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On Jan. 14, 2019 at the Newseum in Washington DC, the Deseret News will convene a conversation about integrity and trust with two people who had a front-row seat to the Watergate scandal.
Fake news, diminishing trust and public lapses of integrity by business and political leaders, is fraying the fabric of the nation. Woodward and Christofferson will provide insight, inspiration and perspective on the need for integrity and restraint in order to restore trust in institutions, in communities and within individual relationships.
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The current climate of diminishing trust in politicians and institutions has its roots in events that rocked the nation in the early 1970s.
On Jan. 14, 2019, the Deseret News will convene a conversation about integrity and trust with two people who had a front-row seat to the Watergate scandal.
Bob Woodward — Woodward and his Washington Post colleague Carl Bernstein won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking the Watergate story in 1973. Woodward won a second Pulitzer in 2003 for his post-9/11 coverage. He has authored 19 best-selling nonfiction books, including “All the President’s Men” (with Bernstein) and “Fear: Trump in the White House.” He currently is an associate editor at The Washington Post.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson — As a law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge John Sirica, he was among the first to hear the Nixon White House tapes. Elder Christofferson left a distinguished legal career in 1993 to become a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he currently serves as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Also, Michael Dimock, President of the Pew Research Center — a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world — will present research findings about trust in individuals, elected officials and public institutions.
Fake news, diminishing trust and public lapses of integrity by business and political leaders, is fraying the fabric of the nation. Woodward and Christofferson will provide insight, inspiration and perspective on the need for integrity and restraint in order to restore trust in institutions, in communities and within individual relationships.
On Monday, Jan. 14, legendary Washington Post reporter Bob Woodwardwill meet Elder D. Todd Christofferson, a law clerk for Judge John J. Sirica who was among the first to listen to President Richard Nixon’s White House tapes, to engage in a discussion on honesty and trust in public life. Hosted by the Deseret News and held at the Newseum, “Integrity & Trust: Lessons from Watergate and Today” will highlight the lessons Woodward and Christofferson took away from their Watergate experiences, how those lessons have shaped their lives and how those lessons apply today. To provide further context, Michael Dimock, president of the Pew Research Center, will present findings from recent polling on trust in individuals, elected officials and institutions.
As a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, Bob Woodward is known for relentlessly pursuing the truth. Inspired by Judge Damon J. Keith’s statement that “Democracy dies in the dark,” Woodward often uses that idea in reference to the Nixon years. (The Washington Post began using the phrase “Democracy dies in darkness” as its slogan in 2017.) Woodward is an associate editor of the Post and author of 18 nonfiction books, including 13 that topped best-seller lists.
Along with Judge Sirica, Elder Christofferson was one of the first to hear the tape recordings that implicated President Nixon in covering up the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex. Last year, Elder Christofferson told an audience at Oxford that many media commentators at the time talked about Nixon as if he were pure evil. “But such a critique is too easy, as if only those who are inherently bad make serious mistakes, not us ‘normal people.’…To me, this is a false view of Watergate and draws the wrong lessons.”
Christofferson left a distinguished legal career in 1993 to become a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he now serves as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, providing spiritual guidance to millions of believers around the world.
As President of the Pew Research Center, Michael Dimock works to ensure that one of the nation’s most trusted research institutions maintains the high standard of credibility that has made it such a frequently cited resource for commentators on both sides of today’s most vital issues.
Event details:
Integrity and Trust:
Lessons from Watergate and Today
Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, 6:30-8:00pm
Newseum, Washington, D.C.
Media: Please RSVP by contacting Kylie Neslen: kneslen@deseretnews.com