{"id":33948,"date":"2011-04-29T08:03:22","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T12:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=33948"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:38:29","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:38:29","slug":"bob-woodward-discusses-watergate-and-wikileaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/04\/bob-woodward-discusses-watergate-and-wikileaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Woodward Discusses Watergate and WikiLeaks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>2011<\/a>
Journalist and author Bob Woodward presents the 2011 Day Pitney Visiting Scholar Lecture at the Law School. Photo by Spencer A. Sloan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post<\/em> journalist and author Bob Woodward spoke at UConn Law School on April 26, sharing stories about his more than four decades as a reporter and writer.<\/p>\n

Woodward was the law school\u2019s 2011 Day Pitney Visiting Scholar; his visit was sponsored by the school, the Connecticut Law Review, and the Day Pitney Foundation.<\/p>\n

Colorful characters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Woodward first gained notoriety along with Carl Bernstein as the Post<\/em> reporters who exposed and diligently reported what became known as the Watergate scandal, which eventually brought down President Richard Nixon.<\/p>\n

During his talk, Woodward recalled a phone conversation he had with the colorful Martha Mitchell, who in 1974 was the wife of former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell, who had resigned from the Nixon administration in the midst of the scandal.<\/p>\n

The Mitchells were living in New York City at the time and Mrs. Mitchell, known for her outrageous behavior and press interviews, called Woodward at the Post<\/em> one day and declared of her husband: \u201cWell, the bastard finally left,\u201d remembered Woodward to laughter.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Mitchell then invited him and Bernstein to New York to go through the former Attorney General\u2019s papers, which he had left in his home office.<\/p>\n

Woodward, speaking to a crowd of about 200 \u2013 many of whom were law faculty and students \u2013 asked the audience: \u201cSo what do you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCall your lawyer,\u201d shouted one audience member, which, Woodward noted, he immediately did. With the green light from his attorney, Woodward and Bernstein did indeed fly to New York to collect Mr. Mitchell\u2019s papers, finding Mrs. Mitchell at the door holding a double martini at midday.<\/p>\n

\"<p>2011<\/a>
Bob Woodward signs copies of his recent book, Obama's Wars. Photo by Spencer A.Sloan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Woodward recalled that there was more than one fascinating story contained in the papers, including a letter from a pharmaceutical company promising a $100,000 donation to Nixon\u2019s 1972 reelection campaign \u2013 which Mitchell headed \u2013 in exchange for help with a problem they were having with a federal agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t write things like that down anymore,\u201d he commented wryly.<\/p>\n

Mitchell\u2019s lawyer called later that day and said if the documents weren\u2019t in his office by 3 p.m., he would file a motion to find Woodward and Bernstein in contempt of court. The documents were returned, but not before the reporters made photocopies \u2013 a solution they decided would make both parties happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a reasonable, fair-minded resolution,\u201d said Woodward, noting that the lawyer did not say they couldn\u2019t be Xeroxed before being returned.<\/p>\n

The hour-long talk touched on many of Woodward\u2019s books, including his most recent, Obama\u2019s Wars<\/em>, about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a series of books he wrote about the Bush administration and the war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

The case of Bradley Manning<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the question-and-answer period, an audience member asked Woodward what he thought of the case of Bradley Manning, a U.S. soldier who is currently imprisoned for allegedly collecting sensitive and secret government information and sharing it with the Wikileaks organization.<\/p>\n

Woodward said he thought that the information released through Wikileaks was interesting, but not necessarily earth-shattering.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important, but it\u2019s not going to go down in the history books,\u201d said Woodward, calling it \u201cbackground music\u201d while critical decisions are made at the White House.<\/p>\n

To him, what was incredible was that such a low-ranking officer would have access to volumes of sensitive information. He described that as \u201cmadness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat, in a sense, is the story \u2013 the madness,\u201d said Woodward, adding that although he can understand why the government would want to prosecute Manning, he objected to his treatment as a prisoner, which, reportedly, includes being confined in a cell without clothes.<\/p>\n

While Woodward praised the media as being essential to ensuring honest and open government, he was also critical at times. He noted that today\u2019s press is \u201cdriven by impatience and speed,\u201d when what is required is reporters who are \u201cpatient and slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to peel the onion to get at what happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He was critical of those reporters who give a platform to public personalities like Donald Trump, who is flirting with a presidential bid while falsely claiming that President Obama is not a U.S. citizen \u2013 a suggestion that has no basis in fact: the president was born in Hawaii in 1961.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump is the new Joe McCarthy,\u201d said Woodard, adding that Trump, like the late discredited Senator from Wisconsin, spreads misinformation \u201cthrough innuendo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodward complained that reporters cover Trump\u2019s accusations without asking for evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to insist that assertions be evidence-based,\u201d he said. \u201c[Trump] should not be in the news on this issue. It\u2019s what Carl Bernstein calls a manufactured controversy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The passage of time<\/strong><\/p>\n

Woodward, who is now 68, ended with a story on the passage of time and how it can reshape thinking.<\/p>\n

After President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon in 1974, Woodward recalled being awakened by a phone call from Bernstein and having to decipher the other reporter\u2019s almost coded message as he delivered the news: \u201cHe said, \u2018the son of a bitch pardoned the son of a bitch\u2019,\u201d recalled Woodward, adding that he instantly knew what had happened.<\/p>\n

At the time, he said, he suspected that an unseemly deal had been made between Nixon and Ford. But years later, when Woodward was writing a book on the legacy of Watergate (Shadow, <\/em>Simon & Schuster 1999), he spent hours interviewing Ford, who told him that he didn\u2019t pardon Nixon for Nixon or for himself, but for the good of the country. Ford said he wanted to finally put Watergate to rest and spare the nation years of additional trauma if Nixon was put on trial and even perhaps sentenced to prison.<\/p>\n

Ford was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for doing what he felt was right, even though it would prove deeply unpopular.<\/p>\n

Woodward said he now agrees with Ford\u2019s action. After the decision has been subject to the rigors of history, he said, \u201cit turns out to be the exact opposite\u201d of what he originally thought.<\/p>\n

Woodward said that while listening to the hundreds of hours of the Nixon tapes, in which the president and his staff find ways to attack their enemies or protect the president, he observed that they were most remarkable for what cannot be heard on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the dog that never barks,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat was good for the country?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Bob Woodward spoke about politics and the media at the Law School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[39],"class_list":["post-33948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 03:00:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33948"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36716,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33948\/revisions\/36716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33948"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=33948"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=33948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}