Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
What is so good about All the President’s Men is that most books about journalists are full of gun fights and car chases – but that’s just not what the job involves. Woodward and Bernstein simply wrote a great, really detailed account of the work that went into the case. I still use sections from it as case studies when I give lectures.
Thanks for speaking to us. I thought we’d dive in by discussing your first choice, All the President’s Men. Was this your inspiration? Isn’t that the dream: bringing down the government, exposing corruption?
[Laughs] Well I guess it is. Initially I didn’t mean to be a journalist. I planned to go to Latin America and become a revolutionary when I finished university. Not very realistic, I realise now, but I was quite serious about it. But Watergate was just hitting the headlines around then and it made me realise that I could "bring down the government" without having to move to Mexico City or learn Spanish.
What is so good about All the President’s Men is that most books about journalists are full of gun fights and car chases – but that’s just not what the job involves. Woodward and Bernstein simply wrote a great, really detailed account of the work that went into the case. I still use sections from it as case studies when I give lectures.
Certainly when I read it, it was the first time I realised how little they initially understood what they had stumbled upon – I’ve heard one investigative journalist, I think it was David Leigh, describing the beginnings of an investigation as being like wandering around in the dark with a knife.
Yes, that sounds like something he might say. Many investigations start like that – you’ll have one or two leads, and then you need your imagination to develop theories about what the truth might be. So you are in the dark about what the truth is.
You’ve had some pretty huge investigations in your time – most recently the News of the World hacking scandal. Have you ever felt really out of your depth? If you’re not sure where you’re going with the investigation you must have to be good at thinking on your feet.
You can feel out of your depth in more ways than one. Firstly you can feel out of your depth in terms of understanding – by that I mean in very complex and technical investigations like the ‘Tax Gap’ investigation that I worked on with The Guardian earlier this year. Or it might be simply because you don’t know where the investigation’s headed, and what exactly you want to find out.
Also, you can feel out of your depth when you find yourself in a risky situation. When I was working on my book Dark Heart – investigating poverty, working with child prostitutes, trying to get into crack houses – you do get into slightly dangerous situations. I’d be dealing with some big guys, who I’d definitely come off worse than in a fight.
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Investigative journalist Nick Davies says when he started out reporting PR copy was a real rarity. If you were writing about crime, you’d call the police station and speak to an officer. If you were writing about healthcare you’d probably speak to a doctor. ‘But these days it’s all fenced off, with press officers and press offices, and all your potential sources have been warned not to speak to the filthy hacks.’ He chooses five books on investigative journalism including, of course, All The President’s Men.
