“All the President’s Men is the true story of two young reporters from the Washington Post and their quest to find the truth. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were like oil and water. Even so, they were tasked to work together on a story that few had any faith in. Once rivals and now partners, these two reporters had to follow a dangerous trail to discover the truth of what lay under Washington’s dirty laundry. Is this a minor story with no hope or is this the biggest scandal of the century?
We start with a failed burglary at the Watergate complex: the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The burglary starts in almost total darkness. The burglars seemed messy and ill prepared. Leaving lights on and talking loudly through walkie-talkies, they were bound to be caught. These five men were taken into custody after this failed attempt.
Scene from All the President’s Men.
After the incident, Bob Woodward is asked to cover the case. He goes to the burglars’ arraignment to gather information. He discovers that the burglars are Bernard Barker, James W. McCord and three other men. Bob finds out that the men have a private attorney named Mr. Starkey. This attorney is very expensive and was also obtained without any of the men contacting him. They hadn’t even made any calls since they got arrested. This strikes a chord with Bob, making him think that there’s possibly more to this case than meets the eye. Around this time, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are teamed up to work on this case together.
Bob continued to investigate the situation. He called anyone he could to get more information. Just as all hope seems lost, Bob got a call from another Post journalist that in two of the burglars address books there was the name of “Howard Hunt” and a “W House.” Did W House stand for the White House and who was this Howard Hunt? Looking into Howard Hunt more, Woodward and Bernstein split up to do some of their own investigating.
Back on the case, Woodstein hit some leads. Bob discovered that Howard Hunt was a former CIA member from 1949 to 1970 and that he was investigating Ted Kennedy. Bernstein has a conversation with a librarian asking for any books and information that Hunt took out about Kennedy. She seems to know what he is talking about and goes to get that information for him. Moments later she denies even knowing who Howard Hunt is. This leads the two men on a hunt to know why this librarian is lying. After Executive Editor Ben Bradlee rejects the story from the front page for lack of cold, hard evidence, the men are back to look for more concrete proof.
