Woodward & Bernstein: The Media Is Not Fake News

In this video, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward of Watergate fame speak at the annual White House correspondents' dinner. Carl Bernstein states that the question of what is news becomes even more relevant and essential if we are covering the President of the United States. When lying is combined with secrecy, there is usually a pretty good roadmap in front of us. The people with the information we want should not be pigeonholed or prejudged by their ideology or politics. Incremental reporting is essential and the media's job is to put the best obtainable version of the truth out there, essentially now.

Bob Woodward acknowledges that the impatience and speed of the internet and our own rush can disable and undermine the most important tool of journalism. We need to understand to listen, to dig, and reporting needs to get both facts and tone right. The press comes under regular attack, particularly under presidential campaigns and their aftermath. The media is not "fake news."

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are legendary journalists best known for breaking the Watergate story for The Washington Post, leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon and setting the standard for modern investigative journalism. For this work, they and The Post were awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Their work has been called “maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time” by longtime journalism figure, Gene Roberts, and the book they co-authored on their experience, All the President’s Men, went on to become a New York Times best-seller and an Academy Award-winning feature film.