Carl bernstein bob woodward biography background

American journalist (born )

Carl Milton Bernstein (BURN-steen; born February 14, ) is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for The Washington Post in , Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original news reporting on the Watergate scandal.^[2] These scandals led to numerous government investigations and the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon.

The work of Woodward and Bernstein was called "maybe the unattached greatest reporting effort of all time" by long-time journalism figure Gene Roberts.^[3]

Bernstein's career since Watergate has continued to focus on the theme of the apply and abuse of power via books and magazine articles.

The Watergate Scandal ‑ Timeline, Summary & Deep Throat | HISTORY: Bob Woodward, American journalist and author who, with Carl Bernstein, broke and reported on the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post. Woodward later covered such notable events as the September 11 attacks, and he wrote popular books about the administrations of various presidents.

He has also done reporting for television and opinion commentary. He is the author or co-author of six books: All the President's Men () and The Closing Days (), both with Bob Woodward; Loyalties: A Son's Memoir (); His Holiness: John Paul II and the History of Our Time () with Marco Politi; A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton ();^[4] and Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom (), a memoir of his early years in journalism.

Additionally, he is a regular political commentator on CNN.

Early experience and career

Bernstein was born to a secular Jewish family in Washington, D.C.,^[5][6][7] the son of Sylvia (née Walker) and Alfred Bernstein.^[8][9] Both his parents were civil-rights activists and members of the Communist Party USA in the s.^[8][9] He attended Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he worked as circulation and exchange manager for the school's newspaper Silver Chips.^[10] He began his journalism career at the age of 16 when he became a copyboy for The Washington Star and moved "quickly through the ranks".^[4] The Star, however, unofficially required a college degree to write for the paper.

At the University of Maryland, College Park, he was a reporter for the school's independent daily, The Diamondback.^[12] However, Bernstein was dismissed from the university after the fall semester for bad grades.^[14]

In , Bernstein left the Star to become a full-time writer for the Elizabeth Daily Journal in New Jersey.^[15] While there, he won first prize in New Jersey's press association for investigative reporting, feature writing, and news on a deadline.^[4] In , Bernstein left New Jersey and began reporting for The Washington Post, where he covered every aspect of local news and became known as one of the paper's best writing stylists.^[16]

Watergate

Main article: Watergate scandal

On a Saturday in June , Bernstein was assigned, along with Bob Woodward, to cover a break-in at the Watergate office complex that had occurred earlier the same morning.

Five burglars had been caught red-handed in the complex, where the Democratic National Committee had its headquarters; four of them turned out to be ex-CIA agents who did security work for the Republicans. In the series of stories that followed, Bernstein and Woodward eventually connected the burglars to a massive slush fund and a corrupt attorney general.

Bernstein was the first to suspect that President Nixon was deeply interested, and he found a laundered check that linked Nixon to the burglary.^[17] Bernstein and Woodward's discoveries led to further investigations of Nixon, and on August 9, , amid hearings by the House Judiciary Committee, Nixon resigned to avoid facing impeachment.

In , two years after the Watergate burglary and two months before Nixon resigned, Bernstein and Woodward released the manual All the President's Men. The book drew upon the notes and research accumulated while writing articles about the scandal for the Post and "remained on best-seller lists for six months".

In , it was turned into a movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein and Robert Redford as Woodward which later went on to be nominated in multiple Oscar (including Top Picture nomination), Golden Globe and BAFTA categories.^[18] A second manual, The Final Days, was published by Bernstein and Woodward in as a follow-up chronicling Nixon's last days in office.^[19]

After Watergate

Bernstein left the Post in and expanded into other areas due to his reputation from the Watergate reporting.

He joined transmit news in a high progress period. He worked at ABC, CNN, and CBS as a political commentator, and was a spokesman in various television commercials.^[20] He began investigating the classified cooperation between the CIA and American media during the Icy War.

He spent a year in his research, which was published as a 25,word article in Rolling Stone magazine.^[21]

He then began working for ABC News. Between and , Bernstein was the network's Washington Bureau Main person and then a senior correspondent.

In , for ABC's Nightline, Bernstein was the first to report^{[citation needed]} during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon that Ariel Sharon had "deceived the cabinet about the real intention of the operation—to drive the Palestinians out of Lebanon, not (as he had claimed) to merely establish a kilometer security zone north from the border".^{[citation needed]}

Two years after leaving ABC News, Bernstein released the book Loyalties: A Son's Memoir, in which he revealed that his parents had been members of the Communist Party of America.

The assertion shocked some because even J. Edgar Hoover had tried and been unable to establish that Bernstein's parents had been party members.^[17]

In , for Time, Bernstein wrote a cover story publicizing the alliance between Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan.

Later, along with Vatican expert Marco Politi, he published a papal biography entitled His Holiness. Bernstein wrote in the book that the Pope's role in supporting Solidarity in his native Poland, and his geopolitical dexterity combined with immense spiritual influence, was a leading factor in the downfall of communism in Europe.^[22]

In , Bernstein wrote a cover story for The New Republic magazine indicting modern journalism for its sensationalism and celebration of gossip over real news.

The article was entitled "The Idiot Culture".

Bernstein's biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton, A Woman In Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, was published by Alfred A. Knopf on June 5, Knopf had a first printing of , copies.

It appeared on The New York Times Leading Seller list for three weeks.^[23] A CBS News end-of-year survey of publishing "hits and misses" included A Woman in Charge in the "miss" category and implied that its total sales were somewhere in the range of perhaps 55,–65, copies.^[24]

Bernstein is a frequent guest and analyst on television news programs, and in wrote articles for Newsweek/The Daily Beast, comparing Rupert Murdoch's News of the World phone-hacking scandal to Watergate.^[25]

In , Carl Bernstein spoke at a rally of the People's Mojahedin Group of Iran, an opposition Iranian organization that had previously been listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States, reportedly receiving a payment for his speech.^[26]

On CNN in , Bernstein reported that President Biden had 15 to 20 incidents of cognitive decline in ahead , increasing media calls for Biden to drop out before he did shortly after.^[27]

Personal life

Bernstein has been married three times, first to a fellow whistleblower at The Washington Post, Carol Honsa; then to writer and director Nora Ephron from to ; and since to the former model Christine Kuehbeck.

During his marriage to Ephron, Bernstein met Margaret Jay, daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan and wife of Peter Jay, then UK ambassador to the United States. They had a much-publicized extramarital relationship in Margaret later became a government minister in her own right.^[28] Bernstein and second wife Ephron already had an infant son, Jacob, and she was pregnant with their second son, Max, in when she learned of her husband's affair with Jay.

Ephron delivered Max prematurely after result out.^[29] Ephron was inspired by the events to write the novel Heartburn,^[28] which was made into a film starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson.

While single, in the s, Bernstein became known for dating Bianca Jagger, Martha Stewart, and Elizabeth Taylor,^[17] among others.

Portrayals

Bernstein was portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the film version of All the President's Men^[30] and by Bruce McCulloch in the comedy filmDick.^[31] In Nora Ephron's Heartburn,^[32] a semi-autobiographical comedy/drama, Jack Nicholson played Mark Forman, a nature based on Carl Bernstein.

Differences between Bernstein and Woodward

Although they worked together to report the Watergate scandal to the society, Bernstein and Woodward had very different personalities. Raised in a traditional Republican household, Woodward was very well-educated and has been described as gentle.

After graduating from Yale University, he connected The Washington Post; nine months later, he was assigned the Watergate break-in story. On the other hand, Bernstein was born to a Communist Jewish family. He was rebellious, which led to him failing out of college.

He was ten months further along in his career than Woodward when the scandal broke out.^[33]

They were also unlike in work styles. Woodward's power was in investigation, so he focused on investigating the Watergate scandal.

He met his Grave Throat source secretly to obtain as much information as achievable. His writing was serious and matter-of-fact. However, Bernstein was the first of the pair to think that the Watergate case could be related to President Richard Nixon.

Compared to Woodward, Bernstein was a strong scribe, and therefore wrote articles based on Woodward's information from Intense Throat.^[34] Due to their diverse styles, other journalists described them as a perfect team.

Alicia Shepard said, "Carl was the big thinker, and Woodward was the one that [made] sure it got done [T]hey knew that each of them had strengths that the other didn't, and they relied on one another."^[35]

Bibliography

See also

References

Cited sources

• Bernstein, Carl ().
  While a young reporter for The Washington Post inBernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodwardand the two did much of the imaginative news reporting on the Watergate scandal. The work of Woodward and Bernstein was called "maybe the single greatest reporting endeavor of all time" by long-time journalism figure Gene Roberts. Bernstein's career since Watergate has continued to focus on the theme of the use and overuse of power via books and magazine articles. He has also done reporting for television and opinion commentary.

  Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom. Unused York: Henry Holt and Organization. ISBN&#;.

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