Veterans of The Washington Post Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein shared their famous story in a lecture at Tulsa University on March 27.

Almost 40 yeras ago, a small news story on a break-in at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., lead to the discovery of a huge cover-up scandal in President Richard Nixon’s administration, and Woodward and Bernstein were the reporters who took on the task of uncovering this scandal.

Having been invited to speak at TU’s Presidential Lecture Series, the duo took the stage and re-told their stories of the historical event.

“What the third-rate burglary really was was the key to unlocking the Nixon presidency,” Bernstein said.

Woodward and Bernstein were fairly young and new to The Washington Post when they took on this news story in 1972.

“We were just metropolitan reporters, not very high up on the totem pole,” Bernstein said.

“We weren’t even on the totem pole,” said Woodward.

However, through all of the challenges the two went through to investigate this story, especially with no one wanting to share any information, their work on the Watergate scandal earned The Washington Post a Pulitzer Prize for public service.

The lecture lasted an hour and a half, with questions from the audience following.

“I thought it was amazing how they were both still able to remember,” said ORU freshman Ian Harrup. “After 40 years they are still pursuing the story after all the work they put into it. All the work they put into it is still carrying through today.”

This reporter duo typically only speak together 10 times a year across the nation.

“We’re just telling old war stories and what you will see is a different time in journalism, a different time in our political history, and a different time of how people absorbed information,” Bernstein said.

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