Bob Woodward

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Bob Woodward
By Lily Allder
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Biography

• Robert U. Woodward was born on March 26,
  1943 in the town of Geneva,
• Missouri and was raised in Wheaton. He went to
  Wheaton Community High
• School, and later attended Yale University on an
  NROTC scholarship. After he
• received his B.A. in 1965, he spent four years as
  a Naval officer. In 1970, he
• was discharged as a Lieutenant after serving as
  an aide to the Chief of Naval
• Operations, Admiral Thomas H. Moorer.
• He had a two week trial at The Washington Post,
  but fired because he
• lacked experience as a journalist. After a year
  working at the Montgomery
• Sentinel, he reapplied to The Washington Post. He
  was given the job in August
• of 1971.
• Bob Woodward lives in the Georgetown section of
  Washington, and lives
• with his wife, Elsa Walsh, who writes for the New
  Yorker. They have two
• daughters.

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Becoming a Journalist

• "I called my father and said I'm not going to
  law school, but have this job
• at a newspaper he had never heard of. And my
  father said probably the
• severest thing he has ever said to me. He said,
  'You're crazy.' So he didn't
• think it was a good idea.
• Bob Woodward applied to many law schools after
  his time as a Naval
• Officer, but he also applied to the Washington
  Post. After getting turned
• down, he was still interested in becoming a
  journalist. He got a job with the
• Montgomery Sentinel to gain experience and
  knowledge as a reporter. After
• a year training at the newspaper, he left and
  joined The Washington Post in
• August of 1971.

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Highlights of his Career

• Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were assigned to
  investigate the
• burglary of the headquarters of the Democratic
  National Committee in
• Washington D.C. office building called Watergate
  on June 17, 1972. The work
• the two men did became known as the first of many
  political dirty tricks of
• the Nixon reelection committee. They wrote a
  book called All the Presidents
• Men. It became a 1 bestseller and was later
  turned into a movie starring
• Robert Redford as Woodward, and Dustin Hoffman as
  Bernstein. The two
• reporters wrote a second book called The Final
  Days which covered the
• period from November of 1973 until President
  Nixon resigned in August of
• 1974.

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Highlights Cont.

• Woodward has written four detailed accounts of
• George W. Bushs reign in office. The book titles
  are
• Bush at War (2002), Plan of Attack (2004), State
  of
• Denial Bush at War, Part III (2006), and The War
• Within A Secret White House History (2006-2008).
  He
• has interviewed Bush a total of four times for
  more
• than seven hours total.

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Highlights Cont.

• Woodward has twice contributed to collective
  journalistic efforts that
• were awarded The Pulitzer Prize. In 1973, The
  Washington Post won the
• Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Bob Woodward
  was the lead reporter for
• Posts articles on the aftermath of September 11
  attacks that won the
• National Reporting Pulitzer in 2002. In 2003, he
  was awarded the Gerald R.
• Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the
  Presidency in 2003. In 2003, Al
• Hunt of The Wall Street Journal called Woodward
  "the most celebrated
• journalist of our age.

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Known For

• Bob Woodward is mainly
• remembered for his work in investigating the
• Watergate Scandal.

8
Views

• I have written things that Republicans and
  Democrats and all kinds of
• figures have either hated or felt very
  uncomfortable about. Because in doing
• these long projects and books, you get close to
  the bone. And they're not
• calling me up and asking me for dinner.
• I think journalism gets measured by the
  quality of information it
• presents, not the drama or the pyrotechnics
  associated with us.
• The Washington Times wrote a story questioning
  the authenticity of
• some of the suggestions made about me in Silent
  Coup. But as a believer in
• the First Amendment, I believe they have more
  than a right to air their views.

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Views Cont.

• When you practice reporting for as long as I
  have, you keep yourself at a
• distance from True Believers. Either
  conservatives or liberals or Democrats or
• Republicans.
• When you see how the President makes political
  or policy decisions, you
• see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is
  decision-making.
• The legislator learns that when you talk a lot,
  you get in trouble. You have
• to listen a lot to make deals.

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Work

• Doubt, Distrust, Delay
• The Inside Story of How Bush's Team Dealt
• With Its Failing Iraq Strategy
• http//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/arti
  cle/2008/09/06/AR2008090602691.html

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Works Cited

• http//www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/woo1bio-1
• http//www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/bob_wo
  odward.html