The movie ‘All the President’s Men’ placed Woodward and Bernstein at the decisive center of Watergate’s unraveling. So why not take Woodward at his word? Why has the heroic-journalist interpretation of Watergate persisted through the 50 years since burglars linked to Nixon’s campaign were arrested at the Watergate complex in Washington? Even Woodward has disavowed the heroic-journalist interpretation, once telling an interviewer that “the mythologizing of our role in Watergate has gone to the point of absurdity, where journalists write … that I, single-handedly, brought down Richard Nixon. Nonetheless, the heroic-journalist myth became so entrenched that it could withstand disclaimers by Watergate-era principals at the Post such as Graham. They publicly tied prominent Washington figures, such as Nixon’s former attorney general, John Mitchell, to the scandal.īut they missed decisive elements of Watergate, notably the payment of hush money to the burglars and the existence of Nixon’s White House tapes. Woodward and Bernstein did disclose financial links between Nixon’s reelection campaign and the burglars arrested June 17, 1972, at headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, in what was the signal crime of Watergate.

However popular, the heroic-journalist myth is a vast exaggeration of the effect of their work. David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images Impact exaggerated Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward, left, and Carl Bernstein on March 1, 1974, Washington, D.C.

All the President's Men by Bob Woodward