Watergate editor to speak
Published March 6, 2007
Those who espouse All the President's Men as one of their favorite books or movies will have a chance to share in the experience first hand.
Harry Rosenfeld, former city editor for The Washington Post, will speak Thursday about his experience with the Watergate scandal.
In 1972, a group of men broke into the Watergate Hotel, which housed the headquarters of the Democratic National Convention. The men responsible for the break-in were members of President Richard Nixon's administration.
The events of Watergate resulted in the resignation of Nixon in August 1974.
"A lot of people these days have already forgotten about how important the Watergate scandal was," said Wes Pippert, director of the Washington Program at the School of Journalism. "It brought down a president."
Rosenfeld worked with reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to keep the story under the supervision of the city desk and in Woodward and Bernstein's control, according to a news release from the School of Journalism.
"He's very good and he didn't get the headlines, of course, that Bernstein and Woodward did," Pippert said. "But he certainly played an important role as editor."
Pippert said Woodward and Bernstein's relationship with Rosenfeld, coupled with his age and experience, aided the process of reporting on the Watergate scandal.
"He gave reporters latitude but insisted on old-style discipline in writing and sticking to the facts," Woodward stated in an e-mail.
Rosenfeld hired Woodward for a two-week trial at The Washington Post in 1970 but said he needed more experience before continuing at the paper. Woodward then left to work at a weekly paper for a year and returned to The Washington Post in September 1971.
Woodward stated Rosenfeld was one of four key editors of the Watergate scandal and the stories that emerged from it.
"Harry was one of the best editors I've ever seen," Woodward stated. "He's tough, and his focus is the facts."
Rosenfeld will speak at 4 p.m. in Fisher Auditorium. His lecture is open to the public.