易胜博官网

May 19, 2025

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward visits 易胜博官网

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Edie Allard '18, left, and 易胜博官网 journalism professor Meg Heckman interview veteran journalism and author Bob Woodward as part of the Rutman Lecture Series 2016 event.

December 6 was a big news day in the nation鈥檚 capital.

It was the day veteran journalist Bob Woodward鈥檚 latest story broke. By the afternoon, the story was being read by 17,000 new readers every second on washingtonpost.com. Woodward and a fellow Washington Post reporter had co-authored an in-depth article investigating how the Pentagon buried the evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste.

And yet, on one of his busiest days, Woodward was here in Durham, talking one-on-one with budding young journalists, sharing stories from his long and decorated career as an investigative reporter and speaking to a public audience in the evening, covering everything from the Watergate break-in to Trump鈥檚 America.

Woodward was the keynote speaker for the Rutman Distinguished Lecture Series on the American Presidency, which is generously supported by J. Morgan 鈥�84 and Tara Rutman in collaboration with the President鈥檚 Distinguished Speakers Series. The lecture series focuses on American political history with an emphasis on the modern and historical context of the presidency.

A Storied Career: Advice and Anecdotes

Bob Woodward shared valuable insights with 易胜博官网 journalism students and a public audience during his visit. Among the gems:

Always go to the scene. There鈥檚 an old journalism saying: 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 know if you don鈥檛 go.鈥� Woodward said that was his golden rule of journalism: Get to the scene, no matter what the story is. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 duplicate the experience of being there for yourself,鈥� he says.

There鈥檚 no such thing as investigative reporting. All good reporting mandates investigation. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no reporters and then investigative reporters; it鈥檚 all the same.鈥�

Upset that Trump got elected? Don鈥檛 blame the media. One audience member asked Woodward if the media had gone overboard in their coverage of Trump, and gave him the upper hand in the election. Woodward balked at the idea. 鈥淵ou cannot avoid somebody like that, particularly when he became the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.鈥� He said it wasn鈥檛 media coverage that tipped the scales, it was the voters who made Trump 鈥減lausible and viable.鈥�

Hillary鈥檚 challenge? Connecting. In this time of post-election 鈥渨hat just happened?鈥� disbelief and analysis, Woodward pointed out that one of Hillary Clinton鈥檚 challenges was her failure to communicate effectively with people who weren鈥檛 already her natural supporters.

Sometimes common sense is your best weapon. Speaking about the Watergate break-in in 1972: 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 just five burglars 鈥� it was five burglars in business suits.鈥� Woodward knew something different was going on.

Everybody thinks they鈥檙e a journalist, it seems. Covering the White House is much different than it used to be, Woodward explained, especially in the area of access to information. 鈥淣owadays you call the deputy press secretary, and you talk to someone who says, 鈥榃hy is that a story?鈥� after you explain what you鈥檙e looking for. The flow of information is not good.鈥�

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Woodward rose to fame in 1972 when he and Post colleague Carl Bernstein did the original investigation and reporting on the Nixon Watergate scandal. Since then, he鈥檚 written 18 nonfiction books and remains a reporter and associate editor at the Post. He鈥檚 helped earn the newspaper two Pulitzer Prizes, one for the Watergate coverage and one for Sept. 11 coverage.

At 易胜博官网, he shared how he first became interested in journalism 鈥� in the attic of the law office where his father worked. Woodward was working there as a janitor and, out of curiosity, began looking through what his father called the 鈥渄isposed files鈥� of the various members of the small community of Wheaton, Illinois, where Woodward grew up.

He discovered the unknown truths of many of the local townspeople 鈥� 鈥渢here was domestic abuse, DUIs, child abuse, drugs,鈥� he recalled. That鈥檚 when he realized that there are the surface exteriors of what people present and then there are the things they don鈥檛 want you to know. 鈥淚 guess in my mind, journalism is the pursuit of 鈥榙isposed files.鈥�

鈥淲hat鈥檚 hidden often defines people better than their presentation of themselves,鈥� he told the group of roughly 20 journalism students and faculty members who had gathered for a discussion with him in the Memorial Union Building. 听

Woodward attended a special reception held in his honor before speaking to a wider public audience of about 700 people, touching on everything from Nixon鈥檚 legacy to his Pulitzer Prize-winning work with Bernstein exposing the Watergate scandal, from wiretapping and the NSA to Snowden and Wikileaks.

Morgan Rutman, who serves as the chairman of the 易胜博官网 Foundation Board of Directors and is also a USNH trustee, helps choose the speaker each year along with 易胜博官网's history and political science departments. He noted that he and others on the series committee pushed for Woodward and moved the date of the event to after the 2016 election 鈥� a two-step move made for good reason.

鈥淚 felt that back in the spring, when we were deciding, we realized that no matter who you support, this is going to be a very contentious election,鈥� he explained, and so the committee wanted to have someone who could explain the political forces at work in the election with real-time urgency.

鈥淢y father was an academic, and he used to say that you have to wait until 50 years after an event to have the real context to form a historical perspective,鈥� says Rutman, whose father, Darrett B. Rutman, was a distinguished scholar of early American history who served on the faculty of the 易胜博官网 history department from 1968 to 1984. Rutman鈥檚 mother, Anita, was a historical researcher and co-author with his father on several works. 鈥淲e were honored to host Bob, who is so current and articulate and knowledgeable, to share his expertise and his experiences 听鈥� he鈥檚 interviewed practically every president of the past 40 years.鈥�

Woodward closed out his visit by taking questions from the crowd and from 易胜博官网 journalism professor Meg Heckman and Edie Allard 鈥�18, a student in the journalism program, during a post-lecture panel.

鈥淚t really was like watching living history,鈥� says Rutman.