Adjunct professor Alicia Shepard was the main focus at a School of Communication event last Friday, spotlighting her new book, "Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate." The event, co-hosted by the Society for Professional Journalists, featured Shepard's discussion of the book's content as well as a few of her reasons for writing it. Following the discussion there was a viewing of "All the President's Men," a movie based on the book that Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward wrote about their lives during the Watergate scandal.
Shepard is an SOC professor teaching journalism at AU. She has been a journalist for several years, writing for various prominent newspapers including the Washington Post and the New York Times. She is the recipient of three National Press Club awards for her media criticism. Currently, she is a regular contributor to People and the Washingtonian and also co-authored a book about journalists during 9/11 called "Running Toward Danger."
Shepard's latest book, which was released on Nov. 1, consists of 175 interviews and four years of research that give an in-depth view of what happened to Woodward and Bernstein during the Watergate scandal and the years since. As the title suggests, Shepard addresses the fact that both have had to live in the shadow of Watergate, constantly referred to as the journalists who broke the story on June 17, 1972.
A lot of the information for the book came from what Shepard refers to as the "contents of their desks" during the Watergate scandal.
"The University of Texas, in April of 2003, paid five million dollars for their papers, so that to me established them as major journalistic icons who were worthy for a book because who else - what other journalists could possibly demand that kind of money?" Shepard said.
Although Shepard said "it was a gift" to spend so much time doing research at the University of Texas, she spent most nights in the library until 2 a.m. and regrets missing out on experiencing her surroundings.
"Here I was in this cool place, Austin, Texas, with all this great live music and I really couldn't partake in it," she said.
Shepard also said that writing the book was probably the most difficult thing she has ever done.
As a journalist, Shepard looked at the contributions that Woodward and Bernstein made to the profession. She says they have made four major impacts on journalism: they signaled the advent of celebrity journalism, when journalists become bigger than the story; they popularized the use of anonymous sources; they increased a demand for investigative journalism; and changed the relationship between the White House and the White House press from one of civility to the pushiness that's seen today.
Shepard acknowledges that while Woodward and Bernstein did not set out to change the face of journalism, it is most certainly what they did.
With the recent discovery of the identity of Deep Throat, the infamous anonymous source that uncovered Watergate, and the publication of Woodward's book, "State of Denial," Shepard's book is particularly relevant.
"I hope that it is a really fast-paced, great story with a dynamite ending," Shepard said.
