Where is Wood-Stein?

On Thursday morning, I had an opportunity to watch the movie, "All the President's Men," a film of moderate cinematic ability, with a cast of great actors, and probably, the best film of political duplicity and intrigue ever made. But certainly this commentary is not a movie review, as those of you who know me, since that's not my forte.

Instead, this film is a testimony to what two unknown journalists and a great newspaper did in a time when the gathering of information was done via telephone, on foot, with a pencil and notebook, rather than with a computer, smart phone, the Internet and Wikipedia. They and it investigated our government to its highest levels, without fear of recrimination where the investigation may have led.

It took guts and nerves of steel for the Washington Post's Managing Editor Ben Bradlee and his two gumshoe reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, known fondly as Wood-Stein, to persevere on a story others couldn't bother to cover, because they felt it was a dead end story, or were afraid to, out of fear what might be revealed. In the end, Bradlee, Woodward and Bernstein, as well as the entire staff and ownership of WaPo, were rewarded with the knowledge that they had done the right thing for the country and were acknowledged with Pulitzers for their work.

As I watched the film, I remembered how much I felt at that time that WaPo was destroying the American fabric by chasing a third rate burglary as if it were a political assassination of our President, who in his right mind, could never condone such criminal behavior. But, of course, he did by agreeing to resign rather than face impeachment for his deeds. The Post was vindicated for its pursuits of a President's misdeeds. And rightly so.

And then, I wondered why this great paper, as well as some of the others like, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, along with CBS, NBC and ABC, and cable news, and the thousands of reporters, have decided to abrogate their journalistic integrity and responsibility with the potential scandals in the Obama Administration. What has happened over the years that has made the MSM give this administration a pass when they doggedly pursued potential scandals in every administration since 1972, both Democrat and Republican. Until now.

I am not accusing President Obama of wrongdoing, necessarily. But I can not say the same about key members of his administration. Just like with President Nixon, perhaps he has placed too much faith and trust in his subordinates, and has given them too much latitude to exercise the President's best interests and wishes with too much zeal.

But ultimately, it is the duty of a free press to keep an eye on the government and hold it to task when it becomes too gluttonous for the people's freedom and liberties. Or soon, the press, too, will no longer be free.