Carl Bernstein

thumb|Carl Bernstein in 2007 Carl Milton Bernstein (born February 14, 1944) is an American journalist who, as a reporter for The Washington Post along with Bob Woodward, broke the story of the Watergate break-in and consequently helped bring about the resignation of US president Richard Nixon. For his role in breaking the scandal, Bernstein received many awards; his work helped earn the Post a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1973. Quotes The reality is that the media are probably the most powerful of all our institutions today and they, or rather we [journalists], too often are squandering our power and ignoring our obligations. The consequence of our abdication of responsibility is the ugly spectacle of idiot culture! The best obtainable version of the truth, Carl Bernstein's talk at the annual convention of the Radio and Television News Directors Association, 1998-09-26. You can't serve the public good without the truth as a bottom line. http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/apr/16/watergate_journalist_says/ Watergate journalist says media losing public's trust 2005-04-16 Lawrence Journal-World Dave Ranney 2007-03-28 An A-Z of cultural terms, The Guardian (1992) http://www.guardian.co.uk/dumb/story/0,,387443,00.html An A-Z of cultural terms 1992-06-03 The Guardian 2007-03-27 The failures of the press have contributed immensely to the emergence of a talk-show nation, in which public discourse is reduced to ranting and raving and posturing. We now have a mainstream press whose news agenda is increasingly influenced by this netherworld. The greatest felony in the news business today is to be behind, or to miss a big story. So speed and quantity substitute for thoroughness and quality, for accuracy and context. The pressure to compete, the fear somebody else will make the splash first, creates a frenzied environment in which a blizzard of information is presented and serious questions may not be raised. The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage. We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal. External links Category:Journalists from Washington, D.C. Category:Jews from the United States Category:Pulitzer Prize winners Category:1944 births Category:Living people