Zitat des Tages von Bob Woodward:
Watergate provides a model case study of the interaction and powers of each of the branches of government. It also is a morality play with a sad and dramatic ending.
I suspect there have been a number of conspiracies that never were described or leaked out. But I suspect none of the magnitude and sweep of Watergate.
I recently did the David Letterman Show about my book. He was very serious and made no jokes and it caught me off guard a little bit. He was much more serious than some of the joke shows that journalists get on.
Many people have their reputations as reporters and analysts because they are on television, batting around conventional wisdom. A lot of these people have never reported a story.
Deep Throat was a very unfortunate name given to the source by the managing editor of The Washington Post.
I think people are smart enough to sort it out. They know when they're watching one of these food fight shows where journalists sit around and yell and scream at each other, versus serious issue reporting.
Nixon had some large achievements in foreign affairs. They will be remembered. But a president probably gets remembered for one thing, and Watergate will head the Nixon list, I suspect.
The fact of the Watergate cover-up is not nearly as interesting as the step into making the cover-up. And when you understand the step, you understand that Richard Nixon lied. That he was a criminal.
Suppose Watergate had not been uncovered? I'd still be on the City Desk.
I deal with first-hand sources. And give the people, even John Sununu, the opportunity to respond to what I've been told by first-hand sources.
There may yet be another Watergate book. I have thought a book about the aftermath of Watergate and its impact could be done, perhaps by me or someone else.
We need to police ourselves in the media.
A reporter's ability to keep the bond of confidentiality often enables him to learn the hidden or secret aspects of government.
Some newspapers have a hands-off policy on favored politicians. But it's generally very small newspapers or local TV stations.
Deep Throat's information, and in my view, courage, allowed the newspaper to use what he knew and suspected.
The legislator learns that when you talk a lot, you get in trouble. You have to listen a lot to make deals.
I believe Watergate shows that the system did work. Particularly the Judiciary and the Congress, and ultimately an independent prosecutor working in the Executive Branch.
Certain political figures think when you call them and ask them for a comment; that you are somehow doing something that you shouldn't be doing.
Because of Watergate in part, I am kind of a magnet for calls and information and suggestions.
I don't think there will ever be a permanent truce, but I believe the media needs to be more careful and be willing to count to 10 before rushing on the air or into print.
I gave my word that this source would not be identified unless he changed his mind. He has not.
Not a season passes without new disclosures showing Nixon's numerous attempts at criminal use of his presidential powers and in fact the scorn he held for the rule of law.
I think that everyone is kind of confused about the information they get from the media and rightly so. I'm confused about the information I get from the media.
It would seem that the Watergate story from beginning to end could be used as a primer on the American political system.
Newspapers that are truly independent, like The Washington Post, can still aggressively investigate anyone or anything with no holds barred.
I recently read some of the transcripts of Nixon's Watergate tapes, and they spent hours trying to figure out who was leaking and providing information to Carl and myself.
I don't think voters give a hoot about the character of their political advisors, except to the extent that character reflects on the candidates.
I think journalism gets measured by the quality of information it presents, not the drama or the pyrotechnics associated with us.
When you hear in the tape recordings Nixon's own voice saying, We have to stonewall, We have to lie to the Grand Jury, We have to pay burglars a million dollars, it's all too clear the horror of what went on.
Way before Watergate, senior administration officials hid behind anonymity.
Watergate is an immensely complicated scandal with a cast of characters as varied as a Tolstoy novel.
When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making.
After Nixon resigned in 1974, he engaged in a very aggressive war with history, attempting to wipe out the Watergate stain and memory. Happily, history won, largely because of Nixon's tapes.
Any suggestion that I'm writing about political operatives because I'm interested in political operatives misses the entire point.
The cloud of doubt that surrounds political figures tends to remain and never dissipate or be clarified.
I have gone on the air and announced my telephone number at the Washington Post. I go into the night, talking to people, looking for things. The great dreaded thing every reporter lives with is what you don't know. The source you didn't go to. The phone call you didn't return.