All the President's Men and A Minute Before Friday

There are few journalism that even come close to the quality film making that is evident in "All the President's Men." But "President's" isn't just a quality film. It is a quality journalism film, showcasing some of the most important truths about the news business. Woodward and Bernstein were a great team. They got the story and they convinced the higher-ups that it was a story that should be run and needed to be run. But how did they do it? "The Elements of Journalism" likes to call it the discipline of verification. Both Woodward and Bernstein were tireless in their pursuit of sources. When they found information they needed, they didn't sit down to write the story. They found more sources to confirm that information. Then they would write the story. A story that took years to complete but one that absolutely changed their lives. And it ended up changing America. But without all the fact hunting and verifying the story would have died because it wouldn't have anything to back it up.


"A Minute Before Friday" also showcases two important elements of journalism for any aspiring journalist. The first would be  to "strive to make the significant interesting and relevant." Right from the beginning Jonna's job is described as a hard one because she is a religion reporter in the big city. A lot of people don't care about religion. So it is her job to make them care about it. If she is writing her stories in ways that wouldn't interest anyone there would be no point to them or to her job. But she is out there making what she writes interesting enough for the consumer and therefore giving it the importance it may need. I think the other important element displayed in the book is journalism's "practitioners have a right an obligation to exercise their personal conscience." In uncovering the scandal at Regal University, Jonna could have just let it go, but that didn't seem right. Like Woodward and Bernstein they followed their conscience and pursued the story when it could have easily just been pushed under the rug.