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An Unlikely Miracle

The longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve recognized the importance of coming to D.C. with an open mind. While in a program like Washington Journalism Center, going to different parts of town is inevitable. Saturday I experienced two very opposite parts of town in a matter of hours, and I learned things in places I didn't necessarily expect to.

Bus Day.

Around 10 a.m., a group of six of us from WJC and ASP left the Dellenback for Anacostia—one of the most impoverished areas of the city.  The intersection where we got off the bus was a bit desolate on the cloudy, chilly morning. Our first stop was a Bethel Christian Fellowship, a small church near our bus stop. The door was unlocked, so we walked inside. There was a group of African-American children near the stage, and scattered adults in the chairs. Everyone turned to look at us.

Well, you know what happens when you assume...

I feel like you would have to be living under a rock to not know the Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was a Muslim. In fact, I am pretty sure I knew Hasan was a Muslim before the final death count. Between twitter feeds, blogs, and hard news articles, Hasan's religion seems to be the only area of focus to determine why a Army Major would do this. Yet one New York Times article, "Obama Offers Sympathy and Urges No 'Jump to Conclusions'" caught my eye as something different. Here's the lede...

Tweens these days...

I’m in Washington D.C., a place where people vie for political power in the city, citizens struggle to get by in the District and students like myself are surrounded by ample opportunities to learn and explore. My newspaper internship is to be one such opportunity. Yet on a Saturday morning, I found myself on the way to covering… the 2009 Tween Girl Summit.

Now, in the interest of fairness, I have to admit that my tween-ness, when I was ages 9 through 14, was not cultivated or nurtured as it is for tweens today. I think at that time, tweens did not exist. We were still called pre-teens, and thought it was a big deal when we hit teenage status. Perhaps this is why I was less than enthusiastic about covering the event. In any case, I harbored a good deal of skepticism – all right, cynicism – about the event.

Research revealed the summit was to be a gathering of young girls, ages 9-14, for the purpose of examining “the minds, motivation and lives of tween girls, giving them a platform to share their thoughts and opinions on a wide range of subjects, and giving marketers, policy makers and parents a more thorough understanding of this enigmatic and highly influential demographic.” Um…okay.

At the Capital Hilton, where the summit was held, I encountered a mass of tween girls and a lot of   pink. The opening activities of the summit gave the girls plenty of opportunities to share their thoughts and opinions as well as speak to a panel of influential women about what was on their    minds. With the help of prompts, they shared their feelings about gun control, body image, bullying, oppression of women and “empowerment.” That seemed to be an important word of the day. The word “empower” is tame enough in its dictionary definition, but dictionary.com adds this fascinating footnote to its entry:

The Worldwide Leader in the World Series

ESPN remains king of the sports-world mountain, once again proving its claim as the "worldwide leader in sports" by being the worldwide leader in World Series coverage.

Of the major news organizations in the U.S., ESPN.com far exceeded competitors like The New York Times and The Washington Post—I’ll get to them later—in its coverage of the Fall Classic. How did they do it? Real-time coverage.

What do two old guys and a taped door have to do with me?

Who are Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein?

"Woodward and Bernstein? Sounds like an accounting firm."

"Nope, never heard of them. Are they critics, maybe?"

"Don't they own a woodworking shop here in Canton?"
 
"I have no clue."

"Are they from the Berenstain Bears?"
 
"Yes, those are the guys from Watergate, right?"

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner.

Watergate: one of the most well publicized scandals in U.S. history that resulted in the resignation of President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s.

A pair of young reporters working for the Washington Post got a hunch and went with it. They eventually brought down the president.

Those reporters were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

“If two people actually changed the face of journalism, and redefined what investigative reporting is all about, it was these two,” Bob Schieffer, former anchor of CBS Evening News, said at a panel discussion last week in Washington.

I was at that panel discussion. It was every aspiring reporter’s dream. Sure, I’ve seen All the President’s Men, where Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman caramelize Woodward and Bernstein in history—well, at least pop culture history. But to witness two of the greatest reporters in modern American journalism talking about the greatest story they’ve ever written was priceless.

These men faced tremendous amounts of pressure. Their careers, their boss’ careers, their reputations and even their lives were in danger. But they stuck with the story. Backing down was never an option, they said, because they knew they had a good story with good sources.

Sadly, most college students don’t know who Woodward and Bernstein are, said Alicia Shepherd, author of Life in the Shadow, a biography of the two reporters. That is, unless their journalism professors tell them. Evidence of this was seen at the top of this column - those were quotes from real students.

That’s sad because much can be learned from Woodward and Bernstein, not only for journalists, but for anyone who is doing research.

“There’s no such thing as investigative reporting,” said Scott Armstrong, one of the original members in the Senate Watergate investigation. “It’s just more time spent reporting—doing more work, doing it harder, doing it longer.”

So here are a few of those tips from Woodward and Bernstein themselves.

• “A preconceived notion of the story puts you on the story, and then you go,” said Bernstein, meaning you’ve got to be able to see what you’re looking for before you can find it.
• They knew their sources were good and they had good information, but they didn’t trust all the information they received. They verified, verified, verified to make sure what they had was fact and not rumor. My note: This is good advice to follow. Don’t trust everything you read, especially in the age of the Internet.
• Good reporters are good listeners, Bernstein said. If you listen closely to your sources, the story can go places you never imagined.
• “If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not getting chalk under your shoes, and that doesn’t mean that you do it intentionally or you’re irresponsible,” Woodward said, adding that he and Bernstein had made mistakes when covering Watergate, but that they had learned from those mistakes.

Don’t think this applies to you? Well here’s some food for thought. For every memo, term paper or business plan you write, you’re going to have to look up documents and talk to people. You may not be a journalist per se, but everyone is a reporter.