From a story on niemanstoryboard.org by Don Nelson headlined “The making of a (born) journalist”:

When we first meet Carl Bernstein (as portrayed by Dustin Hoffman) in the opening minutes of “All the President’s Men,” he’s a shambles. Shaggy hair, tieless, frayed shirt collar, unbelted jeans, tennis shoes, constant cigarette, one of hundreds of bodies in the vast Washington Post newsroom of the early 1970s.

He’s only 28, but he’s been in the newspaper business since he was 16 — and seems to have stagnated. He’s covering boring stories that he doesn’t finish. He’s likely to be fired. Then comes the biggest opportunity of his life.