An Evening At The Press Club

Last night at the National Press Club, a few dozen people gathered to hear a panel discussion titled “What if Watergate Happened Today?”

Panelists included Rhonda Schwartz of ABC News, Michael Isikoff of Newsweek, Margaret Engel of the Museum of News, Jack Nelson of the L.A. Times, and Alicia Shepard, American University professor and author of “Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate”.

The discussion itself didn’t exclusively deal with the prospect of a modern-day Watergate-esque scandal. Jack Nelson did, however, make the point that such a scandal would not last nearly as long as Watergate simply because of the sheer amount of people that would be working on the story and the speed at which information currently travels (with blogs, cable news, etc.)

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Rhonda Schwartz also pointed that Rep. Mark Foley resigned within hours of the breaking of his scandal — a mere fraction of the time between the breaking of the Watergate scandal and Richard Nixon’s resignation.

The discussion focused quite a bit on the effect Watergate had on the journalism industry. Michael Isikoff lamented the fact that so many investigative reporters are currently so caught up in finding actual crimes committed by public officials that they often miss the larger point. Citing the run-up to the Iraq war, he claimed that the outcome might have gone differently had modern-day reporters done the same exceedingly thorough type of reporting that Woodward and Bernstein had done.

Alicia Shepard apparently sought to break the rose-colored glasses often used to view Watergate by reminding everyone that the actual articles written during Watergate were hard to read and hard to follow. She also pointed out that it wasn’t until “All the President’s Men” was released that most people could actually understand the entire story. She went on to say that it was a “myth” that Woodward and Bernstein “brought down a president.” They played a role, she admitted, but “Nixon was a crook and he played the biggest role.” (Wait, but didn’t he say…)

The discussion turned to the perception of journalists and its steady decline in recent years. Jack Nelson suggested that it was due, at least in part, to the increase of reporters on “attack mode.” That is to say, the number of reporters determinedly seeking out the next scandal.

Panelists also discussed the use of anonymous sources, a la Deepthroat. Michael Isikoff suggested they were essential, but Jack Nelson preferred to have sources on the record — saying that they added a level of credibility to the story.

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