Review of All the President's Men (1976) by Jc E — 26 Feb 2017

Like the film Spotlight I saw last year, this classic political film demonstrated yet again that the pen is mightier than the sword. These films cannot emphasise enough how important it is for free democracies to have free press to be the watch dogs of the governments or any ruling bodies such as the Vatican and their cardinals.

Freedom and independence of press alone are not enough but also the need of good investigative, responsible journalism. Eager journalists of Washington Post acted by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman vetted by wise and experienced editors exposed the Watergate scandal of Nixon who merely acted on Machiavelli principal of doing whatever to stay in power.

In his case, to spy on his political opponents. The scandal painted the Republicans in a very negative light. But are the liberal Democrats saints in comparison? Absolutely not and the press is not impartial in the dirt they uncover.

One really wonders if the Washington Post would have been just as zealous to witch hunt Nixon if he was Democrat. In any case, a free press is a necessary pillar in all good advance democracies because if we have learnt any thing from history, it is all in power such as the US government or cardinals in the Catholic church, will become corrupt even if they weren't in the beginning.