Early life and career

Bernstein was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Sylvia (Walker) and Alfred Bernstein. He attended Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he worked as circulation and exchange manager for the school's newspaper Silver Chips. He began his journalism career at the age of 16 when he became a copyboy for The Washington Star and moved "quickly through the ranks." The Star, however, unofficially required a college degree to write for the paper. Because he had dropped out from the University of Maryland (where he was a reporter for the school's independent daily, The Diamondback) and did not intend to finish, Bernstein left in 1965 to become a full-time reporter for the Elizabeth Daily Journal in New Jersey. While there, he won first prize in New Jersey's press association for investigative reporting, feature writing, and news on a deadline. In 1966, Bernstein left New Jersey and began reporting for the Washington Post, where he covered every aspect of local news and became known as one of the paper's best writing stylists.

Watergate

Watergate scandal
Watergate complex
Events
List Timeline Nixon White House tapes Operation Sandwedge Operation Gemstone 1972 U.S. presidential election Presidency of Richard Nixon "Saturday Night Massacre" "White House horrors" United States v. Nixon Resignation speech Inauguration of Gerald Ford
People
Watergate burglars Bernard Barker Virgilio Gonzalez Eugenio Martínez James W. McCord, Jr. Frank Sturgis
Groups Master list of Nixon's political opponents Nixon's Enemies List Watergate Babies Watergate Seven White House Plumbers
CRP Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP) Fred LaRue Jeb Stuart Magruder Robert Mardian John N. Mitchell Kenneth Parkinson Hugh W. Sloan, Jr. Maurice Stans
White House President Richard Nixon Alexander Butterfield Charles Colson John Dean John Ehrlichman Gerald Ford H. R. Haldeman E. Howard Hunt Egil Krogh G. Gordon Liddy Gordon C. Strachan Rose Mary Woods
Judiciary Archibald Cox Leon Jaworski John Sirica
Journalists Carl Bernstein Bob Woodward The Washington Post
Intelligence community Mark Felt L. Patrick Gray Richard Helms James R. Schlesinger
Congress Howard Baker Sam Ervin Peter W. Rodino U.S. Senate Watergate Committee

Main article: Watergate scandal

On a Saturday in June 1972, Bernstein was assigned, along with Bob Woodward, to cover a break-in at the Watergate office complex that had occurred earlier the same morning. Five burglars had been caught red-handed in the complex, where the Democratic National Committee had its headquarters; one of them turned out to be an ex-CIA agent who did security work for the Republicans. In the series of stories that followed, Bernstein and Woodward eventually connected the burglars to a massive slush fund and a corrupt attorney general. Bernstein was the first to suspect that President Nixon was involved, and he found a laundered check that linked Nixon to the burglary. Bernstein and Woodward's discoveries led to further investigations of Nixon, and on August 9, 1974, amid hearings by the House Judiciary Committee, Nixon resigned in order to avoid facing impeachment.

In 1974, two years after the Watergate burglary and two months before Nixon resigned, Bernstein and Woodward released the book All the President's Men. The book drew upon the notes and research accumulated while writing articles about the scandal for the Post and "remained on best-seller lists for six months." In 1975 it was turned into a movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein and Robert Redford as Woodward. A second book, The Final Days, was published by Bernstein and Woodward in 1976 as a follow-up chronicling Nixon's last days in office.

After Watergate

Bernstein left the Washington Post in 1977 and began investigating a secret relationship between the CIA and American media during the Cold War. He spent a year researching the article, which was published as a 25,000-word piece in Rolling Stone magazine.

He then began working for ABC News. Between 1980 and 1984, Bernstein was the network's Washington Bureau Chief and then a senior correspondent. In 1982, for ABC's Nightline, Bernstein was the first to report during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon that Ariel Sharon had "deceived the cabinet about the real intention of the operation—to drive the Palestinians out of Lebanon, not (as he had claimed) to merely establish a 25-kilometer security zone north from the border".

Two years after leaving ABC News, Bernstein released the book Loyalties: A Son's Memoir, in which he revealed that his parents had been members of the Communist Party. The assertion shocked some because even J. Edgar Hoover had tried and been unable to prove that Bernstein's parents had been party members. According to the memoir, which was highly acclaimed, the FBI conducted surveillance on his family over a 30-year period and produced over 2,500 pages of documents, including notes taken by agents staking out Bernstein's bar mitzvah.

Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Bernstein went to Iraq to cover the events for Time magazine. In a special report several weeks before the Gulf War began, Bernstein revealed the discontent and hatred felt against Saddam Hussein by many in Iraq. He was subsequently expelled from the country and flown out to Egypt.

In 1992, also for Time, Bernstein wrote a cover story publicizing the alliance between Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan. Later, along with Vatican expert Marco Politi, he published a papal biography entitled His Holiness. Bernstein wrote in the 1996 book that the Pope’s role in supporting Solidarity in his native Poland, and his geopolitical dexterity combined with enormous spiritual influence, was a principal factor in the downfall of communism in Europe.

In 1992, Bernstein wrote a cover story for The New Republic magazine indicting modern journalism for its sensationalism and celebration of gossip over real news. The article was entitled "The Idiot Culture".

Bernstein's most recent book is a biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton. A Woman In Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton was published by Alfred A. Knopf on June 5, 2007, and became both a New York Times and national bestseller.

Bernstein is a frequent guest and analyst on television news programs, and most recently wrote articles for Newsweek/The Daily Beast, comparing Rupert Murdoch's News of the World phone-hacking scandal to Watergate.

Personal life

Bernstein graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. He subsequently attended the University of Maryland, College Park, but did not graduate. Bernstein, who considers himself a secular Jew, is an honorary lifetime member of B'nai B'rith and as a teenager served as president of B'nai B'rith YOUTH, BBYO, in Washington and the mid-Atlantic states.

He has been married three times, first to a fellow reporter at the Washington Post, Carol Honsa; then to writer and director Nora Ephron from 1976 to 1980; and since 2003 to the former model Christine Kuehbeck.

During his marriage to Ephron, Bernstein met Margaret Jay, daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan and wife of Peter Jay, then UK ambassador to the United States. They had a much-publicized extramarital relationship in 1979. Margaret later became a government minister in her own right. Bernstein and his second wife, Nora Ephron, already had an infant son, Jacob, and she was pregnant with their second son, Max, in 1979 when she learned of her husband's affair with Jay. Ephron delivered Max prematurely after finding out. Ephron was inspired by the events to write the 1983 novel Heartburn, which was made into a 1986 film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.

While single, in the 1980s, Bernstein became known for dating Bianca Jagger, Martha Stewart and Elizabeth Taylor, among others.

He is the father of Max and Jacob Bernstein, his two children with Ephron. After Bernstein and Ephron’s divorce, they shared joint custody of their sons. The elder, Jacob, is a journalist who writes for the New York Times and The Daily Beast. Max, a successful rock musician who has had his own bands and commercially released albums, is now the guitar player for pop star Kesha.

Bernstein currently resides in New York with his wife Christine.

Portrayals

Bernstein was portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the film version of All the President's Men, and by Bruce McCulloch in the 1999 comedy film Dick. In the film Heartburn, Jack Nicholson's role was a thinly veiled portrayal of him.

Books authored

• All the President's Men—with Bob Woodward (1974) ISBN 0-671-21781-X,
• The Final Days—with Bob Woodward (1976) ISBN 0-671-22298-8
• Loyalties: A Son's Memoir (1989)
• His Holiness: John Paul II & the History of Our Time—with Marco Politi (1996)
• A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton (2007) ISBN 0-375-40766-9

[ Source: Wikipedia ]