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The role of the media in politics
The influence of broadcast media in elections
Short summary for the role of mass media in US politics
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June 17, 1972 forever changed both journalism and politics. A simple botched break-in marked the downfall of President Richard Nixon, and the rise to glory of two obscure young Washington Post journalists: Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. While their investigative journalism revealed the truth, their questionable methods and ethics have led to these questions; Do the ends justify the means? Was their behavior ethical and legal?
The Watergate Scandal was a major political scandal during the Presidency of Nixon. Nixon, paranoid and afraid of losing his reelection, employed men to do an assortment of illegal activities intended to place the republicans ahead of the democrats in the election. The activities were not detected until a failed break in of the Watergate building. The corrupt actions were exposed and 43 people were eventually incarcerated, due to the dedication of Woodward and Bernstein in discovering the truth.
Before criticizing Woodward's and Bernstein's behavior, the hardships that interfered with the freedom of press at that time have to be considered. The First Amendment protections offered to journalists were not absolute. Editors and publishers could face legal issues if their articles are considered brutally slanderous towards individuals, blatantly disrespectful to community decency ideals, or distinctly dangerous to national security (Schmoop Editorial Team). The Watergate Scandal was one of the first examples of modern journalism where the government was not exempt from being exposed to the public eye.
Despite the difficulties of their time period, there are certain ethical journalism standards that should not have been breached. The Society of Professional Journalists lists four ethical values that...
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Glavinic, T. (2012). Watergate and the Washington Post: Questionable Tactics in Service to Democracy. Retrieved from Student Pulse: http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/618/watergate-and-tthe-washington-post-questionable-tactics
History.com Staff. (2009). Watergate Scandal. Retrieved from History.com: http://www.history.com/topics/watergate
Mancari, J. (2012, March 23). Woodward and Bernstein stress the constants of journalism. Retrieved from Long Island Report: http://longislandreport.org/multimedia/woodward-and-bernstein-stress-the-constants-of-journalism/13637
Schmoop Editorial Team. (n.d.). History of American Journalism. Retrieved from Schmoop: http://www.shmoop.com/history-american-journalism/summary.html
Society of Professional Journalists. (1996). SPJ Code of Ethics. Retrieved from Society of Professional Journalists: http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
unearthed one of the biggest political scandals of the 20th century. Bernstein and Woodward were not aware of how well they worked together. "They had never worked on a s...
The documentary entitled, Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History, documents the political decisions and environment within the Nixon Administration from 1969-1974. The documentary specifically details and describes the environment and culture in which the Watergate scandal could occur and the events and abuses of power that lead to its occurrence. Setting the tone and the political climate of the Nixon Administration was the Vietnam War; making him a wartime President, a war that he inherited from his predecessor. The Vietnam War faced a lot of opposition from the general public, with massive protests and political demonstrations by the younger generations and overall general public. Nixon’s presidency was surrounded by this climate amidst the
In Rushworth Kidder’s book “How Good People Make Tough Choices,” Kidder provides a series of different methods, codes and examples of what being an ethical journalist could mean. He gives examples of different situations where a person’s ethics are tested and what would be a good way to deal with these situations. He starts by explaining the difference between things that are right-versus-right dilemmas, and those that are right-versus-wrong dilemmas.
“The Reporter’s Privilege Compendium: An Introduction.” Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, n.d. Web. 15 November 2013.
President Richard M. Nixon and his involvement in the Watergate scandal were broadcast nightly on the 6 o’clock news in the early 1970’s. Americans were engrossed with the scandal and each person held his or her own view of situation. Each broadcast or newspaper article created a mistrust of political and governmental leaders. In response to this mistrust, the Freedom to Information Act was strengthened by the United States Congress in 1973 (Chamberlain). Although this act was first placed into law in the late 1960’s, the Watergate scandal provided the incentive make this law stronger.
During the 1970’s, the United States experienced "Watergate," the most famous political scandal in American History. It was a scandal that began with a break in and ended in resignation. On June 17, 1972 five intruders were caught and arrested for illegally entering the rooms of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington’s Watergate Complex. "The investigation of the break-in lead directly to the reelection campaign of President Richard M. Nixon and unraveled a web of political spying and sabotage, bribery and the illegal use of campaign funds" (Washingtonpost.com). Two-and-a-half-years later along with a number of court hearings led to the 1974 resignation of Richard M. Nixon. Nixon became the first President in U.S. History to resign. During all the political drama the United States brought an end to an unpopular war and made great strides in space exploration.
Firstly, the journalists are reporting from two vastly different locations. One is reporting from the comfort of an office and familiar surroundings, while the other is reporting from a war stricken foreign land. Although, there is a common tie, they both involved and had the ability to effect the government and they were all in danger. All of the journalists had the opportunity to report on the truth, even if it were to have political and even personal repercussions. Thus, due to the political nature, all of the journalists were putting their lives at risk and were aware of this. They also had the ability of putting other lives in danger. Woodward and Bernstein discovered how the information they were gathering had to be used strategically in order to not harm their sources, and Flynn and Henderson had the ability to create further conflict and terror for the country they were reporting about. Thus, all of the journalists had to learn how to use precautions while investigating, writing, and reporting on their given
White collar crime is a term created by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 that refers to crimes committed by people of higher social status, companies, and the government according to the book “White-Collar Crime in a Nutshell” by Ellen Podgor and Jerold Israel. White collar crimes are usually non-violent crimes committed in order to have a financial-gain (Podgor and Israel 3). A very well known white collar crime that has even been taught in many history classes is the Watergate scandal. This is a white collar crime that was committed by government authorities. Watergate was a crime that shocked the nation.
The years leading up to the 1972 election were filled with new political tactics. Going into the election year, President Nixon seemed like he could never lose the second term election after successfully negotiating with Vietnam, Beijing, and Russia to improve international relations (Emery 4). Raising international toughness made Nixon seem like the most worthy person to stay president. Fred Emery analyses in his novel Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon, the president was also setting up the first summit meeting in history with Soviet Union Presidents (3). There seemed to be nothing capable of holding the seemingly responsible man back. However, this assurance came with massive consequences. The absolute certainty that Nixon would be reelected fueled the lies and abuse of power by the Nixon government (Emery 195). As the outlook of landslide winnings took over the White House, the moral reasoning, “the end justifies the means” became more prevalent. Nixon was obsessed with winning and being successful. Under his command his staff did whatever possible to ...
Despite his loss to JFK in the 1960 presidential election, in 1968, Richard M. Nixon was elected as the thirty-seventh president of the United States. He was praised by many for his comeback after previously losing an election and seemed to be an admirable man. While in office, Nixon made many achievements and followed through with all of his promises made during his campaign. For the first time in what seemed like forever, the American people had finally elected a leader who seemed unquestionably trustworthy – or so they thought. Unfortunately, shortly after Nixon was elected to his second term of presidency in 1972, the Watergate Scandal changed America forever by creating a sense of mistrust toward the government for the American people because of The Nixon Administration’s actions.
As television exposed the truth of government, so did Journalists. Daniel leaking of the Pentagon Papers that explained in detail the Vietnam War, and the leaking of the information to the New York Times in 1971. Scandals like this played an active role throughout the late 1960’s and into the early 1970’s. This eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. The critical stand point of the journalists led to the marked contradictory of American politics that grew into turbulent during the 1960s.
If a story like this one is published and is wrong, there will be many consequences and some rights of the people possibly could be taken away. In the future, similar articles will not be tolerated and officials actually doing these illegal activities would get away with it. However, if a story accusing Nixon of these illegal campaign activities is published and correct, then the country’s future will also be changed. More people will question the government and how they are using citizens’ money. Another question to consider is what if Woodward and Bernstein did not publish the story? Would the government continue these operations and get away with
Woodward and Bernstein's undertaking constructed the cornerstone for the modern role of the media. The making of the movie about the Watergate Scandal and the ventures of the two journalists signify the importance of the media. The media’s role as intermediary is exemplified throughout the plot of the movie. The movie is the embodiment of journalism that guides future journalists to progress towards the truth, no matter what they are going up against. It was the endeavor of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein that led them to the truth behind the president’s men. They showed that not even the president is able to deter the sanctity of journalism in its search of truth. The freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and people’s right to know account for the same truth that journalists pursue; the truth that democracy is alive and will persist to live on.
"Journalism Ethics Online Journalism Ethics Gatekeeping." Journalism Ethics for the Global Citizen. Web. 05 Dec. 2010. .
Meyers, C. (2010). The 'Standard Journalism ethics: a philosophical approach? Oxford University Press. Nordenstreng. K. (1995)