Spring Break
Editors speak at Devroy Forum
Washington Post duo speaks on reporting government secrets
Jessica Branen
Issue date: 4/30/07 Section: Campus News
Woodward credited the late Katharine Graham, publisher of The Washington Post at the time, for giving him and Bernstein the power to investigate and write with the newspaper backing them up 100 percent.
"That is a fantastically liberating environment," he said.
Revealing government cover-ups and secrets is a hard job that involves skepticism from all walks of life, Kaiser said.
"We're not here to please people, we're here to do a job," he said.
After their presentation, Woodward and Kaiser had a question-and-answer period with each other, covering topics such as over-sharing government secrets as well as hiding them.
Woodward pointed out a situation a few years before Sept. 11 when The Washington Times published a story about the National Security Agency tracking Osama bin Laden's cell phone. After the story was published, bin Laden stopped using the cell phone.
But Woodward said other stories haven't been published because they seemed too vital to national security.
The key to balancing how much to write about and what not to write about, he said, is to tell "what was going on without compromising the details."
Taddy agreed with Woodward's balancing act of releasing information to the public without revealing vital secrets.
"It's important that the public knows," she said.
Kaiser and Woodward stressed the need for American citizens to take an increased interest in their government and to hold politicians accountable for their actions.
"It's as important as it has ever been," Woodward said.
"Journalists can't send people to jail," Kaiser added. "All we can do is turn a light on in a dark room and hope people do the same."
"That is a fantastically liberating environment," he said.
Revealing government cover-ups and secrets is a hard job that involves skepticism from all walks of life, Kaiser said.
"We're not here to please people, we're here to do a job," he said.
After their presentation, Woodward and Kaiser had a question-and-answer period with each other, covering topics such as over-sharing government secrets as well as hiding them.
Woodward pointed out a situation a few years before Sept. 11 when The Washington Times published a story about the National Security Agency tracking Osama bin Laden's cell phone. After the story was published, bin Laden stopped using the cell phone.
But Woodward said other stories haven't been published because they seemed too vital to national security.
The key to balancing how much to write about and what not to write about, he said, is to tell "what was going on without compromising the details."
Taddy agreed with Woodward's balancing act of releasing information to the public without revealing vital secrets.
"It's important that the public knows," she said.
Kaiser and Woodward stressed the need for American citizens to take an increased interest in their government and to hold politicians accountable for their actions.
"It's as important as it has ever been," Woodward said.
"Journalists can't send people to jail," Kaiser added. "All we can do is turn a light on in a dark room and hope people do the same."
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