This poorly titled New York Times Opinion piece by David Brooks lends an interesting slant to the Woodward & Bernstein legend.
Watergate has become a modern Horatio Alger story, a real-life fairy tale, an inspiring ode for mediacentric college types – about the two young men who found exciting and challenging jobs, who slew the dragon, who became rich and famous by doing good and who were played by Redford and Hoffman in the movie version.
As person who has lived much of the life that Brooks describes in his column, I can attest to the accuracy of his words, and I’d also agree that the Watergate story is “fairy tale.†But Watergate is more Holy Grail than “inspiring ode†— very few of us will ever reach such pinnacles — and I sometimes can help but wonder whether the Quixotic search for the impossible dream created by the Woodward and Bernstein myth only leads us to disappointment.