Watergate’s lingering effects

The United States is a nation that is constantly on the go, changing, adapting, and evolving with the times. Change is an inevitable occurrence, but what changed the nation so much that they no longer have faith in those who head the country?

All the blame could easily be pinned on President Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal. That would be simplifying the matter; Watergate was just the last straw for the American people.

The American public had already “been deeply dismayed by the outcomes of the Vietnam War,” according to History; “Watergate added further disappointment in a national climate already soured by the difficulties and losses of the past decade.”

Due to Washington Post’s revealing all the details, people began to look up to news outlets to give them the information they feel they need to  make decisions on their future representatives.

“I think that [the American people] tuned in” after Watergate, government teacher Tana Berrelleza explained, “[it] changed how much the American people trust the government and how much they want to look into who that person really is and what type of character they have.”

So not only did a new generation of Journalists become inspired by the legend of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, but the need for the media to start feeding the people more information about Presidential nominees began and has only been perpetuated throughout further technological advancements.

Berrelleza stated that, “because of the 24 hour news cycles you have to fill the time with something.”

So why not fill it with all the little details of what the possible future leaders of the nations have done throughout their lives?

Never mind the fact that the practical joke they played on their substitute teacher way back in the fifth grade probably has no influence on how they will run a nation twenty years later.