With All the President’s Technology, How would things change?

 

When I was assigned to read “All The President’s Men,” I immediately wanted to turn the lights off, curl up in the corner, try not to cry… and then cry a lot. My first thoughts were that this was some old, “back in my day” story. Well, I wasn’t exactly wrong.

 

I came into the story with my brash, youthful ignorance in full force. After I read through it, I had been taken down quite a few pegs.

 

Every American with any knowledge of our history certainly has at least heard of Watergate. It’s crazy to think that this started pretty simple.

 

There was a break-in. That’s not uncommon. It occurred at the Democratic National Committee. That is. Down the rabbit hole we went. Watergate was just the start. More of these types of “ratfucking” maneuvers were discovered. Eventually, everything led up to the man in charge, President Richard Nixon.

 

Let me preface my arguments by saying that Woodward and Bernstein worked extremely hard on this story. The thought of not having all my notes stored in one place instead of spread out everywhere makes me cringe. The reporters searching through the library manually to find out information makes me thankful I live in the age of the internet. THEY WROTE ON TYPEWRITERS PEOPLE! Bless their souls, I gained so much respect for every reporter that lived before the internet age.

 

There are few advances that Woodward and Bernstein could have benefited from if this scandal occurred in today’s time.

• The internet. I cannot imagine my life without this wonderful invention. Woodward and Bernstein could have gotten their research done a lot faster with a little bit of Google. Instead of searching through phone books, a simple Google search would yield more information. Government websites would show who is on each committee. This would help Woodward and Bernstein put the puzzle together a little bit quicker.
• Cell Phones. I doubt Instagram would help the reporters much, but cell phones would have helped to contact their sources whenever they wanted to. This could have also helped them in general. Cell phones have really made life easier. Combine today’s smartphones with the internet and the reporters having databases with them every step of the way.

 

While these would be great advantages, it’s important to think about the flip side to that coin. While the public has gained more access to this technology, the government has grown to adapt. It’s impossible to think of Woodward and Bernstein going against the government of their time, with today’s technology. Spying is not all about suits and binoculars anymore, it’s guys in glasses watching a computer screen. If Bernstein and Woodward were worried that they were being watched, it would be even worse today. The government does things that we don’t know about. Do you think if the President wanted to make sure this story did not get out, he couldn’t have somebody hacking into Woodward and Bernstein’s computer and wipe the drives?

 

Going farther than that, in the age of the internet, hacking would probably be the way to go as far as espionage is concerned. There’s no paper trail for that. Yes, they’re people much smarter than I am that are able to track it down but it’s not easy.

 

I don’t want to call it luck, because they certainly had to work for it, but the reporters were fortunate they caught all of the breaks needed to get to the bottom of it all. The government covers themselves a lot better today. If you think they were careful then, you should check them now. That slush fund that was used to pay off these people? Yeah, you wouldn’t be able to find that on those government websites.

 

All in all, I think it made the journalists of that time period better. They had to scratch and claw for every lead and every part of the story. It was fascinating reading the tactics they used to get information. You would think that they had psychology degrees the way that worked over other people. Instead of listening to what the sources said, they paid attention to what they did not say. When the government dismissed their reports, they paid attention that the government did not outright deny it. They were clever, cunning and hungry. They had sources, like Deep Throat, that would only confirm or deny if they were on the right track. That meant it was up to them to keep the story rolling.

 

Today’s journalists owe a lot to Woodward and Bernstein. They basically paved the way for our generation. You’ve heard of “The Play” in football and “The Shot” in basketball? Well, this is “The Story” in the journalism world.

 

I’ll leave you, dear reader, with this video with excerpts from the David Frost interview with Richard Nixon.