The Watergate Scandal could perhaps be described as the biggest scandal to have involved an existing government in the U.S. It was on June 17th in the year 1972, that a few burglars broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The headquarters were located at the Watergate Office Complex in the state of Washington D.C thus explaining the reason why the scandal was referred to as the Watergate Scandal. After the break in into the Watergate Office Complex, a lot of attention and publicity was directed towards the president and the current political administration that ruled America during at that time. As a result of careful investigative journalism, what could have been dismissed as a normal burglary, came to be understood as some sought of conspiracy. The aftermath of massive media attention and public uproar that resulted from the Watergate Scandal was the resignation of Richard Nixon who was the president at that time as well as the imprisonment of a total of 43 individuals, most of whom had been members of Nixon’s top level political administration.
On June 18th, the day after the break in into the DNC headquarters, Bob Woodward, an investigative investigator of the Washington Post newspaper, was assigned the duty to investigate and report on the break in into the Watergate Office Complex that had taken place during the previous night. At first, Bob thought that the break in could have been explained as a normal burglary case. However, during the course of his investigations, Bob discovered that some of the burglars, who had been caught breaking into the DNC office headquarters, were associated with the team that successfully campaigned for Nixon’s re-election. To add to this, it also emerged that the some significant amount of cash transfers had been made by some influential members of Nixon’s team of political administrators to the bank accounts of some of the burglars. It was as a result of these two factors that Bob got the feeling that there was more about the break into the DNC headquarters than met the eye.
During their investigation, both Woodward and Bernstein had a documentation state of mind. There are several examples that could support the above notion. For example, after an investigation was carried out to determine the background of the burglars who had been arrested from the break in, it was discovered that one of the burglars had been a former security aide of the Republican Party. The discovery of this fact led both Woodward and Bernstein to suspect that it was probable that could have been a connection between the burglary and some or all the members of the American government that existed at that time. Another factor that contributed both Woodward and Bernstein to conduct their investigation with a documentation state of mind was the fact that a connection was made between some significant amount of cash that had been deposited into one of the burglars bank accounts and one of the bank accounts that had been used to fund Nixon’s re-election campaign. The discovery of this relationship increased the suspicion of both Woodward and Bernstein concerning the likelihood that the government could have been behind the break in at the DNC headquarters.
Both Woodward and Bernstein used an outside-in approach to investigate the Watergate scandal. This can be explained by the fact that they both started with an analysis of the secondary sources of information when conducting the investigation on the break in into the DNC offices. As stated above, the secondary sources of information that led both Woodward and Bernstein to believe that there must have been a relationship between the burglary and influential members of the government was the discovery that one of the burglars was a former security aide of the campaign team that contributed to Nixon’s re-election. The establishment of the relationship between deposits of cash from the government to the bank accounts of some of the burglars was another source of secondary information used by both Woodward and Bernstein. It is important to note that the two relationships between the burglars and American government had been established by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
Evidence of the fact that both Woodward and Bernstein used an outside-in approach to uncover the involvement and subsequent attempts to cover up the break in into the DNC headquarters is portrayed by how both reporters used one of the senior most officials of the FBI to obtain information about the burglary. Both Woodward and Bernstein managed to co-ordinate secret meetings with a person nick named ‘deep throat’, who at the time of the investigation, was the associate director of the FBI. The two reporters managed to use deep throat to uncover the government’s involvement in the scandal without the government discovering how they obtained the intricate details of how it was involved in the scandal.
Woodward and Bernstein did not conduct their investigation on the break in into the DNC headquarters using a stipulated timeline. Instead, they relied upon the insider information they obtained from Deep Throat who was their informant. Deep Throat provided information to both Woodward and Bernstein concerning the control measures the government was making to mitigate the negative effects the Watergate Scandal had on its image, as soon as he had new information. Woodward and Bernstein used the information they obtained from Deep Throat to portray the undoubted involvement of the government in the break in into the DNC headquarters.
The investigation conducted by both Woodward and Bernstein cannot be described as a research per se. Instead, the investigation mainly relied on information obtained from anonymous sources. Both Woodward and Bernstein used the information they obtained to answer the 5W+H checklist. From there investigation, both Woodward and Bernstein, were able to answer all the 5W questions. For example, it was as a result of the investigation conducted by both reporters that the question who was involved in the planning of the raid was answered. The investigation conducted by both Woodward and Bernstein also brought to light when and why the break in into the DNC headquarters was conducted. The public was also informed of how the burglars managed to break into the DNC headquarters and how they were caught and arrested as they were conducting their illegal activities. All the information gathered by both Woodward and Bernstein was either obtained from secondary sources such as reports of the association of the burglars with the re-election team or Deep Throat who was the main primary source of information for the investigation.
Works Cited
Gill, Kathy. What was the Watergate Scandal? n.d. 26 December 2012
Craughwell, Thomas. The Watergate Scandal -Top 10 mistakes made by the U.S government. 21 January 2009. 26 December 2012
Watergate Scandal Timeline. Watergate Scandal Timeline. 19 July 2012. 26 December 2012
