Honoring the free press, democracy and the distinguished careers of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

EVENT DATE: Nov. 12, 2022

EVENT TYPE: Fundraiser

LOCATION: Tampa Marriott Water Street, 505 Water St., Tampa, FL 33602

TIME:

VIP Reception with Carl Bernstein: 5:30 p.m. Eastern
Dinner and Program: 7-9:30 p.m. Eastern

TICKETS:

$350 VIP Ticket
$225 General Admission Ticket

ABOUT THE BOWTIE BALL:

The Bowtie Ball is Poynter’s largest annual celebration of journalistic excellence that recognizes the contributions of the brightest and liveliest minds in the industry to democracies worldwide.

It is also Poynter’s most significant fundraising event of the year where hundreds of guests — including media executives, business leaders, philanthropists, public servants and community members — are immersed in an elegant evening of impactful storytelling. 

You’re invited to attend Poynter’s Bowtie Ball on Saturday, Nov. 12, at Tampa Marriott Water Street. Together, we’ll celebrate the free press and honor the distinguished careers of legendary journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein whose dogged reporting of the 1972 Watergate break-in changed the course of American history and fortified journalism’s role in democracy.

The pair’s contributions will be elevated throughout the evening; Carl Bernstein will attend the event in person and reflect upon his investigative reporting during an interview on stage. 

Toast the First Amendment and join our call to uplift ethical, independent reporting. Proceeds from your ticket help Poynter improve, strengthen and sustain quality journalism in diverse newsrooms around the world. 

Interested in becoming a sponsor? Contact Deborah Read, chief development officer, at  sponsorships@poynter.org for more information. Learn how your support can help make an impact at poynter.org/support. 

About Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

Legendary investigative reporters, The Washington Post
2022 Recipients of the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism

Reporters Bob Woodward, right, and Carl Bernstein, whose investigation of the Watergate case won them a Pulitzer Prize, sit in the newsroom of The Washington Post in May 1973. (Associated Press file photo)

Each year, Poynter presents its Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism to an accomplished journalist whose career has made a significant impact on democracy and its institutions.

Woodward and Bernstein’s 1972 investigation of Watergate was not only the highest expression of journalism’s calling as a “first draft of history,” but this body of work has stood for generations as an historical record that in America no one — not even the president — is above the law, and that journalists are essential to a working democracy.

Today, 50 years later, the duo’s recount of the pressures they faced and the journalistic fundamentals they practiced have been a timely reminder of values that transcend today’s tensions in the media marketplace. Even as the world debates the strengths and ills of social media or witnesses journalism under attack, here is what’s undeniable: They found records, knocked on doors, had multiple sources, told the stories straight — without fear or favor — and in the process changed a nation and inspired thousands of people to become journalists.

Woodward and Bernstein will join an esteemed roster of Poynter Medal recipients including:

• Lesley Stahl, Journalist, CBS News, “60 Minutes” (2021)
• Chris Wallace, Anchor, ABC, NBC, Fox News and CNN (2020)
• Katie Couric, Journalist, Author, Entrepreneur (2019)
• Lester Holt, Anchor, “NBC Nightly News” and “Dateline NBC” (2018)
• Judy Woodruff, Anchor and Managing Editor, “PBS NewsHour” (2017)
• Tom Brokaw, Former Anchor, “NBC Nightly News” (2016)
• Bob Schieffer, Former CBS News Anchor and Host of “Face the Nation” (2015)

About Bob Woodward

Bob Woodward is an associate editor of The Washington Post, where he has worked since 1971. He has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, first for the coverage of the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein, and second as the lead reporter for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Woodward has written best-selling books on the last ten presidents, as well as the CIA, the Joint Chiefs, Hollywood and the Supreme Court. His approach is aggressive but fair and nonpartisan reporting. He has authored or coauthored 21 books, all of which have been national non-fiction bestsellers. Fifteen have been #1 national bestsellers; three of his books have been made into movies. Woodward has taught a MasterClass on investigative journalism.

Woodward was born in Illinois and graduated from Yale University in 1965. He served five years as a communications officer in the U.S. Navy before beginning his journalism career at the Montgomery County (Maryland) Sentinel, where he was a reporter for one year before joining the Post.

About Carl Bernstein

The author of five best-selling books, Bernstein is currently at work on several multimedia projects, including a memoir about growing up at a Washington newspaper, The Evening Star, during the Kennedy era and a dramatic TV series about the United States Congress for HBO. He is also an on-air political analyst for CNN and a contributing editor of Vanity Fair magazine. His most recent book was the national bestseller “A Woman In Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” acclaimed as the definitive biography of its subject, published by Knopf. With Woodward, Bernstein wrote two classic best-sellers: “All the President’s Men” (also a movie starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman), about their Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Watergate story; and “The Final Days,” about the denouement of the Nixon presidency. He is also the author of a memoir of his family’s experience in the McCarthy era, entitled “Loyalties: A Son’s Memoir;” and the co-author of the definitive papal biography, “His Holiness: John Paul II and the History of Our Time,” which detailed the Pope’s pivotal and often clandestine role in the fall of communism. Bernstein was born and raised in Washington, D.C. and began his journalism career at age 16 as a copyboy, becoming a reporter at 19.

Questions?

We’d love to hear from you. Please send your inquiries to marketing@poynter.org.

Unable to attend but want to support events like this? Please make a donation today at poynter.org/support.

About The Poynter Institute

Poynter President Neil Brown interviews Anne Applebaum, historian, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, at the ninth annual GlobalFact in Oslo, Norway, on June 23, 2022. (Angela Trajanoski/Poynter)

The Poynter Institute was founded more than 45 years ago by Nelson Poynter, the then-owner and editor of the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times. Poynter created a school to train professional journalists and elevate the craft. Upon his death, in an exceptional act of vision and philanthropy that ensured the independence of his beloved local paper, Poynter bequeathed ownership of the now Tampa Bay Times to the school.

Today, the institute still owns the paper while having grown into a nonprofit global leader in journalism education. Poynter trains tens of thousands of journalists, educators and students around the world in person and online each year. Clients include CBS, NBC, Univision, ESPN, NPR, Gannett, McClatchy and TEGNA newsrooms, and numerous local TV stations, community newspapers and digital news sites.

Poynter also operates three fact-checking enterprises: the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact, the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), and the social-first digital media literacy initiative MediaWise. In addition, Poynter is the home of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at Poynter, a resource for journalists and citizens to navigate today’s complex media landscape.

The Poynter Medal was created to celebrate journalism and Mr. Poynter’s legacy.