All The President's Men is the first film we've seen that actually employs good journalism. The almost superhero journalist duo of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein went to great lengths to uncover one of the greatest presidential scandals in the history of the United States. They did it with determination, skill, and the know-how to uncover the facts they needed. It's good to teach students what they shouldn't do when it comes to journalism, but it is even better to show how they should do it. Watergate can be generally pointed to as the birth of investigative journalism. Something that 60 minutes capitalizes on weekly. How did two men with different personalities and character traits break the biggest story of the decade? All The Preisdent's Men gives the viewer the answer in every scene. The film does a great job of showing the time lapse between the start of the report and the finish. Woodward and Bernstein jump through multiple hoops just to even get approval from their editors. They make more phone calls than I have in my life to the same people over and over again. They get multiple sources to make sure the story is correct and they interview and re-interview witnesses to the crime. In the end the film isn't even about Watergate, it is about impressive journalism by two talented professionals. Every self-respecting journalist aspires to this level of integrity and reporting.
I saw this last night on Jon Stewart. Bill Moyer of PBS discusses good journalism: Part 1, Part 2
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