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Watergate: A Case in Investigative Journalism

Investigative journalism involves deeply investigating topics like crimes, corruption, or scandals. One famous example is the Watergate case, where journalists uncovered Nixon's role in illegal activities during his re-election campaign. These activities included breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters, spying, sabotage, and a secret slush fund used to pay those involved and buy their silence. As journalists dug deeper, they revealed links between the break-in and the Justice Department, FBI, CIA, and White House. Though Nixon denied involvement, he resigned in 1974 after senators said they had enough votes to impeach and remove him from office.

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304 views2 pages

Watergate: A Case in Investigative Journalism

Investigative journalism involves deeply investigating topics like crimes, corruption, or scandals. One famous example is the Watergate case, where journalists uncovered Nixon's role in illegal activities during his re-election campaign. These activities included breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters, spying, sabotage, and a secret slush fund used to pay those involved and buy their silence. As journalists dug deeper, they revealed links between the break-in and the Justice Department, FBI, CIA, and White House. Though Nixon denied involvement, he resigned in 1974 after senators said they had enough votes to impeach and remove him from office.

Uploaded by

andrelutzaa
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Investigative journalism – Watergate

Investigative journalism is a type of reporting in which journalists deeply


investigate a topic of interest, often involving crimes, political corruption, or some other
scandals.
One of the most famous cases of investigative journalism in history was the
Watergate case involving the 37th American president Richard Nixon(from the republican
side of the government). Also the 36th president of America he was the only person to
have occupated “the White House chair” and to have resigned. The motives behind his
resignation where more or less credible but the American people as well as the American
government and the rest of the world, that could find out anything about the scandal,
knew the reason behind his resignation was the Watergate case although he denied it
completely.
But returning to our primary subject, the Watergate case, the scandal began with
the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee
headquarters at the Watergate Office complex in Washington(hotel), D.C. on June 17,
1972. FBI lead the investigation and alongside the press they revealed that this burglary
was one of many illegal activities authorized and carried out by Nixon's staff. The public
was outraged, no man even if he was the president had right to make use of such power to
satisfy his personal quarrels.
They also revealed the immense scope of crimes and abuses, which included
campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits,
illegal wiretapping on a massive scale, and a secret slush fund laundered in Mexico to
pay those who conducted these operations. This secret fund was also used as hush money
to buy the silence of the seven men who were indicted for the June 17 break-in. These
were serious accusations against Nixon and his staff.
But it all started when a bunch of nosy reporters started to discover actually tried
to discover the truth, started to make the connection between the break-in and the
President's re-election campaign and from there on everything went down-hill for both
the president and his staff and our journalist because the deeper they became involved the
more dangerous it got, they even linked the brake-in to the the Justice Department, the
FBI, the CIA, and even the White House.
Throughout this time, Nixon still denied any involvement in the ordeal. However,
after being told by key Republican Senators that enough votes existed to convict and
remove him, Nixon decided to resign. In a nationally televised address on the evening of
August 8, 1974, he announced his resignation.
One of the harshest truths about this case was the fact that the man who had
committed the greatest felony in American history would never stand trial. -“Are you
saying that the president can do something illegal…” – “I’m saying that when the
president does it that’s not illegal!”

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