system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: The Watergate Scandal

I'm aware it involved President Nixon and obviously the hotel.  I just want to know what happened and the consequences.
gpt
Five people broke into the Democratic National Headquarters, which was located at the Watergate hotel, to do basic spying -- photographing documents and planting listening devices.  

They were caught by police, and it slowly came out that they were financially connected to the Republican Party and President Nixon's reelection campaign.  

Nixon was alleged to have used the office of the presidency to try to block official investigations into the incident.  He might have succeeded had it not been for the news media, which latched on to the story and made it a giant issue.  

Because of the attention that it received, Nixon's efforts to stop the investigations were not successful, and he was more or less humiliated and discredited.  Before things got too far, Nixon was forced to resign.

His former VP, now President Gerald Ford pardoned him, preventing him from ever having to stand trial and face the legal repercussions for what he did.  The unconditional pardon of Nixon is one of the most controversial political events of that era.  

The media's role in breaking the scandal was a major event in American culture.  The event was an important one for the baby boom generation  in that it caused a sense of distrust of the federal government and the presidency, and a general "loss of innocence" in America.