Legendary Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein and CJMD Co-Director Matthew Powers will discuss journalism and democracy at the Crosscut Festival in Seattle Wednesday, May 4 at 7 p.m.
Carl Bernstein made history in 1972 and1973 when, working with Bob Woodward at the Washington Post, he broke and chased the story of burglaries, dirty tricks, slush funds and the colossal coverup that eventually drove President Richard Nixon to resign in disgrace—a mythic victory for watchdog investigative journalism and for clean government and democracy.
Bernstein’s recently published memoir of his early years in the industry, “Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom,” is a love letter to print journalism’s culture and power—to the “glorious chaos and purposeful commotion” of the sprawling mechanized newsrooms of that era.
Over the last five decades, Bernstein’s inspirational work launched countless journalism careers. Back when he was chasing history and making it, the crimes against democracy were hidden, and reporters like Bernstein worked to bring them to light. Now, increasingly, crimes against democracy and the public interest are perpetrated in plain sight, and reporters work simply to try and set them into the kind of context and before the kind of people who might restore accountability. What happened—to journalism and to U.S. democracy?
Powers’s work explores the way journalism is transforming in the digital era. His next book centers on today’s working journalists—on their motivations, inspirations, frustrations and exhaustions.
The event is virtual and free to attend. RSVP now.