I believe there’s too little patience and context to many of the investigations I read or see on television.
BOB WOODWARDThey need to review this secret world. We have an incredibly powerful government that gets on automatic pilot.
More Bob Woodward Quotes
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…Obama said, ‘I welcome debate among my team, but I won’t tolerate division’.
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When you hear in the tape recordings Nixon’s own voice saying, We have to stonewall, We have to lie to the Grand Jury, We have to pay burglars a million dollars, it’s all too clear the horror of what went on.
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I deal with first-hand sources. And give the people, even John Sununu, the opportunity to respond to what I’ve been told by first-hand sources.
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Some newspapers have a hands-off policy on favored politicians. But it’s generally very small newspapers or local TV stations.
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They need to review this secret world. We have an incredibly powerful government that gets on automatic pilot.
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Nixon’s grand mistake was his failure to understand that Americans are forgiving, and if he had admitted error early and apologized to the country, he would have escaped.
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I recently did the David Letterman Show about my book. He was very serious and made no jokes and it caught me off guard a little bit. He was much more serious than some of the joke shows that journalists get on.
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The biggest rap on me is that I don’t find a Watergate every couple of years. Well, Watergate was unique. It’s not something Carl Bernstein, I, or the Washington Post caused.
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I believe Watergate shows that the system did work. Particularly the Judiciary and the Congress, and ultimately an independent prosecutor working in the Executive Branch.
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Finally, the president added, ‘The American people are idealists, but they also want their leaders to be realistic…’
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I gave my word that this source would not be identified unless he changed his mind. He has not…
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Good work is always done in defiance of management.
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We need to police ourselves in the media.
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If information is true, if it can be verified, and if it’s really important, the newspaper needs to be willing to take the risk associated with using unidentified sources.
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After Nixon resigned in 1974, he engaged in a very aggressive war with history, attempting to wipe out the Watergate stain and memory. Happily, history won, largely because of Nixon’s tapes.
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When you practice reporting for as long as I have, you keep yourself at a distance from True Believers. Either conservatives or liberals or Democrats or Republicans.
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I have written things that Republicans and Democrats and all kinds of figures have either hated or felt very uncomfortable about. Because in doing these long projects and books, you get close to the bone. And they’re not calling me up and asking me for dinner.
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The Washington Times wrote a story questioning the authenticity of some of the suggestions made about me in Silent Coup. But as a believer in the First Amendment, I believe they have more than a right to air their views.
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I’m not going to name some of my colleagues who are very well-known for their television presentation, but they wouldn’t know new information or how to report a story if it came up and bit them.
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I think that everyone is kind of confused about the information they get from the media and rightly so. I’m confused about the information I get from the media.
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Nixon had some large achievements in foreign affairs. They will be remembered. But a president probably gets remembered for one thing, and Watergate will head the Nixon list, I suspect.
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Watergate provides a model case study of the interaction and powers of each of the branches of government. It also is a morality play with a sad and dramatic ending.
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It would be absurd for me or any other editor to review the authenticity or accuracy of stories that are nominated for prizes.
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Reporters may believe they control the story, but the story always controls the reporters.
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Newspapers that are truly independent, like The Washington Post, can still aggressively investigate anyone or anything with no holds barred.
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There is a garbage culture out there, where we pour garbage on people. Then the pollsters run around and take a poll and say, do you smell anything?
BOB WOODWARD