Journalist
Profile:
Carl
Bernstein
Date of birth: February 14, 1944
Best known for: discovering the Watergate scandal
and subsequently winning the Pulitzer Prize with his co-reporter,
Bob Woodward
What he's doing now: ABC news correspondent,
magazine freelancer and contributing editor, CNN contributor and book author
Personal
Life
Bernstein attended the University of Maryland. In his younger
years, he attained much public scrutiny for his extramarital affair
with Margaret Jay (the daughter of a British Prime Minister) and
for dating celebrities such as Bianca Jagger, Martha Stewart and
Elizabeth Taylor. He was also arrested for drunk driving.
Bernstein on the left, with Woodward, right.
The Watergate
Scandal
The Watergate Scandal is one of the most famous political
scandals in American history. A break-in at a Watergate office in
Washington, DC, led Washington Post reporters Bernstein
and Woodward to suspect an elaborate plot involving the White
House.
Bernstein played a major role in discovering the Watergate scandal.
He was the first to suspect that President Nixon had played a role
in the scandal and he was the one who found a money cheque which
finally confirmed the link between Nixon and the Watergate
burglary.
Bernstein's
investigative journalism found the evidence needed to prove that
Nixon was secretly attempt to sabotage his political opponents in
order to be reelected. This eventually led to Nixon's resignation
as president in 1974. You can read more about the Watergate scandal
here.
All The
President's Men
Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward wrote a nonfiction book together
called All The President's Men, a detailed account of the
Watergate scandal and the players in it. These real-life people
were portrayed in the book like a cast of characters: The
President, The President's Men, The Burglars, The Informant, The
Prosecutors, The Judge and The Washington Post.
Eventually, this book turned into a film produced by Robert Redford
in 1976, featuring Robert Redford himself and Dustin Hoffman as the
two investigative reporters.
Current
Career
For a
period of time, Carl was the Washington bureau chief and
correspondent for ABC News on
TV.
Bernstein's most recent book is the best-selling biography of
Hillary Clinton titled A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary
Rodham Clinton. He has also co-written a biography of Pope
John Paul II titled His Holiness: John Paul II and the History
of Our Time.
He has written articles for Vanity Fair and is a
contributing editor at that magazine. He has also written for
Time, USA Today, Rolling Stone,
and The New Republic. Formerly a part-time rock critic, he
still writes about music on occasion. He lives with his wife,
Christine, in New York.
Bernstein on
Music and I-Pods
(An excerpt from Monterey County Weekly)
You were a part-time rock critic at The Washington Post.
That's a very different kind of journalism. Did you find yourself
taking off your investigative reporter's hat?
"I don't believe that investigative reporting is some kind of
pseudo-science that's different than the rest of reporting. All
good reporting is the same thing: the best obtainable version of
the truth. Writing about rock music is fun. I listen to classical
music; I listen to rock."
Do you have an i-Pod?
"I do; I don't listen to it much. I'm a kind of high-end audio nut.
I listen to classical music more than I listen to rock 'n' roll,
but I'm sitting in my study here, and I must have a few thousand
records here, vinyl. Let me pull one up: The Rolling Stones. Plus
there's about 5,000 CDs. It's about half-classical, half-rock. I
don't keep up with rock the way I used to, but I still love
it."
References/Images
Librarybound
The Age
Monterey County Weekly
