VITAMEDIAS
Duo sealed Nixon's fate: [Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein] discuss scandal with journalist hopefuls
"What we did was the basic kind of traditional, non-glamorous reporting that almost always works," Bernstein said. "Sadly, instead of the legacy of Watergate being to have this kind of methodical reporting ... the real trend in journalism in the last 25 to 30 years has been the dominance of gossip, sensationalism and less regard of the truth.
"The bottom line in our business increasingly has become the bottom line - not the truth."
While professing fond feelings for their trade, the two spent most of the talk lamenting what has become of it.
Woodward: "We live in an environment where everyone wants the latest, and the latest often is wrong and is irrelevant."
Bernstein: "Our manners are awful. We go around shouting and screaming so often when we really ought to be conducting a conversation. People then start to look at us, not unreasonably, as mad dogs."
Woodward, on newspapers rushing to print stories: "You can't understand a man in an afternoon, but we've set up a system where you're expected to."
Bernstein, on corporate ownership of media outlets: "People are right not to trust us ... We now have a dozen media oligarchies that control so much of the journalists' product."