Watergate reporter speaks at University’s first Distinguished Lecture Series

By Joshua Rosario | Published by March 16, 2018

“It was so fast when Carl Bernstein and I worked on Watergate stories, sometimes we would work for two to three weeks on one story,” said Bob Woodward, one of the journalists famous for covering President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.

Woodward, a two-time Pulitzer prize winning journalist and author, spoke at the first of Kean University’s Distinguished Lecture Series in the STEM building auditorium on Feb. 22.

Woodward is most known for his investigative reporting that led to a best-selling nonfiction book and movie called, “All The President’s Men.” The book details Woodward’s 1972 investigation of the Watergate hotel break-in alongside co-author and journalist, Carl Bernstein. Their continuous investigation unveiled scandal for then President Richard Nixon, who would resign because of it before the end of his second term.

“The editors would have questions, ‘Get more sources? What about this? This is not clear.’ …when the questions were answered … run the story,” Woodward said. “ Now, reporters literally have to find the six versions of the story in 24 hours.”

During his lecture, Woodward reflected on his time covering the scandal with Bernstein, the Trump era and a story about a lunch he had with former Washington Post publisher, Katharine Graham (currently portrayed in the movie ‘The Post” starring Meryl Streep).

“She had a management style I later described as mind on, hands off,” Woodward said.

Woodward told the full crowd that Graham knew what was going on, but never told editors how to edit or journalists how to report. At the time of the Watergate stories, Graham asked him when they will get vindication about their stories, as they seemed to be the only ones to believe them. He told her the truth may never come out.

“Never. Don’t tell me never,” said Woodward quoting Graham. “ I left the lunch a highly motivated employee.”

Before the event, Woodward met with several journalism, history and political science students. He started off by asking the students where they get information from? Students answers ranged from scholarly articles to everywhere.

“Human sources. If you want to find out something that’s going on you go to a human being who is a witness, who has information, who has opinions,” said Woodward answering his own question. “ Number one avenue for finding out what is going on. What is avenue number two?”

He said this avenue is books, the internet; some type of documenting trail. Woodward continued to give his how-to of finding information. When it came to avenue three, Woodward told a story from when he had first started about a source he had in the health department who gave him sanitation reviews of restaurants in Washington D.C.. The more expensive food places tended to be at the top of the list because the quality of the food and the reputation was most important.

“Ben Bradlee, the editor at the Washington Post, had a favorite restaurant,” said Woodward unveiling Bradlee’s favorite restaurant was on the list as the room filled with laughter. “How do you approach it? I walked in his office and said I have good news and bad news. The good news is we have a great story. The bad news is you’re going to hate it.”

Woodward soon after said the same source in the health dept. reached out to him about the lowest score they ever gave to a restaurant called The Mayflower coffee shop. He thought the coffee shop was located at a famous historic hotel called The Mayflower hotel. He presented the story to the city editor.

“I wrote up the story ….and he looked at it and he said, ‘Have you been there?’ I said no I haven’t,” said Woodward. “And he said, ‘well it’s two and half blocks away get your [expletive] out of the chair.’ So I went to the Mayflower coffee shop.”

When Woodward got to the hotel, he discovered they didn’t have a coffee shop. The coffee shop he was looking for was located at a different address at a different hotel. The place was closed down for repairs. Then, he spoke to the manager who claimed they were having a bad day. Woodward went back to the city editor.

“Can I have my draft story back? I need to make a few changes,” Woodward said.

Woodward’s lesson in this story is to go to the scene, use personal experience and “look for yourself.” Interacting with scenes and people continued to be a theme in his lecture.

Woodward’s other avenues of getting information were common sense and patience. When asked about gaining access to people and government documents, Woodward, emphasized on being a pest.

“It was [an] amazing experience meeting this amazing journalist,” said Senior Erica Eyssalenne, Political Science major. “I will never regret going to this event.”

Woodward is currently an associate editor at The Washington Post and will be releasing an online series of classes about investigative journalism on masterclass.com.  The event was moderated by Terry Golway, senior editor at POLITICO States and former professor at the University.

“Not only was he insightful but he was very even handed,” Golway said. “I thought he was artful the way he handled some of the questions. When he said we should have been tougher on Trump and we should have been tougher on Hillary that was interesting because of course a lot of Hillary supporters felt they were too hard.”

Woodward received $32,000 to speak at the Distinguished Lecture Series. The Kean University Board of Trustees voted in December to authorize the launch of the Distinguished Lecture Series.

“Funding for the lecture series, which will include high-profile experts in a variety of fields, is primarily expected to come from donations and reception fees with minimal support from the University’s operating budget,” said Kean Director of Media Relations Margaret McCorry. “No taxpayer funds will be used”

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