“Work at night.” The biggest piece of advice Bob Woodward gave to a packed ground floor in the Indiana University Auditorium on Monday evening.
Woodward is the first of three speakers in the School of Journalism Fall Speaker Series, an opportunity for students to meet some of the top professionals in journalism. Though the series is aimed at Indiana University students, the auditorium filled with people from all around the community, both young and old.

Sophomore Joel Hakimzadeh was excited to see such a big name at his school. “It’s great that I had a chance to hear from a piece of history, and on top of that it was free.”

Bob Woodward came to fame when he took a major role with his partner Carl Bernstein in the investigation of the Watergate scandal. His connection with the informant “Deep Throat” led to the resignation of President Nixon and also in winning his newspaper, the Washington Post, a Pulitzer Prize. His career continued with 11 best-selling non-fiction books including his latest, State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III.

The presentation began with Woodward’s investigation of Watergate. After a brief summary of his experience, Woodward focused on the pardon Gerald Ford gave to Richard Nixon once he took office. He recalled the moment when he heard about the pardon from his colleague, Carl Bernstien, over the phone. Bernstein simply said, “the son-of-a-bitch pardoned the son-of-a-bitch,” which Woodward explained was enough to understand what had happened. Woodward then spoke of his exclusive interview with Ford 23 years after the controversial pardon. To his surprise, during the interview Ford persuaded Woodward to change an opinion he had held for over two decades. “Ford convinced me that it was the right thing to do…what Ford did was right and courageous.” Brogan Lee, a freshman majoring in Photojournalism, remembered this moment the best. “I always thought that Nixon’s pardon was a scam, it’s really interesting to hear a different side of the story.”

After Watergate, Woodward’s presentation focused on the Iraq War, the main subject of his recent books. After being given one year to find out why the nation went to war by his publisher, Woodward reduced his investigation into a 21-page memo for the President to read before it went to press. After reading it, the President granted Woodward a two-day, three and a half hour interview; the longest interview with a president over one topic ever. When speaking of the interview, Woodward asked the crowd to guess how many questions he asked. When an audience member suggested two, Woodward joked, “that would be if it was Bill Clinton.” In the course of the interview, Woodward asked President Bush over 500 questions. “He gives short answers,” quipped Woodward.

As the presentation came to a close, Woodward spoke of the importance of investigation in media. “Democracy is dying in darkness,” Woodward warned the audience. He asserted, “Journalism is the barrier, the antidote to secret government.” Woodward also commented on the current lack of investigation in broadcast media, or has he put it, the concept that “I know nothing, but I’m here LIVE.”

After his presentation, Woodward took a couple of questions that the audience had written prior to coming into the auditorium. When asked about his greatest wish for journalism, he hoped that media could lose its current “sense of arrogance, celebrity, and smugness,” and instead be the watchdog it is intended to be.

As for his greatest piece of advice, “work at night,”? After re-watching the movie based on his best-selling book, “All The President’s Men,” Woodward noticed that almost all the scenes took place at night. When looking deeper into the matter, Woodward realized that 20 minutes in an office versus 4 hours in a house during the evening is the difference between a cold reply and a great interview. Though Woodward claimed his wife might not enjoy his epiphany, he hoped it could help future journalists.

 (Event Coverage, J200)