All The President's Men

All The President’s Men is a snapshot of easily the most famous and exalted example of good journalism in American history. What more could you ask for? Two ragtag journalist following the story, painstakingly checking their facts, and checking them again. They withstood a barrage of smear tactics, death threats, and white house misinformation in order to discover the truth and ultimately take down the most powerful man in America. The movie itself was very good, although I wish they had followed more of the story. They covered the beginning with great detail, but once it began to get to the point where the story really blows up and begins to threaten Nixon’s power, they simply have a few shots of newspaper headlines being written about what ends up happening to Nixon. It showed that if you are willing to stick to the facts and stand up against the powers that be, you can have just as much power as they do. If this movie weren’t based on things that actually happened I would call it an unabashed journalism apologetic. But, since it did happen it’s more of a tribute to the fine work of Bernstein and Woodard. After all the yellow journalism we’ve seen in this class, I was beginning to believe there was no good journalism left.

Also, a pretty interesting video from 5 minutes before Nixon resigns from office. He seems surprisingly at peace despite what is about to happen. (I'd recommend turning to annotations off on youtube)