The Press and Watergate at 50: Understanding and Reconstructing a Seminal Story.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Watergate, this article synthesizes the cross-disciplinary scholarly literature on the role journalism played in Nixon's fall from power. The paper describes prominent myths about Woodward and Bernstein's Washington Post articles, Deep Throat, and the simplified narrative that presumes the press toppled Nixon. Subsequently, we explain why Watergate remains an important story for journalism, noting how it pushed investigative journalism toward a more adversarial posture that, at its best, emphasized its role as a watchdog of the moral order. The paper also discusses Watergate's significance as a comparative framework for other instances of presidential abuse of power, how its place in historical memory is likely to change in light of transformative journalistic and political events, and directions for scholarly research on this seminal saga in American press history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]