Last Friday, Carl Bernstein (one of the two Watergate heroes, Bob Woodward being the other) gave a speech to an audience of a students at “Sciences Po” (the high-falutin Institut National des Sciences Politiques) in Paris. Bernstein was promoting his new biography of Hillary Clinton. Facing a full amphitheatre, he had a heated exchange with members of the interviewing panel that included a sociologist, supposedly a specialist of American media. The argument centered on the blogosphere: Has it become the agenda-setter in journalism? Unsurprisingly, Bernstein was adamant: Journalism is still ruled by serious media outlets such as the New Yorker. They are the ones which lift the veil on the Abu Ghraib scandal and others public system or political abuses. He’s right. It is very surprising that, in spite of the increasing availability of good journalism on the internet, many (including sociology scholars) remain fascinated by the blogosphere, mistaking noise for relevance. Undigested novelty.
Carl Bernstein also displayed concern for the low competitive metabolism of the current generation of journalists. He kept reminding the young audience of Sciences Po that the best stories are pursued outside of regular business hours. When he covered the legislature, the great stuff came not from the tedious, need-to-be-printed news he was supposed to follow, but from after-hours chitchat with staffers… Then as now, the journalist must rely on his skill and judgment to get, what he calls, “the best obtainable version of the truth”. (For that matter, The New York Times, ever so modest, calls itself “the first draft of History”).
> Watergate era nostalgics can go to this special section on the Washington Post website. The investigative unit of the Post is still led by Bob Woodward.
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