Culture
50 años del escándalo Watergate: Woodward y Bernstein recuerdan la investigación que llevó a la renuncia de Richard Nixon
En esta entrevista con Speak Up, los periodistas Bob Woodward y Carl Bernstein explican los detalles clave de un trabajo periodístico que tuvo un enorme impacto en la política estadounidense.
Alex Phillips, Molly Malcolm
On 17 June 1972, night security guard Frank Wills noticed a piece of tape stuck to the latch of a basement door at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. He removed the tape, which was holding the door open, but on his next round it had reappeared. In response to his call, two policemen in plain clothing turned up and caught five men in the act of an apparent robbery.
THE POST Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two young reporters at The Washington Post , picked up
+
to pick up:
agarrar
the story and refused to let it go
+
to let go:
soltar
. With the help of an anonymous informant they called Deep Throat, and with the guidance and backing of their senior colleagues, Bernstein and Woodward began to uncover an earth-shattering
+
earth-shattering:
trascendental (lit. que hace temblar la tierra)
truth. With revelation after revelation, they became convinced that US President Richard Nixon was engaging
+
to engage:
participar, involucrarse
in criminal activity.
CONGRESS As things heated up, Nixon and his men took steps to cover up their involvement in the break-in
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break-in:
allanamiento
. The President’s landslide
+
landslide:
aplastante
re-election in November 1973 appeared to show that, despite the mounting evidence against him, the American public still trusted
+
to trust:
confiar
him. However, mainstream media outlets
+
mainstream media outlets:
medios de comunicación de masas
were publicising the story, and Congress launched its own internal investigation with bipartisan support
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bipartisan support:
apoyo bipartito (de los dos partidos mayoritarios)
.
WITNESSES Over the course of a year, key witnesses testified to an array
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array:
variedad
of clandestine and illegal activities undertaken
+
to undertake:
emprender
by members of the Nixon administration. These included bugging
+
bugging:
colocar escuchas
the offices of opponents, ordering investigations of activist groups, and using the FBI, the CIA and the IRS
+
IRS:
hacienda pública (Internal Revenue Service)
as political weapons to protect the presidency. Finally, in August 1974, leading figures in the Republican Party put pressure on Nixon to resign, which led to him being the first and only US president to do so. Fifty years on, The Washington Post maintains an outstanding
+
outstanding:
excepcional
reputation, and Watergate remains a symbol of investigative reporting worldwide, so much so
+
so much so:
hasta tal punto
that the suffix ‘-gate’ is used to describe political scandals everywhere.
