The primary election for electing presidential candidates is in full swing. The smear campaign between the candidates is also getting intensified as the election campaign goes. Their comments on each other become an issue every day.
Donald Trump said, “Frankly, If the Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is the women’s card.”, and he accused Ted Cruz’s father of helping JFK’s assassination.
Hillary Clinton was in hot water when private email scandal broke. About the Donald Trump, she called him a racist.
Besides the examples above, candidates slandered the opposing candidates and belabored the weak points of opponents during the campaign.
While I was watching the movie,”All the president’s men” which was released in 1976, I realized that the political situation has never been changed or even got worse.
June 1972, five unidentified assailants possessing radios and cameras invaded Democratic party headquarter, Watergate building in Washington. They are arrested by police and Bob Woodward who was the journalist of Washington post went to the court to cover the case. Soon, he realized that this case is not a simple larceny and started to investigate the case further with his fellow reporter and rival, Carl Bernstein. Based on the relevant information provided by an anonymous source, Deep Throat, they chased the case persistently. Through tenacious investigation, they figured out that White house was back of the case. Not only the White house but various government agencies including FBI were also related to the case. This case is one of the most famous political incidents in American history, the Watergate affair.
“All the president’s men”is based on the nonfiction book with the same title written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. This movie portrayed the reporting procedure of Watergate affair. The procedure was quite different from the procedure of today. Unlike today’s reporters are essentially using a smartphone and computer aka digital methods, two reporters in the movie used analog reporting method: meeting informants in person, calling to informants directly, writing down all the information they collected, etc. In one of the scenes in the movie, Bob asked who is the person while he found in the process of investigating the case. Bob and Carl called all people who might be related to the case. If they are in 2016, they would simply google in order to figure out the relationship of individuals and to collect the information. Instead of calling to suspicious people, they would send an email to them first or leave a message on their phone.
Even though the methods of collecting information to cover a case have changed, there is one thing that journalists should keep in mind- the sense of duty as a journalist.
The situation today is not different from the situation 40 years ago. Politicians tell a lie and deceive people to get power. Political scandals have broken constantly. Entrepreneurs cheat on consumers. In this situation, journalists should fulfill their role as a journalist. They should stand up to adversity and pressure and report the true story that the public needs to know. The virtue as a journalist was and still is an insatiable inquiry for the true.
Emamablog 