Tom Brokaw Recalls His Time Covering Watergate

Near the start of his new book, “The Fall of Richard Nixon: A Reporter Remembers Watergate,” Tom Brokaw writes that he has been “reflecting on the enduring lessons, high drama and historic consequences of that fateful year.” Brokaw, then in the early stages of his broadcasting career, was NBC’s White House correspondent during the scandal that ended Nixon’s presidency. In recounting what he saw then, Brokaw keeps the “enduring lessons” to general terms; his book makes just one sly mention of President Trump, otherwise sticking to the historical record and not wading into the current moment’s impeachment news. Below, Brokaw talks about his path to becoming a writer as well as a broadcaster, the breakneck pace of news gathering today and more.

When did you first get the idea to write this book?

I have to give Jon Meacham some of the credit here. We were talking about what I was going to do for my next project, and I was fumbling around with some big ideas. He said, “Look, you were at Watergate. What about a reporter’s notebook? It’s always a great technique for reporters to go back and detail what happened.” And I thought, Watergate’s been done and done and done.

I sat down, a little before January 2018, and made some memory notes about what I’d not yet seen published, small moments and larger moments. I’ve got very good recall, and I would call former colleagues to see if they remembered certain things the same way. I also had an excellent researcher who would help me with things I got stuck on.

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What’s the most surprising thing you learned while writing it?

The difference between then and now. I unpacked the other day my portable typewriter. It was like uncovering something from the tomb of Egyptian rulers. It’s technically beautiful, and it still works. I dragged that sucker all over the world. It just seemed so antiquated to me. And I thought about it as more than just as an instrument, but as a symbol of the difference between then and now. I didn’t have an iPhone or an iPad, and I wasn’t punching in 24-7 what my immediate thoughts were. We had regular press briefings in the White House, about 30 of us, and we’d go to work on the story of the day until we got it all in place. And then, on the broadcasting end of it, I’d get it ready for John Chancellor and the evening news. I’d go out and stand on the lawn and do my report, and then go back and start working on the “Today” show for the next day.

Nowadays, reporters are online, iPhones at the ready, and it’s an unending process. We had time to be reflective, to go get other points of view and to put it in some kind of context. I’m not knocking what’s going on now, because it’s where we are; it’s where technology has taken us. But I don’t think we’ve fully taken control of the technology yet.

In what way is the book you wrote different from the book you set out to write?

It was mostly a matter of leaving out some stuff that didn’t quite fit — smaller anecdotes, people I was dealing with who I thought would be a part of it but, when it came down to putting it on paper, their observations or the interchange we had didn’t really move the story as much as I thought it might. There was a whole separate section I had in mind: I went to see John Ehrlichman when he got out of jail. I spent time with him in New Mexico, and I think I’ll end up writing something about that alone, a much smaller piece.

Who is a creative person (not a writer) who has influenced you and your work?

I wouldn’t want to single out one. I didn’t start out to be a writer. I didn’t have the personal confidence to do it. I was living in Los Angeles at the time, and the senior guys at The Los Angeles Times were my mentors. I wrote a couple of observations that The Times picked up. And then I was on a traumatic river-running trip in Idaho, and I wrote an account of that. And they all said: “You’ve got to write, Tom. Don’t be afraid. Start writing as well as broadcasting.” And it was the kind of piece you should be able to write — we lost a friend and a river guide, and we were stranded in the wilderness; it was a Hemingway-like episode. I wouldn’t say it wrote itself, but it had all the elements you’d want as a writer. I really believe that my writing comes out of a lifetime of reading and absorbing and admiring other writers; fiction writers, mainly. A lot of my close friends are writers: Tom McGuane, he’s encouraged me over the years, and any number of journalists have as well.

Persuade someone to read “The Fall of Richard Nixon” in 50 words or fewer.

Given what we’re going through — politically and culturally — in this country, it tells you what it’s like to experience that kind of trauma as a citizen and a journalist, and to realize that the system saved us. In the final analysis, the fundamental rule of law prevailed in America.