Watergate A Study of Political Corruption Essay examples

Like many of the President’s that preceded and followed Richard Nixon, his presidency consisted of many highs and lows. Although Nixon’s first term in office played out against the contentious issue of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the aftermath of the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, his presidential legacy consists of the helm of what is widely regarded as the biggest scandal in American politics, Watergate. Despite the volatility of the times, Nixon was a president who was gifted in his vision when it came to foreign and domestic policy issues and was an individual who most people seemed to believe could lead the country. Nixon, however, seemed to not have the same faith in himself and†¦show more content†¦Bernstein and Woodward, nicknamed â€Å"Woodstein,† are the two reporters that will forever be credited with breaking the most infamous political scandal to ever hit the United States and are largel y credited with ushering in new era of accountability and transparency for elected officials. The story however did not come easily. Both Woodward and Bernstein were relatively young, unseasoned reporters with no major stories to their credit. In fact, when the initial break in at Watergate was discovered, most media outlets considered it not important and paid little or no attention to it. The editor of the Washington Post at the time, Benjamin C. Bradlee put Bernstein and Woodward in charge of the story only because he did not think much would come of it. However, Woodward and Bernstein began to see linkages between the individuals involved in the break-ins and began to delve deeper into all aspects of the break-in. The two having never worked together had to coordinate their efforts and essentially assemble a puzzle made up of fragments of information from various sources and pieces of evidence. What they found was stunning and eventually led them to breaking the case. T he Watergate scandal was complex and took over two years to unravel. As the two reporters continued their investigation moreShow MoreRelatedThe Watergate Scandal Essay588 Words   |  3 Pagestime, people have always had distrust in the government due to government scandals and corruption that they attempted to keep from the public. Many of those incidents didn’t stay secretly for long due to the change to modern day media. In this paper we have compiled together a few of those scandals to compose a writing discussing different cases of corruption and scandals within the government. The Watergate Scandal was an event that changed the face of the nation. It was the first time in theRead MoreThe Stains of Watergate1352 Words   |  5 Pagesmore carefully. A positive outcome of Watergate was the successful national movement for government transparency: to make meetings and records more accessible to the public. In 1974, Congress overrode a presidential veto and revised the Freedom of Information act, providing the public and media with new tools to access information held by the executive branch. This act reduced secrecy in government and gave the public a way to check the governmental and political operations happening in Washington,Read MoreThe Role of a Journalist1307 Words   |  5 Pageswriter/journalist Karl Karus said it best when he said, â€Å"corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.† For decades, the United States has been one the most notable countries to come under fire with reports of government corruption. During the dawn of the new millennium the Transparency Corruption began to publish their Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a culmination of assessments andRead MoreEssay Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal1890 Words   |  8 Pagesbetrayed, as he got involved in something now known as the Watergate Scandal. This was an interesting time in history because it was a large cover up by the Republican Party. Also, how different people reacted to this event was fascinating because some people were so blind to the truth, that they stuck behind Nixon even once tapes and other credible evidence against him was produced. In this paper I will describe the events of Watergate and the publics opinion and reactions to this lengthy ScandalRead MoreFactors Affecting The United States4403 Words   |  18 Pagesthe United States, they moved to American cities, not to the countryside as immigrants had for 250 years. These new immigrants made the journey to America on the same reason as predecessors. Specifically, some were escaping religious, racial, and political persecution, or seeking relief from a lack of economic opportunity or famine still pushed many immigrants out of their homelands (. Many were pulled here by contract labor agreements offered by recruiting agents, known as padrones to Italian andRead MoreCons Of Political Campaign Financing1395 Words   |  6 PagesPolitical Campaign Financing Political campaign financing refers to all finances that have been raised and expended in order to promote political candidates, parties, and initiatives. According to a survey conducted in November 2018, when questioned â€Å"Do you know what political campaign financing is?† approximately 50% of respondents answered yes, 27% answered no and 23% answered that they had heard of it. The same survey relayed that only 4% of participants had positive views, 35% had negative viewsRead MoreThe Lasting Implications Of The Watergate Scandal2275 Words   |  10 PagesWatergate Scandal Grace Jacobson Block 2 November 22, 2016 The Lasting Implications of the Watergate Scandal I. Introduction â€Å"I am not a crook† is one of the most famous quotes from President Richard M. Nixon.   Citizens of the United States of America would hope that their president would never have to defend himself as a crook, but that is just what happened in the presidency of Richard M. Nixon. President Nixon had to defend himself for not being a crook because of the events famously knownRead MoreA Study Of Public Administration1516 Words   |  7 PagesSince Woodrow Wilson (1889) published the article, â€Å"a study of public administration†, the main question in the field of public administration is how to govern a democratic and political entity. Given public administration conventionally concerns about civil servants and agencies in the executive branch, one among diverse and essential subfields is bureaucracy and organizational theory. In general, the development of studies on bureaucracy and organizational theory has gone through the period ofRead MoreEssay on Investigativ e Reporting is the Driving Force in Journalism2455 Words   |  10 Pagesthe profession. One of the key reasons why investigative journalism prospered during the 1960s was because of the way newspapers became more critical of established power. From 1960 onwards news coverage grew increasingly negative. In a study conducted by political scientist Thomas Patterson it was found that in 1960, 75 percent of evaluative references to candidates John Kennedy and Richard Nixon were positive, but by 1992, only 40 percent of evaluative references praised Bill Clinton or George BushRead MoreEssay On Investigative Journalism1366 Words   |  6 PagesColombian border. All of these international zones eventually share more people, goods, and identities than actual cities connected to their national metropolis. Following Romero, the process of building-up cities in the continent is illustrative of the political, cultural, and intellectual efforts to put together something called â€Å"Latin Ame rica† as part of the modernization project (Romero, 2011). Therefore, for analytical purposes, it is not only feasible to draw an imaginary border containing Latin American