Quotes by Carl Bernstein

But youre absolutely sure were right? The question carried an intensity absent from the previous conversation. I remember talking with Henry Kissinger, she continued, and he came up and said Whats the matter, dont you think were going to be re-elected? You were wrong on Haldeman. And he seemed upset and said something about it being terribly, terribly unfair.If theres anyone who has not been wronged, Woodward said, it is Bob Haldeman. It was the most definite statement Woodward made during lunch.Oh, really, said Mrs. Graham. Im glad to hear you say that, because I was worried. She paused. Youve reassured me. You really have. She looked at Woodward. Her face said, Do better.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

Woodward said that he had told no one the name of Deep Throat.Mrs. Graham paused. Tell me, she said.Woodward froze. He said he would give her the name if she wanted. He was praying she wouldnt press it. Mrs. Graham laughed, touched his arm and said she was only kidding, she didnt really want to carry that burden around with her. Woodward took a bite of his eggs, which were cold.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

Soon, challenges against the Posts ownership of two television stations in Florida were filed with the Federal Communications Commission. The price of Post stock on the American Exchange dropped by almost 50 percent. Among the challengers - forming the organizations of citizens who proposed to become the new FCC licensees - were several persons long associated with the President.-- Carl Bernsein, Bob Woodward

Deep Throat stamped his foot. A conspiracy like this...a conspiracy investigation...the rope has to tighten slowly around everyones neck. You build convincingly from the outer edges in, you get ten times the evidence you need against the Hunts and the Liddys. They feel hopelessly finished - they may not talk right away, but the grip is on them. Then you move up and do the same thing at the next level. If you shoot too high and miss, the everyone feels more secure. Lawyers work this way. Im sure smart reporters must, too. Youve put the investigation back months. It puts everyone on the defensive - editors, FBI agents, everybody has to go into a crouch after this.Woodward swallowed hard. He deserved the lecture.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

June 17, 1972. Nine oclock Saturday morning. Early for the telephone. Woodward fumbled for the receiver and snapped awake. The city editor of the Washington Post was on the line. Five men had been arrested earlier that morning in a burglary attempt at Democratic headquarters, carrying photographic equipment and electronic gear. Could he come in?

Bernstein looked like one of those counterculture journalists that Woodward despised. Bernstein thought that Woodwards rapid rise at the Post had less to do with his ability than his Establishment credentials.They had never worked on a story together. Woodward was 29, Bernstein 28.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

It was 9:30 P.M., just an hour from deadline for the second edition. Woodward began typing:A $25,000 cashiers check, apparently earmarked for the campaign chest of President Nixon, was deposited in April in the bank account of Bernard L. Barker, one of the five men arrested at the break-in and alleged bugging attempt at Democratic National Committee headquarters here June 17.The last page of copy was passed to Sussman just at the deadline. Sussman set his pen and pipe down on his desk and turned to Woodward. Weve never had a story like this, he said. Just never.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

At heart, Sussman was a theoretician. In another age, he might have been a Talmudic scholar. He had cultivated a Socratic method, zinging question after question at the reporters: Who moved over from Commerce to CRP with Stans? What about Mitchells secretary? Why wont anybody say when Liddy went to the White House or who worked with him there? Mitchell and Stans both ran the budget committee, right? What does that tell you? Then Sussman would puff on his pipe, a satisfied grin on his face.

The August 1 story had carried their joint byline; the day afterward, Woodward asked Sussman if Bernsteins name could appear with his on the follow-up story - though Bernstein was still in Miami and had not worked on it. From the on, any Watergate story would carry both names. Their colleagues melded the two into one and gleefully named their byline Woodstein.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

The invariable question, asked only half-mockingly of reporters by editors at the Post (and then up the hierarchical line of editors) was What have you done for me today? Yesterday was for the history books, not newspapers.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

Woodward, a registered Republican, did not vote. He couldnt decide whether he was more uneasy with the disorganization and naïve idealism of McGoverns campaign or with Richard Nixons conduct. And he believed that not voting enabled him to be more objective in reporting on Watergate - a vier Bernstein regarded as silly. Bernstein voted for McGovern, unenthusiastically and unhesitatingly, then bet in the office pool that Nixon would win with 54 percent.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

Sussman had the ability to seize facts and lock them in his memory, where they remained poised for instants recall. More than any other editor at the Post, or Bernstein and Woodward, Sussman became a walking compendium of Watergate knowledge, a reference source to be summoned when even the library failed. On a deadline, he would pump these facts into a story in a constant infusion, working up a body of significant information to support what otherwise seemed like the weakest of revelations. In Sussmans mind, everything fitted. Watergate was a puzzle and he was a collector of the pieces.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

Bradlee had been recruited with the idea that the New York Times need nod exercise absolute preeminence in American journalism.That vision had suffered a setback in 1971 when the Times published the Pentagon Papers. Though the Post was the second news organization to obtain a copy of the secret study of the Vietnam war, Bradlee noted that there was blood on every word of the Times initial stories. Bradlee could convey his opinions with a single disgusted glance at an indolent reporter or editor.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

During discussions in his office, Bradlee frequently picked up an undersize sponge-rubber basketball from the table and tossed it toward a hoop attached by suction cups to the picture window. The gesture was indicative both of the editors short attention span and of a studied informality. There was an alluring combination of aristocrat and commoner about Bradlee: Boston Brahmin, Harvard, the World War II Navy, press attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, police-beat reporter, news-magazine political reporter and Washington bureau chief of Newsweek.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

Until the August 1 story about the Dahlberg check, the working relationship between Bernstein and Woodward was more competitive than anything else. Each had worried that the other might walk off with the remainder of the story by himself. If one had gone chasing after a lead at night or on a weekend, the other felt compelled to do the same.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

Hardly unaware of his image, Bradlee even cultivated it. He delighted in displaying his street savvy, telling a reporter to get his ass moving and talk to some real cops, not lieutenants and captains behind a desk; then rising to greet some visiting dignitary from Le Monde or LExpress in formal, flawless French, complete with a peck on each cheek.-- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

To those who will decide if he should be tried for high crimes and misdemeanors -the House of Representatives-And to those who would sit in judgment at such a trial if the House impeaches -the Senate-And to the man who would preside at such an impeachment trial -the Chief Justice of the United States, Warren Burger-And to the nation...The President said, I want you to know that I have no intention whatever of ever walking away from the job that the American people elected me to do for the people of the United States.- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

The American Revolution and Declaration of Independence, it has often been argued, were fueled by the most radical of all American political ideas.

I think all good reporting is the same thing - the best attainable version of the truth.

The lowest form of popular culture - lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most peoples lives - has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.