Author and veteran journalist Carl Bernstein shared his impressions of the modern American press during the Wittenberg Series’ Fred R. Leventhal Family Endowed Lecture, Nov. 4.

In his address, titled “The Use and Abuse of Media Power,” Bernstein, who broke the Watergate story in the 1970s for The Washington Post, said he was bothered by the apparent unwillingness of today’s American press to seek out the real truth.

The picture being presented by the press, Bernstein said, is illusionary, delusional, out-of-touch and disfigured by celebrity, gossip, sensationalism and manufactured controversy.

“What we have is a triumph of the idiot culture,” he said, adding that the weird, stupid and coarse are becoming cultural norms. “The role of a journalist is to challenge people, not to mindlessly amuse them.”

Bernstein also encouraged journalists to cover other subjects with the same rigor and intensity that they displayed during the O.J. Simpson case and now are displaying with the Lewinsky/Clinton scandal.

Among the topics in need of serious coverage are welfare, the burdened school system, race relations, the country’s prisons and the media, according to Bernstein. “It’s time to get back to the business of real reporting,” he said.

Following his address, Bernstein, co-author with Bob Woodward of All the President’s Men and The Final Days, best-selling books that recounted the investigation into the scandal that brought down the Nixon Administration, also responded to questions, including ones inquiring about the identity of “Deep Throat.”

“Deep Throat is not a composite,” he said, adding that arrangements have been made to reveal his identity once he dies.
Bernstein has served as Washington Bureau Chief and Senior Correspondent for ABC-TV.

He has also co-authored His Holiness: John Paul II and the Hidden History of Our Time (1996). A former rock ’n’ roll music critic for The Washington Post, Bernstein still enjoys reviewing music. He is currently a contributing editor for Vanity Fair.