The Watergate Scandal

[This article is the 2nd part of the 3-part series discussing on how media plays a role in exposing hidden truths and secrets of people and bringing out the actual facts.]

The suffix ‘-gate’ has become very popular with political scams and scandals. The Indian media has used this suffix to a great extent to name certain scams like Coalgate, Choppergate, Adarshgate etc. But the suffix is not something created by Indian media, rather its origin dates back to a political scam in the United States in early 1970s.
‘Watergate’ is described as series of political scandals between 1972 and 1974. It refers to the Watergate hotel in Washington D.C. where the scam started. Before going into the details, it is important to know that 1972 was the year of Presidential elections in US. So it was natural that both the Democrats and the Republicans, two parties which compete in the election, take dig at each other and plan how to out-do the other and win the elections.
On the night of June 17, 1972, the police arrested five men hiding in the headquarters of Democratic Nationalist Center (DNC) in the Watergate Hotel and were accused of burglary. It was later discovered that these 5 men were acting on the orders of some members of Committee for Re-election of the President (CRP). CRP was formed to look after the work for re-election to the post of President for the incumbent President Richard Nixon. Some months before the burglary, CRP approved a plan to secretly place cameras and listening bugs in DMC headquarters. The objective was to find out anything to incriminate and accuse Democrats so that votes swing in Republicans’ favour. Things did not go as planned and some members of CRP and the five burglars were indicted for conspiracy and burglary.
After the initial hysteria, things started to settle down because the countdown for Presidential elections had begun. Campaigns, debates and expert views were dominating the prime time in news channels and papers and the media failed to grasp the importance of Watergate. Even FBI were passive in their investigations. In the midst of all this, some journalists of various news dailies, especially Bob Woodman and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post investigated, uncovered and published information that the break-in at Watergate and the attemt to cover it up went deep into the top posts of FBI, Justice department and The White House.
It is important to note that Woodward and Bernstein practiced investigative journalism. Unlike chequebook journalism, facts gathered from investigative journalism has more weight and are to the point. The facts say the truth rather than play with people’s emotions.
Consequently, when election fever finished and President Nixon won another term, media shifted its attention back to the Watergate break-in. Although not yet proved whether Nixon
was involved or not. The Nixon administration and his suppotrters accused media of directly blaming them for the scandal.
Media’s investigation started putting pressure on FBI. By then, the media had linked the funding of burglary to the donations in CRP fund. Things flared up when FBI started suspecting Richard Nixon and his closest aides’ importance in the computer. Trials were held and slowlym any of Nixon’s aides were found guilty. During one such trial it was found that Nixon had taped conversations with people in the oval office and the court asked Nixon to surrender the tapes. After hearing, it was clear that President Nixon was directly involved in the cover-up of Watergate scandal. Though Nixon continued to insist that he had not committed any offence, he resigned on August 1974 as he had lost the nation’s faith. He was pardoned a month later by his successor, Dr. Gerald Ford.
It was due to the investigative journalism and 2 journalists which stoked fire to solve a scandal and get to the bottom of it.
[The 3rd part of the 3-part series articles will be published soon.The 3rd part is titled as ‘The Frost-Nixon Interviewsl’. It is a humble request to my readers to read that article after reading this one.

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