Covering Watergate

1972-1974

Introduction
Investigations
Create Your Own Story Activity
Social Media Editor
Outcomes

Primary Source Interactives

Watergate Investigation Begins

Woodward’s Notes

Woodward and Bernstein on Firing Line

Journalist Duty to Detachment

Public Television Enters the Landscape

Introducing Wall-to-Wall Coverage

Media Literacy and Civic Engagement

Viewers Weigh in on Watergate Coverage

Senate Watergate Hearings

Political Cartoon

Newsroom Diversity

Then and Now

A newcomer to the journalism landscape, public television aired live coverage of the Watergate hearings during the day and rebroadcast the hearings at night. Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil coanchored the hearings for PBS’s NPACT.

Introduction Woodward’s Notes William F. Buckley’s Firing Line Watergate Hearings Public Watches Gavel to Gavel Coverage Political Cartoons’ Satirical Side Diverse Perspectives in the Press Create Your Own Story Social Media Editor Outcomes

According to MacNeil, NPACT’s gavel-to-gavel coverage of the hearings, which preceded C-SPAN by several years, let Americans draw their own conclusions about Watergate. To read the transcript of the highlight reel from the impeachment hearings, click here.

Directions

Watch the highlight reel from NPACT’s Watergate coverage and respond to the questions in the boxes below.

Highlights from Robert MacNeil (left) and Jim Lehrer's (right) gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973, edited for the purpose of this activity. Permission has been granted for educational purposes only courtesy of WETA-TV via American Archive of Public Broadcasting (WGBH and Library of Congress).

Questions





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Journalism Matters is part of the Teaching with Primary Sources Partner Program.
Supported by a grant from the Library of Congress