We need to police ourselves in the media.
BOB WOODWARDFinally, the president added, ‘The American people are idealists, but they also want their leaders to be realistic…’
More Bob Woodward Quotes
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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 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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I gave my word that this source would not be identified unless he changed his mind. He has not…
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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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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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Newspapers that are truly independent, like The Washington Post, can still aggressively investigate anyone or anything with no holds barred.
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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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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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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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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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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?
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I don’t think it’s useful for somebody to argue with reviews.
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Watergate is not the sort of issue that changes the vote. I don’t know anyone who has changed their vote because of it.
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I believe there’s too little patience and context to many of the investigations I read or see on television.
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Lawyers didn’t seriously get involved in the Watergate stories until quite late, when we realized we were on to something.
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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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[Clinton] believes that the Washington press corps is so out of touch that it is absolutely inconceivable that reporters will understand the issues that people are really dealing with in their lives.
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Reporters may believe they control the story, but the story always controls the reporters.
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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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Finally, the president added, ‘The American people are idealists, but they also want their leaders to be realistic…’
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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 failure of the system to deal quickly was attributable to Nixon’s lying, stonewalling and refusal to come clean. So it took 26 months for the final truth to be known.
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…Obama said, ‘I welcome debate among my team, but I won’t tolerate division’.
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Many people have their reputations as reporters and analysts because they are on television, batting around conventional wisdom. A lot of these people have never reported a story.
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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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They need to review this secret world. We have an incredibly powerful government that gets on automatic pilot.
BOB WOODWARD