The Lasting Importance Of All The President's Men

The 1976 film, All The President’s Men looks at the events of Watergate by focusing on the investigatory work of two Washington Post journalists, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. The work of Woodward and Bernstein changed the course of American politics (and with it the course of American history) while inspiring a generation of investigative journalists. The film version of their story is based on their own book and uses Woodward and Bernstein as the main characters.



All The President’s Men is an important historical record that has easily survived the test of time. In fact, the film is more significant today than at the time in which it was made. In 1976 everyone knew everything there was to know about Watergate (or thought they did). It was the story of the decade and had been shoved down their throats by every media outlet in America for the last four years. Today, most people have forgotten Watergate, were born after it or are indifferent to its lasting significance. What’s more, the accountability of the government has become extremely questionable due in part because the legacy of Watergate has run out. All The President’s Men is a great reminder of this. And there are many frightening similarities between the politics of the Richard Nixon's administration and those of George W. Bush. The most obvious is the partisanship in which the government is currently run (in fact it’s even more partisan now than then) as well as the distrust much of the public feel for its Commander in Chief and his staff.

The difference today, as far as investigative journalism is concerned, is that the press used to be viewed as an important part of the social and political process. It was viewed as the little guy fighting for the rights and freedoms of the people. Now, it is seen as a corporate power, serving its own best interests, first and foremost. There is no regard for the little guy and therefore no respect for the press. Were Watergate to happen today, or a government scandal of equal proportion, I fear that the press would have no positive effect on its uncovering and might even contribute to the cover-up. Modern news and media corporations are concerned with offending as little of their audience as possible while the strength behind Woodward and Bernstein’s work at the Washington Post was that their bosses, editor Ray Bradley in particular, had more faith in them and the importance of their story, than they had fear of the repercussions, from either their readers or the powerful men in which they were trying to take down.

This is why All The President’s Men is such an important historical document. It survives as a reminder of the importance of the first amendment, the power of the press and what the press should be. It also remains an inspirational film for young journalists who want to actively, and at all costs, seek the truth and present that truth unhindered to the American people at whatever cost to government officials and the corporations that control them and the “free press.”