Carl Bernstein | |
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 Bernstein in 2007 | |
| Born | Carl Milton Bernstein (1944-02-14)February 14, 1944 (age 81) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Education | University of Maryland, College Park |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist,author |
| Employer | Vanity Fair |
| Known for | Reporting onWatergate scandal |
| Spouses | Christine Kuehbeck (after 2003) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Alfred Bernstein Sylvia Walker |
Carl Milton Bernstein[1] (/ˈbɜːrnstiːn/BURN-steen; born February 14, 1944) is an Americaninvestigative journalist andauthor. While a young reporter forThe Washington Post in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up withBob Woodward, and the two did much of the original news reporting on theWatergate scandal.[2] These scandals led to numerous government investigations and the eventual resignation of PresidentRichard Nixon. The work of Woodward and Bernstein was called "maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time" by long-time journalism figureGene Roberts.[3]
Bernstein's career since Watergate has continued to focus on the theme of the use and abuse of power via books and magazine articles. He has also done reporting for television and opinion commentary. He is the author or co-author of six books:All the President's Men (1974) andThe Final Days (1976), both with Bob Woodward;Loyalties: A Son's Memoir (1989);His Holiness: John Paul II and the History of Our Time (1996) with Marco Politi;A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton (2007);[4] andChasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom (2022), a memoir of his early years in journalism. Additionally, he is a regular political commentator onCNN.
Bernstein was born to asecular Jewish family in Washington, D.C.[5][6][7] He was the son ofSylvia (née Walker) andAlfred Bernstein.[8][9] Both his parents were civil-rights activists and members of theCommunist Party USA in the 1940s.[8][9] He attendedMontgomery Blair High School inSilver Spring, Maryland, where he worked as circulation and exchange manager for the school's newspaperSilver Chips.[10] He began his journalism career at the age of 16 when he became a copyboy forThe Washington Star and moved "quickly through the ranks".[4] TheStar, however, unofficially required a college degree to write for the paper.[11]
At theUniversity of Maryland, College Park, he was a reporter for the school's independent daily,The Diamondback.[12] However, Bernstein was dismissed from the university after the fall 1964 semester for bad grades.[13][14]
In 1965, Bernstein left theStar to become a full-time reporter for theElizabeth Daily Journal in New Jersey.[15] While there, he won first prize in New Jersey's press association for investigative reporting, feature writing, and news on a deadline.[4] In 1966, Bernstein left New Jersey and began reporting forThe Washington Post, where he covered every aspect of local news and became known as one of the paper's best writing stylists.[16]
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On a Saturday in June 1972, Bernstein was assigned, along withBob Woodward, to cover a break-in at theWatergate office complex that had occurred earlier the same morning. Five burglars had been caught red-handed in the complex, where theDemocratic National Committee had its headquarters; four of them turned out to be ex-CIA agents who did security work for the Republicans. In the series of stories that followed, Bernstein and Woodward eventually connected the burglars to a massiveslush fund and acorrupt attorney general. Bernstein was the first to suspect that President Nixon was involved, and he found a laundered check that linked Nixon to the burglary.[17] Bernstein and Woodward's discoveries led to further investigations of Nixon, and on August 9, 1974, amid hearings by theHouse Judiciary Committee, Nixon resigned to avoid facing impeachment.
In 1974, two years after the Watergate burglary and two months before Nixon resigned, Bernstein and Woodward released the bookAll the President's Men. The book drew upon the notes and research accumulated while writing articles about the scandal for thePost and "remained on best-seller lists for six months". In 1975, it was turned into a movie starringDustin Hoffman as Bernstein andRobert Redford as Woodward which later went on to be nominated in multipleOscar (includingBest Picture nomination),Golden Globe andBAFTA categories.[18] A second book,The Final Days, was published by Bernstein and Woodward in 1976 as a follow-up chronicling Nixon's last days in office.[19]
Bernstein left thePost in 1977 and expanded into other areas due to his reputation from the Watergate reporting. He joined broadcast news in a high growth period. He worked at ABC, CNN, and CBS as a political commentator, and was a spokesman in various television commercials.[20] He began investigating the secret cooperation between theCIA and American media during theCold War. He spent a year in his research, which was published as a 25,000-word article inRolling Stone magazine.[21]
He then began working forABC News. Between 1980 and 1984, Bernstein was the network's Washington Bureau Chief and then a senior correspondent. In 1982, for ABC'sNightline, Bernstein was the first to report[22] during theIsraeli invasion of Lebanon thatAriel Sharon had "deceived the cabinet about the real intention of the operation—to drive the Palestinians out of Lebanon, not (as he had claimed) to merely establish a 25-kilometer security zone north from the border".[23]
Two years after leaving ABC News, Bernstein released the bookLoyalties: A Son's Memoir, in which he revealed that his parents had been members of theCommunist Party of America. The assertion shocked some because evenJ. Edgar Hoover had tried and been unable to prove that Bernstein's parents had been party members.[17]
In 1992, forTime, Bernstein wrote a cover story publicizing the alliance betweenPope John Paul II and PresidentRonald Reagan. Later, along with Vatican expertMarco Politi, he published a papal biography entitledHis Holiness. Bernstein wrote in the 1996 book that the Pope's role in supportingSolidarity in his native Poland, and his geopolitical dexterity combined with enormous spiritual influence, was a principal factor in the downfall of communism in Europe.[24]
In 1992, Bernstein wrote a cover story forThe New Republic magazine indicting modern journalism for its sensationalism and celebration of gossip over real news. The article was entitled "The Idiot Culture".
Bernstein's biography ofHillary Rodham Clinton,A Woman In Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, was published byAlfred A. Knopf on June 5, 2007. Knopf had a first printing of 275,000 copies. It appeared onThe New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks.[25] ACBS News end-of-year survey of publishing "hits and misses" includedA Woman in Charge in the "miss" category and implied that its total sales were somewhere in the range of perhaps 55,000–65,000 copies.[26]
Bernstein is a frequent guest and analyst on television news programs, and in 2011 wrote articles forNewsweek/The Daily Beast, comparingRupert Murdoch'sNews of the World phone-hacking scandal to Watergate.[27]
In 2012, Carl Bernstein spoke at a rally of thePeople's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, saying he attended as an advocate "who believes in basic human rights" and that "the evil, the terrorism, the real terrorism, is in the heart of Tehran, not in this room".[28]
On CNN in 2024, Bernstein reported that President Biden had 15 to 20 incidents of cognitive decline in early 2024, increasing media calls for Biden to drop out before he did shortly after.[29]
Bernstein has been married three times, first to a fellow reporter atThe Washington Post, Carol Honsa; then to writer and directorNora Ephron from 1976 to 1980; and since 2003 to the former model Christine Kuehbeck.
During his marriage to Ephron, Bernstein metMargaret Jay, daughter of British Prime MinisterJames Callaghan and wife ofPeter Jay, then UK ambassador to the United States. They had a much-publicized extramarital relationship in 1979. Margaret later became a government minister in her own right.[30] Bernstein and second wife Ephron already had an infant son, Jacob, and she was pregnant with their second son, Max, in 1979 when she learned of her husband's affair with Jay. Ephron delivered Max prematurely after finding out.[31] Ephron was inspired by the events to write the 1983 novelHeartburn,[30] which was made into a1986 film starringMeryl Streep andJack Nicholson.
While single, in the 1980s, Bernstein became known for datingBianca Jagger,Martha Stewart, andElizabeth Taylor,[17] among others.
Bernstein was portrayed byDustin Hoffman in the film version ofAll the President's Men[32] and byBruce McCulloch in the1999 comedy filmDick.[33] In Nora Ephron'sHeartburn,[34] a 1986 semi-autobiographical comedy/drama,Jack Nicholson played Mark Feldman, a character based on Carl Bernstein.
Although they worked together to report the Watergate scandal to the world, Bernstein and Woodward had very different personalities. Raised in a traditional Republican household, Woodward was very well-educated and has been described as gentle. After graduating from Yale University, he joinedThe Washington Post; nine months later, he was assigned the Watergate break-in story. On the other hand, Bernstein was born to a Communist Jewish family. He was rebellious, which led to him failing out of college. He was ten months further along in his career than Woodward when the scandal broke out.[35]
They were also different in work styles. Woodward's strength was in investigation, so he focused on investigating the Watergate scandal. He met hisDeep Throat source secretly to get as much information as possible. His writing was serious and matter-of-fact. However, Bernstein was the first of the pair to think that the Watergate case could be related to President Richard Nixon. Compared to Woodward, Bernstein was a strong writer, and therefore wrote articles based on Woodward's information from Deep Throat.[36] Due to their different styles, other journalists described them as a perfect team.Alicia Shepard said, "Carl was the big thinker, and Woodward was the one that [made] sure it got done ... [T]hey knew that each of them had strengths that the other didn't, and they relied on one another."[37]
Bernstein told the Journal about the role Judaism has played in his life, saying he was raised in a secular household by atheist parents who were involved with groups including the Workmen's Circle, an organization founded in the early 20th century to support Eastern European Jewish immigrants facing a challenging labor environment upon arriving in the United States
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