This month, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Carl Bernstein joined the faculty at Stony Brook University in Long Island as visiting presidential professor. He will co-teach a course titled “Press and the Presidency” and guest lecture at the School of Journalism and departments of English, history, political science, sociology and writing and rhetoric, as well as lecture for the campus and local community.
Bernstein became legendary after he and fellow Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward uncovered the Watergate burglary cover-up in 1972, a conspiracy that eventually led to the resignation of President Nixon.
His story was also immortalized in the Academy Award-winning film “All the President’s Men” in 1976, in which he was portrayed by Dustin Hoffman.
I caught up with the distinguished reporter to learn more about his new appointment and his advice for today’s incoming journalists.
Why did you decide to do this?
“I wanted to teach when I got to be around this age and stage. I’ve done a lot of speaking for the past 35, 40 years, especially on campuses with young people. I like the interaction with people who are younger than I am and I feel strongly about the things I say and believe in.”
Did you attend a college or university journalism program yourself?
“No. I’m a college drop-out. I went to work at age 16 for The Washington Star, an afternoon paper in Washington, D.C. I’m not a great believer in the necessity of journalism education, though I can see its usefulness. The excitement of reporting attracted me.”
What’s the format for your teaching?
“I didn’t want to teach just journalism. I had this idea that if I could go to a university part-time and teach a combination of government, politics, American history and a course on memoir writing, as well as journalism, it would be more useful than the usual dry book learning.
“I wanted to teach in an interdisciplinary way in all these subjects [that drew on] my own experience. Instead of being an academic presentation, it would combine some traditional aspects of classroom learning, with heavy reliance on my own experience: looking at questions — particularly about the U.S in the post-war era — about race, civil rights, popular culture, the Vietnam era, Watergate, the press, and presidency, from the Kennedy era to the present.”
Why Stony Brook?
“I didn’t want to go to an Ivy League college or university — too many of them are stuck in a rarified approach to learning. I also wanted to be among a student body that had more young people who were not there by virtue of legacy or earning power of their parents.
“I also live in this area, so in the end, of all the schools, Stony Brook was the most logical, also [due to] its receptivity to my idea of an interdisciplinary approach and the excitement with which it was received by the provost and president of the university. They seemed to me to have an unconventional notion of how to break the usual academic mold — so what students are learning is more useful to their lives, not just ‘book knowledge.’”
What are the core journalistic job skills necessary to survive, evolve and thrive in the digital media world today?
“I don’t give too much a damn what the platform is. I think the web is a great reportorial platform — I was the editor of the first major political website, voter.com, in the late 1990s.
“I believe the reportorial skills are the same: a lot of time, perseverance and listening. The most essential element: not to have a preconceived notion of what the story is and where it is going. Journalism ain’t rocket science. Yes, there aren’t as many jobs where you can learn the way I did as a teenager. Can school help? Yes, courses can be helpful. At the best journalism schools, such as the one at Stony Brook, there is recognition that you need more learning from the traditional humanities and perhaps a bit less vocational journalistic education.”
In what ways has investigative reporting been impacted by your coverage of Watergate?
“That’s a really broad question. I think there is a lot of great reporting, including great investigative reporting, being done today. Obviously, journalism has changed, as it should, because journalism and reporting are a reflection of our culture at large — you can’t separate them. The Internet obviously has come to dominate much of the way we get and transmit information. It has had a disastrous effect on the economy of newspaper journalism and at the same time become a fabulous reportorial platform. Someone is going to invent an economic model that will… hopefully preserve the enduring values of what reporting needs to be — the best obtainable version of the truth. Look at what you get on The New York Times’ website; it’s not just what’s in the whole paper, but text and video — it enhances the reportorial aspect.”
What personal/professional qualities must one possess to be a great investigative journalist?
“The first thing — and it’s true of all journalists — is to be a good listener, to resist the temptation to think you know what the story is before you do the reporting. I’ve seen it so many times — reporters start telling people whom they’re interviewing what they think the story is and don’t give the people they’re interviewing a chance to talk.
“I’ve always learned, if you give somebody a chance to talk and treat them with respect and humility, you’re going to learn something. No story I’ve done has ever turned out exactly as I thought it would. All good reporting is the same thing — the best obtainable version of the truth.”
What do you consider to be your greatest career contribution? What do you hope your professional legacy is?
“That what Bob and I and The Washington Post did during Watergate could be a kind of model for how reporting, aimed at the best obtainable version of the truth, can succeed, and that it’s not glamorous, but rather involves perseverance, common sense, being a good listener, respecting people you’re covering. Remember, the people we got information from were not the President’s enemies, but rather, people who worked for him for the most part. I would hope that in that body of reporting is an example that will serve others, especially its simplicity.”