Historiography and Watergate

A detailed Summary of Historiography and Watergate

When looking at the historiography of an historical event, one looks at not only what was written about the event but what factors might have influenced the writer or reporter. If the report is a primary source, one needs to look at the factors affecting that person's perspective on the event. If the source is secondary, when the philosophy and political views of the reporter must be considered. Any historic source can carry intended or unintended bias. Other things must be considered, such as the view of the events when the material was recorded, and the overall context of the work when it was written.

The event known as "Watergate" makes an interesting study of historiography because it was a political event and therefore reporting on it was vulnerable to cultural and political influences. Early on the morning of June 17l, 1972, five men were arrested for attempting a burglary at the National Democratic Headquarters located in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. Bob Woodward, city editor for the newspaper the Washington Post, went to cover their arraignment. It turned out that the men had photographic equipment, electronic bugging tools and a lot of cash on them. They did not appear to be ordinary burglars (Woodward & Bernst

ein, 1974). The resulting coverage of this event and its aftermath in the Washington Post and other media ended up forcing the President, Richard M. Nixon, to resign. The importance of these events makes looking at the historiography of the events and important exercise.

The events of Watergate were looked at again in 1986 by an opinion columnist, Christopher Hutchins. Hutchins' opinion piece demonstrates another problem with historical sources. In this case, Hutchins lays out his political bias so that any reader would know that he was reporting events from his own very personal perspective, because the first sentence says, "Ronald Wilson Reagan knows a thousand ways of being sentimental, hypocritical and cheap." Clearly that piece is commentary, but he makes his commentary in compelling ways and weaves hints of other wrong-doing. In it he hints that Henry Kissinger, who had been Nixon's National Security Advisor (Woodward & Bernstein, 1974), would also have his reputation negatively affected if the Watergate Tapes, recordings of discussions about the incident that took place in Nixon's Presidential office, were published. That is a strong statement but once again there was no real way for a third party to substantiate it. Hutchins' statements reflect the fact that magazines are often inherently biased. A magazine has a particular slant that draws readers to it, resulting in all kinds of bias that can include class, gender and ethnicity.

This elaborate "trench coat spy" approach to gathering information was an extreme example of how a reporter's desire to get new and explosive facts out before anyone else can lead to inaccurate reporting. Reporters and newspapers can also have political or philosophical biases, but the pressure to meet a short deadline along with the need for headlines can sk

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Approximate Word count = 1219
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History