All The President's Men: Carl Bernstein And Bob Woodward

All the presidents Men

In the film "all the president's men" the two journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward from the Washington Post try to solve the mystery of the Watergate affaire. While there voyage leads them to various ways of obtaining information they do not always stick to the journalist's codex. But how far must a journalist go to receive useful information and how strict can one obey to the journalist codex.

After the Watergate affaire Woodward is told to research on the thieves and see if there is more to it then just a simple robbery. Already at the court he finds out that all the thieves are connected with the CIA and other agencies. Trying to gain more information Woodward finds a lawyer named Marken who has been assigned
The lawyer goes away saying he has no further comments. After that Woodward should respect the codex saying that every journalist has to respect the privacy of an individual. But he continues asking Marken about the case. It seems like a violation of the codex, but is it possible to gain information if one would totally obey the codex? The answer is clearly no. The Codex is more or less a guideline made to illustrate how an idle journalist works. It is somehow like an old western showdown where you could draw your weapon before the agreed sign and kill your opponent, so basically achieving your goal, but you will lose your "honour". Most tabloid reporters are like that, not interested in the codex and therefore get information anyway they want to without showing respect. But many others still believe in these guidelines and developed tricks and skills to access information without being disrespectful. Again these tricks are not always compatible with the codex but they a realistic interpretation of it. Bernstein used one of these tricks, linking the secretary away from the office of Mr Dardes. After the secretary left he sneaked inside the office