The Watergate Scandal

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Although the word “Watergate” directly refers to the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C., it is an umbrella term to describe a series of complex political events and scandals between the years 1972 and 1974. These events started with Richard Nixon running for reelection (“Watergate”). In such a harsh political climate, a forceful presidential campaign seemed essential to the president and some of his key advisers. Their aggressive tactics included what turned out to be illegal espionage. In May 1972, members of Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) broke into the democratic opposition’s headquarters, stole copies of top-secret documents and bugged the office’s phones. The wiretaps failed to work properly, however, so on June …show more content…

Citizens inclined to believe their President, reelected him by a landslide vote. After his reelection, Nixon and his team take part in an extensive coverup of the events of Watergate. However, as investigations continue and as people begin to testify against the President, it is discovered that Nixon is not as innocent in the scandal as he led the people to believe. After the Senate Committee, established to investigate the Watergate scandal, successfully subpoenaed the White House tapes, the all recordings made by Nixon and CREEP, Nixon was incriminated. These tapes prove that he ordered a cover-up of the Watergate burglary. The Smoking Gun, the 23 tape, reveals that Nixon ordered the FBI to abandon its investigation of the break-in (history.com staff).The people cry for impeachment. Therefore, Nixon becomes the only president in history to resign from office on August 8, 1974.Gerald Ford, former Vice President, is sworn into office on August 9, 1974 and a month later, outraging Americans, he grants Nixon an absolute pardon for all offenses against the U.S. …show more content…

Led by reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post, the Watergate investigations were hard hitting report that changes the history of journalism and revealed the downfalls of the government to the people. The “Watergate witch-hunt” run by the media was the first Putsch in journalism history. Media forced the federal government into a corner they could not back out of until Watergate was truly resolved. Woodward and Bernstein produced the single most spectacular act of hard hitting journalism of the 20th century, flowing their leads until the finish line. Even conservative critics have accepted that Woodward and Bernstein were instrumental in Nixon's downfall. They decided to make the Watergate break-in a major moral issue, a lead followed by the rest of the media. Watergate was affected by the media as much as the media was effected by Watergate (Feldstein). The work was so powerful due to its candor about the controversial topics of the time. When the people could not rely on their government for the truth, they could take refuge in the candidness of the media

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