In sharp contrast to today, the film reveals a time when the majority of Americans trusted what they read in the press.
Articles on Watergate
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Presidential records are the public’s property. The Justice Department wants to change that and revert to a time when presidents could do what they wanted with their papers, including burning them.
All The President’s Men is a masterpiece of political cinema. Watching it 50 years on, it feels less historically distant than it does disturbingly prescient.
Scandals don’t have the resonance they used to. Both parties could do more to police offenders within their own ranks.
Congress has played an important role in holding federal agencies accountable since the late 1700s, but oversight can also devolve into a political circus.
The former FBI director’s indictment breaks a principle that has protected American democracy for 50 years.
FBI director Kash Patel says he is making the bureau more accountable. Critics charge him with purging it of anyone not perceived as loyal to President Trump.
Some observers compare FBI Director Kash Patel to J. Edgar Hoover. A better historical match is the politically motivated William J. Burns.
The former US president was widely criticised for his time in government, but his work on leaving office came to exemplify what a post-presidential life could entail.
His return follows the trail of another American president who rebounded from defeat to victory and then four years of unchecked power.
Politicians have long used the phrase ‘I misspoke’ when backpedaling for verbal inaccuracies or blunders. Now it’s used as a euphemistic recasting of lying as an inadvertent mistake.
President Gerald Ford’s pardon of former President Richard Nixon 50 years ago is seen as a damaging precedent establishing presidential impunity. Now, the Supreme Court has affirmed that impunity.
In 1988, the US Supreme Court ruled that independent counsels were constitutional.
Critics are decrying the long time the Supreme Court has taken to rule in a crucial Trump case, charging that it’s politically motivated to help Trump. A scholar of the court says they’re wrong.
In 1974, the Supreme Court accepted, heard and decided a case within two months because the justices understood its importance to the public.
The parallels between Trump and Nixon are abundantly clear. Yet even Nixon acknowledged the fundamental importance of accountability in a democracy.
Made at a time when America was facing crises on many fronts, William Friedkin’s film has profound things to say about humanity and society.
Special counsels can help presidential administrations avoid the perception of bias, but they are not as independent as the independent counsels of the past.
The New York Times’ publication of the Pentagon Papers showed the paper was willing to jeopardize connections to other powerful institutions, including the government, to serve the public interest.
Accountants spurred Al Capone’s downfall and the Watergate scandal was revealed when reporters ‘followed the money.’ Will they also bring down Donald Trump?
Top contributors
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Research Specialist, the Miller Center, University of Virginia
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Associate Professor of Political Science, Westminster College
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Assistant Professor of Government, Smith College
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Professor of History, Penn State
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Associate Professor of Law, Arizona State University
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Associate Professor of Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin
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Assistant Professor of Political Science, Auburn University
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Associate Professor of Journalism, Marist College
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Professor of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University - Newark
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Associate Professor of Political Science, Erie Campus, Penn State
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Assistant professor of government, American University School of Public Affairs
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Professor of Economics, University of Michigan
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Vice Provost for Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate Division, Professor of Education, University of California, Berkeley
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Provost Associate Professor, American University School of International Service
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The E. William Davis Jr, M.D. Professor of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University