Carl Bernstein

The newsroom was his education and he got into one at 16, as a copyboy at the Washington Star. His parents, Alfred and Sylvia Bernstein, were civil rights organizers who had been members of the Communist Party USA in the 1940s, a fact their son did not put into print for another four decades. The University of Maryland dismissed him after the fall semester of 1964 for bad grades, and he never went back for the degree. He spent a year reporting at the Elizabeth Daily Journal in New Jersey, and in 1966 the Washington Post hired him. He was 22 and already six years into the trade, a metro reporter with a reputation for working sources other people would not bother with.

In 1972 an editor paired him with another young reporter on what looked like a burglary at an office building. Bernstein followed the money, and what he pulled loose was a laundered check for 25,000 dollars that tied the break-in to Nixon's campaign finance operation. All the President's Men, written with Bob Woodward, came out in 1974 and stayed on the bestseller lists six months. The Final Days followed in 1976. He left the Post in 1977, and on October 20 that year Rolling Stone ran his 25,000-word account of the CIA's relationships with American news organizations. He was ABC News Washington bureau chief from 1980 to 1984, then wrote a memoir of his parents, a life of John Paul II with Marco Politi, and a life of Hillary Clinton.

The prize went to the building. The 1973 Pulitzer Gold Medal for Public Service was awarded to The Washington Post for its investigation of Watergate, as that category always is: to the paper, not to reporters. The credit that did attach to individuals attached unevenly, and Barry Sussman, the editor who directed the coverage, largely dropped out of the popular account. Then the story ate the private life. Bernstein married Nora Ephron in 1976. The marriage ended in 1980 after an affair with Margaret Jay, and Ephron wrote it into the 1983 novel Heartburn, which became a 1986 film with Jack Nicholson playing the husband. Dustin Hoffman had played him ten years before that. He has been a character in other people's work ever since.

He is 82 and still filing. Chasing History, in 2022, went back to the Star and the boy who was 16 in the copy room. In 2024 he reported that President Biden had shown 15 to 20 incidents of cognitive decline earlier that year, which put him crosswise with a good deal of his own audience. What has not moved in 50 years is the ordering. Woodward and Bernstein, in that sequence, treated as a single noun. Woodward stayed at the Post and built a book on every administration since. Bernstein went to television and to biography, and kept arguing in public about what reporting is supposed to be for.

Carl Bernstein's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• All the President's Men book
  With Bob Woodward. Six months on the bestseller lists. 1974
• The Final Days book
  With Woodward, on the end of the Nixon presidency 1976
• The CIA and the Media article
  25,000 words in Rolling Stone, October 20, 1977 1977
• Loyalties: A Son's Memoir book
  On his parents and the Communist Party membership he confirmed in print 1989
• His Holiness: John Paul II and the History of Our Time book
  Written with Marco Politi 1996
• A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton book
  A first printing of 275,000 copies 2007

• 1960 aged ~16 Hired as a copyboy at the Washington Star at 16
• 1964 aged ~20 Dismissed from the University of Maryland for bad grades He never returned for a degree.
• 1966 aged ~22 Joins The Washington Post at 22
• 1972 aged ~28 Traces a laundered 25,000-dollar check from the burglars to the Nixon campaign
• 1973 aged ~29 The Post wins the Pulitzer Gold Medal for Public Service The award goes to the newspaper. No reporter is named on it.
• 1976 aged ~32 Marries Nora Ephron The marriage ended in 1980 and became the novel Heartburn in 1983.
• October 20, 1977 aged 33 Rolling Stone publishes The CIA and the Media He had left the Post earlier that year.
• 1989 aged ~45 Publishes Loyalties and confirms his parents' Communist Party membership
• 2022 aged ~78 Publishes Chasing History, a memoir of the copyboy years

• Bob Woodward b. 1943
  Investigative reporter whose coverage of Watergate with Carl Bernstein led to President Nixon's resignation. reported Watergate with
• Ben Bradlee 1921–2014
  Editor who built The Washington Post into a leading national newspaper and directed its Watergate coverage. edited by
• Katharine Graham 1917–2001
  Publisher who strengthened The Washington Post and backed its reporting on the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. published by
• Richard Nixon 1913–1994
  37th President whose foreign policy achievements were overshadowed by the Watergate scandal. reported on
• Dustin Hoffman b. 1937
  Two-time Oscar winner whose roles in The Graduate and Rain Man showcased extraordinary range. played him on screen
• Hillary Clinton b. 1947
  First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State, and first woman to win a major party's presidential nomination. wrote a life of