Her subjects counted all the president’s men, but Alicia Shepard investigated the process behind the groundbreaking reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Shepard, who is an author, journalism critic, and assistant professor in journalism at Washington D.C.’s American University, spoke at an intimate SF State gathering Wednesday with select journalism faculty.

The focus of her visit was a discussion about her new book on the two famed Washington Post reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, who uncovered the Watergate break-in in 1972.

The book, “Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate,” discusses the self-titled reporters’ lives outside the political scandal and more pointedly, the long lasting affect their work has had on the quality of journalism and the role of confidential sources.

Shepard said she believes that confidential sources can be instrumental to good reporting, but that they can also create negative publicity for journalists.

“Everything about the Libby case is bad for journalism and the real casualty is anonymous sources,” she said referencing the ongoing trial where a former White House aide, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, is on trial for obstruction of an investigation and perjury.

“It is definitely weakening journalism’s credibility. Certainly we need anonymous sources to do good journalism, but they need to be used much more judiciously.”

When asked what kind of event would elicit the same national outrage today that Watergate did nearly 35 years ago, Shepard mentions the ‘unwarranted wiretapping by the Bush administration.” She says that the proliferation of media outlets makes it difficult to attract and keep public attention.

“Multiple outlets make it very hard for people to focus on one issue,” she said. “Our society is so polarized that the choices we make just reinforce our own beliefs. That’s the difference now than from in 1972 when there were just three TV stations. America has (Attention Deficit Disorder).”