Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Living... in Washington, D.C., which is taking a toll on him. After he graduated from Yale, he came to Washington because he believed in the idea of America and wanted to be at its political center. But then he got inside and saw how things actually work.
Profession... reporter for the Washington Post. Bob is investigating the Watergate Hotel cover-up with another junior reporter named Carl Bernstein. They've been working 18-hour days on the story, which has the potential to destroy the Nixon Administration. Bob is spending his time talking to Deep Throat, his anonymous source on the inside. Deep Throat said he'll confirm what they get, but that's all.
Relationship Status... single. His boss warned Carl and him to watch their personal lives and to be careful about the type of people they hang around with. The stakes are high.
Challenge... going to print. The story will put people's lives in danger, maybe including his own. Woodward thinks Attorney General John Mitchell started the cover-up early, and everyone is involved – all the way to the top. The whole U.S. intelligence community is caught up in it. As Bob learns from Deep Throat, “They bugged offices. They followed people, made false press leaks, passed fake letters. They canceled Democratic campaign rallies. They investigated Democratic private lives. They planted spies. They stole documents.”
Personality... organized and detail-oriented. Bob works from the bottom-up, and doesn’t miss a beat. And he doesn’t give up despite what seem like insurmountable odds.
Get to Know him in...
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In the run-up to the 1972 elections, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward covers what seems to be a minor break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters. He is surprised to find top lawyers already on the defense case, and the discovery of names and addresses of Republican fund organizers on the accused further arouses his suspicions. The editor of the Post is prepared to run with the story and assigns Woodward and Carl Bernstein to it. They find the trail leading higher and higher in the Republican Party, and eventually into the White House itself.
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It began with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC, on 17 June 1972. Bob Woodward, a journalist for the Washington Post, was called into the office on a Saturday morning to cover the story. Carl Bernstein, a political reporter on the Post, was also assigned. They soon learned this was no ordinary burglary. Following lead after lead, Woodward and Bernstein picked up a trail of money, conspiracy and high-level pressure that ultimately led to the doors of the Oval Office. Men very close to the President were implicated, and then Richard Nixon himself. Over a period of months, Woodward met secretly with Deep Throat, for decades the most famous anonymous source in the history of journalism. As he and Bernstein pieced the jigsaw together, they produced a series of explosive stories that would not only win the Post a Pulitzer Prize, they would bring about the President's scandalous downfall. ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN documents this amazing story. Taut, gripping and fascinating, it is a classic of its kind -- the true story of the events that changed the American presidency.
