W. Joseph Campbell

, , , , , , ,

‘Follow the money’: A made-up Watergate line

In Cinematic treatments, Debunking, Media myths, Newspapers, Washington Post, Watergate myth on November 6, 2010 at 6:52 am

“Follow the money” is one of the most memorable phrases of Watergate-era American journalism.

And it’s a made-up line.

That hasn’t prevented it from being invoked, as it was yesterday in a blog post at the online financial site, MarketWatch.

The item discussed how the Washington Post continues to be buoyed by its Kaplan education-testing service unit, saying:

“If Kaplan’s business ever went south, the Washington Post Co. would be in big trouble—and the flagship newspaper would likely become a shadow of its former self.”

No doubt.

The MarketWatch item closed by invoking the “follow the money” phrase, stating:

“The Post family had better pray that nothing unsettles Kaplan’s business. Kaplan is their lifeblood and future. As the Post preached during its glory days, the Watergate investigations of the 1970s, follow the money.”

The attempt to offer a cute closing line misfired. “Follow the money” never figured in the newspaper’s Watergate coverage–which is the topic of a chapter in my latest book, Getting It Wrong.

A search of the electronic archive of all issues of the Post from June 1, 1972, to October 1, 1974, the period embracing the Watergate scandal, produced no returns for the phrase “follow the money.”

The line, however, was uttered in the cinematic version of All the President’s Men by the anonymous and mysterious source code-named “Deep Throat.” The movie dramatized the Watergate reporting of Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and was based on their non-fiction book by the same title.

But the phrase “follow the money” doesn’t appear in the book.

As I noted in a blog post last month, the line was “kind of made up for the movie,” according to an item at the online site of National Public Radio.

That item quoted an NPR research librarian as saying that newsman Daniel Schorr once asked her “to find the phrase ‘follow the money’ in the book All The President’s Men.”

The librarian was further quoted as saying that she “went through the book page by page,” finding that the “phrase does not appear there.

“And then in talking to Bob Woodward and the screenwriter, William Goldman, Dan discovered that [the phrase is] actually kind of made up for the movie.”

I also noted that former Nixon speechwriter William Safire offered in 1997 a somewhat more detailed version of the anecdote, writing in the New York Times Sunday Magazine that Woodward and Goldman blamed each other for having invented the line.

“The screenplay was written by William Goldman,” Safire wrote. “When Schorr called him, the famed screenwriter at first insisted that the line came from the book; when proved mistaken about that, he said: ‘I can’t believe I made it up. I was in constant contact with Woodward while writing the screenplay. I guess he made it up.”’

Safire wrote that Schorr “then called Woodward, who could not find the phrase in his exhaustive notes of Watergate interviews. The reporter told Schorr he could no longer rely on his memory as to whether Deep Throat had said the line and was inclined to believe that Goldman had invented it.”

(New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote in 2005 that Goldman took credit for coming up with “follow the money.”)

The Post in an article last summer praised All the President’s Men, which was released in 1976, saying the movie had “held up not only as a taut, well-made thriller but as the record itself of the Watergate scandal that transpired four years earlier.”

The Post article also stated:

“It barely matters that the film’s most iconic piece of dialogue–‘Follow the money’– was never spoken in real life.”

How so, it barely matters?

It certainly does matter. The memorable, often-quoted but phony line is emblematic of the exaggerations that characterize the movie.

Far from being “the record itself of the Watergate scandal,” the cinematic version of All the President’s Men presented “a neat, tidy, and vastly simplified account” of the scandal, I write in Getting It Wrong. It’s a version “that allowed viewers to sidestep the scandal’s complexity while engaging in an entertaining storyline.”

The movie version helped cement the heroic-journalist myth of Watergate by leaving the inescapable but erroneous impression that Woodward and Bernstein were central to unraveling the scandal and to forcing the resignation of a president.

WJC

Recent and related:

Many thanks to fivefeetoffury and
to Ed Driscoll for linking to this post.

  1. […] ‘Follow the money’: A made-up Watergate line […]

    The sporting version of the ‘Cronkite Moment’ « Media Myth Alert 9 November 2010 at 8am

  2. […] ‘Follow the money’: A made-up Watergate line […]

    Inaugurating the Parker-Qualls lecture « Media Myth Alert 11 November 2010 at 10pm

  4. […] ‘Follow the money’: A made-up Watergate line […]

    Jimmy Carter fumbles Watergate history « Media Myth Alert 23 November 2010 at 6am

  5. […] Newspapers, Washington Post, Watergate myth on November 30, 2010 at 9:38 am Watergate’s most famous made-line up — “follow the money,” which was a cinematic invention not the revealing words of […]

    That made-up Watergate line resonates abroad « Media Myth Alert 30 November 2010 at 9am

  6. […] today, the famous made-up line of Watergate, “follow the money,” popped up in the sports pages of a newspaper in Midland, […]

    Mythical ‘follow the money’ line turns up in sports « Media Myth Alert 5 December 2010 at 6pm

  7. […] is, as I’ve noted, one of the most memorable phrases of Watergate-era American journalism. But the phrase never […]

    ‘Follow the tenspot’ « Media Myth Alert 12 December 2010 at 10am

  8. […] ‘Follow the money’: A made-up Watergate line […]

    LOC honor stirs references to Watergate myth « Media Myth Alert 29 December 2010 at 12pm

  9. […] I’ve noted at Media Myth Alert, electronic archives containing issues of the Post show that the phrase […]

    Turning to that fake Watergate line, ‘follow the money’ « Media Myth Alert 11 January 2011 at 8am

  10. […] for the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, obtained from their secretive “Deep Throat” source information that incriminated President Richard Nixon and brought about his […]

    Serving up Watergate, très simple « Media Myth Alert 1 February 2011 at 9am

  11. […] Washington Post, Watergate myth on February 8, 2011 at 10:32 am Watergate’s most famous made-up line – “follow the money” — is impressively versatile and doggedly persistent, […]

    ‘Follow the money’: Why the made-up Watergate line endures « Media Myth Alert 8 February 2011 at 10am

  12. […] What most interests Media Myth Alert is Spear’s using that famous made-up line, “follow the […]

    ‘Follow the money’ and the ‘new blue bloods’ in Parliament « Media Myth Alert 12 February 2011 at 10am

  13. […] effort to call attention to a prominent media myth — that famous, often-invoked but totally made-up line of Watergate, “follow the money.” Safire, […]

    Hat-tipping ‘On Language’ « Media Myth Alert 26 February 2011 at 7am

  15. […] ‘Follow the money’: A made-up Watergate line […]

    Exaggerating Cleveland as ’70s Belfast on the lake « Media Myth Alert 7 March 2011 at 7am

  16. […] ‘Follow the money’: A made-up Watergate line […]

    Pumping up Watergate’s heroic-journalist myth « Media Myth Alert 10 March 2011 at 2pm

  17. […] ‘Follow the money,’ a made-up Watergate line […]

    Mythmaking in Moscow: Biden says WaPo brought down Nixon « Media Myth Alert 12 March 2011 at 7am

  18. […] ‘Follow the money,’ a made-up Watergate line […]

    WaPo ‘broke the Watergate scandal’? No way « Media Myth Alert 17 March 2011 at 7am

  19. […] “Follow the money” wasn’t guidance offered during the Watergate scandal of 1972-74. It wasn’t advice crucial to unraveling the most significant case of corruption in American history. […]

    Always ‘follow the money’ — even if it’s made up « Media Myth Alert 11 April 2011 at 10am

  20. […] ‘Follow the money’: A made-up Watergate line […]

    That was quick: Crummy Cleveland mob pic now out on DVD « Media Myth Alert 16 June 2011 at 1pm

  22. […] ‘Follow the money,’ a made-up Watergate line […]

    Carl Bernstein, disingenuous « Media Myth Alert 11 July 2011 at 8am

  23. […] “Follow the money” was said to have been so telling and effective that it’s still cited as exemplary guidance applicable in journalism, politics, and finance. […]

    Following the money on 37th anniversary of Nixon’s fall « Media Myth Alert 9 August 2011 at 12am

  24. […] I’ve referred to “follow the money” as Watergate’s best-known made-up line. […]

    Fox News misremembers Watergate and ‘follow the money’ « Media Myth Alert 16 August 2011 at 9am

  25. […] in 2005 to have been former FBI official W. Mark Felt) never advised Woodward to “follow the money.” Felt: Never said […]

    Made-up Watergate line, ‘follow the money,’ crosses into the news « Media Myth Alert 6 October 2011 at 4am

  26. […] because nobody actually said that during Watergate, btw. It has no sound pedigree as political, Machiavellian wisdom, and as much credible real-world […]

    The commie did it. Now shut up. | Five Feet of Fury 18 November 2011 at 7pm

  27. […] ‘Follow the money,’ a made-up Watergate line […]

    Carl Bernstein, naive and over the top « Media Myth Alert 17 February 2012 at 2pm

  28. […] at the headquarters in Washington of the Democratic National Committee. This installment discusses the most famous made-up line of […]

    The media myths of Watergate: Part Three « Media Myth Alert 19 June 2012 at 9am

  31. […] it would be good to fully pull back the covers of my investing strategy.  There’s an old (and likely made up) Watergate line about “follow the money” which I think is appropriate when talking […]

    My Personal Investing Plan | Travis Raila 28 October 2014 at 11pm

  35. […] line was written into All the President’s Men for dramatic effect  and spoken by the actor Hal Holbrook who played a marvelously conflicted, raspy, chain-smoking […]

    Gushing about ‘All the President’s Men,’ the movie — and ignoring the myths it propelled | Media Myth Alert 18 April 2016 at 6am

  36. […] ‘Follow the money’: A made-up Watergate line […]

    Why Trump-Russia is hardly Nixon-Watergate | Media Myth Alert 5 March 2017 at 10am

  37. […] ‘Follow the money’: A made-up Watergate line […]

    Why Trump-Russia is still not Watergate redux | Media Myth Alert 15 May 2017 at 8am

  40. […] ‘Follow the money’: A made-up Watergate line […]

    Hagiographic WaPo and the ‘Cronkite Moment’ myth | Media Myth Alert 27 May 2018 at 10am

  44. […] is a cinematic anagram that often has been taken as genuine. In fact it’s Watergate’s most famous made-up line. The urgent advice was written into the screenplay of All the President’s Men, which was […]

    Hal Holbrook, ‘follow the money,’ and Watergate’s distorted history | Media Myth Alert 3 February 2021 at 8am

Comments are closed.