If Edward Murrow made me want to be a journalist, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were my inspiration to get into newspapers. The type of investigative journalism that led to Nixon's resignation wasn't made for t.v., wasn't suited for television. The patient cracking of a massive conspiracy that led all the way to the oval office could only have played out in black and white on the page. Woodward and Bernstein weren't great writers, per se, but they were tenacious as hell. They stuck to the story even when there wasn't a story. Their tenacity led to a changed perception of the trade. Ed Murrow was an innovator and a pioneer, but "Woodstein" showed the world that you don't have to be a pioneer to make a difference.
The reporting by the Washington Post on the Watergate scandal also brought to my attention another essential aspect of journalism- the excitement that comes with breaking a story. The pages of Woodward and Berstein's "All the President's Men" almost crackle with the energy of good journalism. It's a type of excitement that I haven't seen anywhere else. Those two men knew that they were doing something important, something dangerous, and something that could change the nation. That enthusiasm carried over into their investigation, fueling them on when reason and sense might have suggested retreat. That's the unique excitement of journalism, a rush you couldn't keep me from if you tried.
1 comment:
That's cool that you've found something that sets you on fire like that. If you don't have it, journalism doesn't really work.
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