Last night the Robert Morris University Speakers Series presented Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Bob Woodward of the Washington Post. As we left Heinz Hall last night, Marilyn said that he was "enthralling" and that summed it up perfectly.
Woodward spoke about he and Carl Bernstein's coverage of the entire Watergate story and how its lessons still relate to happenings today. He also spoke of his interactions with and coverage with nine United States Presidents (20% of all of the Presidents in our history), his reverence for his one time boss Katherine Graham, and he concluded with an amazing story of how his feelings evolved over the decision of President Ford to grant Richard Nixon a full pardon for the role that he, Nixon, played in the whole Watergate affair. It was a tremendous story and it led to Ford being given a Profiles in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library some twenty-five years after the pardon.
I will not spell out everything that Woodward spoke of in his lecture last night, as I will stick to my policy to avoid political commentary in this Blog so as to avoid riling people up, but I will mention one comment that he did make. "Every time that a lie is told, a debt is incurred against the truth, and sometimes the repayment of that debt can be very painful." That's not an exact quote, but I think I got the gist of it right.
Suffice to say, I could have listened to Bob Woodward speak for another couple of hours last night.
Oh, and he did end on a humorous note. The final written question from the audience was How cool was it to be portrayed by Robert Redford in a movie? "You have no idea" Woodward responded, "how many women that has caused me to disappoint over the years."
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