside phone line
• Secretary Ida Wells believed to be involved in
  call-girl ring
• Dig up dirt!

7
Americas Journalistic History

• Founding- government run newspapers
• Late 1800s to early 1900s- sensationalism
• Late 1970s to present- rise of the Patriotic
  Journalist

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The Government on the Government

• Jay, Madison, and Hamilton composed the
  Federalist Papersgovernment propaganda to help
  ratify the Constitution
• Madison is considered the father of the
  Constitution

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Sensationalism

• Late 1800s and early 1900s, Joseph Pulitzer and
  William Hearst invent sensationalism
• Hearst twisted sources to evoke support for the
  Spanish-American Wara.k.a. Mr. Hearsts War
• Yellow Journalism

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The Patriotic Journalist

• Daniel Schorr leaks Pike Report to Village
  VoiceCBS fired him
• Raymond Bonner reported on death squads in El
  Salvadorthe New York Times fired him
• Delayed US discovery of the Iran-Contra affair

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Shocking Journalism

• The New York Times Seymour Hersh was nearly
  fired for reporting on CIA plots to kill foreign
  leaders and FBI harassment of civil rights
  leaders in the 1970s

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The Iran-Contra Affair

• 1981Reagan administration began covertly funding
  Nicaraguan rebels
• Funds raised by selling arms to Iran
• Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa is the first to
  report on the affair

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Who is to Blame?

• Government has little control over the press
• The Supreme Court has supported the press
• People depend upon the media to uncover illegal
  operations
• Controversy sells. . . Right?

14
An Ironic Twist

• Owners, editors, and publishers restrict material
  for fear of the publics backlash