All the Presidents’ Men: an update

A few weeks ago, I plucked an old movie from my TV playlist and re-watched the 1976 award-winning film, “All the Presidents’ Men.”   I found it not only the riveting film I remembered but also a remarkably relevant film to watch right now. 

In this fast-moving story of two intrepid journalists working at The Washington Post in 1972, the media world at that time gradually became aware of what became known as “Watergate.”  Although President Richard Nixon had a commanding lead in the polls and was about to be reelected in a landslide in November 1972, his sense of insecurity and inferiority led him, along with his cronies, to sponsor a break-in of Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate office building in June 1972.  The break-in was less than totally successful.  Moronic criminal-types made a couple of foolish errors that led to the detection of the break-in and their arrest by DC police.

At The Post, the two young journalists, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, faced innumerable obstacles as they tried to ferret out the truth of exactly what had happened and why.  The story ultimately focused on WHO:  Who were the players in the Nixon administration who were pulling the strings behind the Watergate break-in? 

To see the whole story play out, you may want to watch the film yourself.  But whether you watch it or not, please keep in mind just how relevant it is today.

Watergate was only one of the “dirty tricks” Nixon and his cohorts employed to undermine his political opponents.  On January 20, a president demonstrably worse than Nixon was inaugurated.  After a campaign replete with disinformation, he has already begun to effect enormous change in our country.  More than ever, we need brave and intrepid journalists like Woodward and Bernstein to ferret out the truth behind any possible wrongdoing.

The role of The Washington Post is central in both eras.  In 1972, Woodward and Bernstein had to persuade their reluctant editor at The Post to support them as they pursued the truth.  He finally relented and allowed them to publish their findings.  But if they had faltered in the face of opposition, the truth may never have come out.

In 2025, journalists at The Post have taken a different route.  A popular columnist, Jennifer Rubin, loudly spoke out against her editors and her publisher, Jeff Bezos, whom she saw as kowtowing to the incoming administration.  She and her colleagues decided to quit working at The Post, proclaiming that it was no longer seeking the truth.  On January 20, she wrote:

“The American people certainly will not be front and center at Trump’s inauguration. It’s all about him and his billionaire cronies, including the media owners who have buckled to his will. ‘Big-name billionaires are lining up to strengthen their relationships with incoming President Donald Trump during next week’s inauguration festivities,” Forbes reported.  When you add in [others] whose combined wealth dwarfs many countries’ GDP’s—you get a vivid tableau of the new oligarchy. We usher into office today a government of, by, and for the billionaires.” 

Rubin and other like-minded journalists decided to create a new entity, The Contrarian.  Norm Eisen explained how it started:

“Jen and I agreed to launch [this] venture, rounding up…over two dozen contributors in a matter of days.  We kicked off with … Jen’s Post resignation letter. While we had high hopes, we never could’ve imagined what happened next. A quarter of a million subscribers poured in … And the engagement was through the roof, with over 1,000,000 views per day.” 

Rubin proclaimed that the new venture hoped to be “a…space where independence is non-negotiable. Here, you won’t find cozy alliances, half-measures, or false equivalences. We bend the knee to no one, vigorously challenge unchecked authority, and champion transparency and accountability.  In a nation awash with noise and growing disinformation, The Contrarian cuts through the static to deliver sharp, uncompromising insights…. Our loyalty is to … the truth, and to our democratic ideals—many of which are currently under threat.”

I’ve signed up to get The Contrarian delivered to my inbox.  I hope it will stick to its commitment to the truth.  But I haven’t given up on the “legacy media”–mainstream publications like The Washington Post, The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Standard.  All of them still land in my inbox every day.  (I also watch TV news programming when it appears to report the news fairly.)  I think that all of these publications include at least a few brave journalists, like the now-legendary Woodward and Bernstein, still searching for the truth, still speaking out to report wrongdoing in DC or elsewhere. 

I’ll be watching to make sure they don’t falter, hoping that, despite editors and publishers who may stand in their way, they’ll continue to live up to their role as journalists and tell their readers the truth.