Watchdog Journalism
I think the highlight or peak of Watchdog Journalism was the leak of the Watergate scandal. It’s the reason a lot of journalists get interested in journalism in the first place. I found out the other day that Woodward and Bernstein were actually not even assigned to the White House when they started investigating. They were assigned to the Metro beat. Which just goes to show how innovative they were at the time for really shaping Investigative Journalism. Even though it wasn’t their beat, they still felt a duty to get to the bottom of their investigation for the sake of the public. The public had the right to know who they elected. I really like this article (http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=3736) that questions whether or not it was really necessary to know who their source, Deep Throat, was.
It’s interesting that even now this case has mysteries, covered in this article (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/weekinreview/05green.html). Even in the most intense watchdog journalism, it’s impossible to cover everything. It’s still incredibly inspiring.
