The New York Times’ Watergate Blunder

[marmar]

via Truthdig:



The New York Times’ Watergate Blunder
Posted on May 25, 2009


Back in 1972 the FBI’s acting director gave a New York Times reporter the impression that the president was personally involved in Watergate, but the tip died a quick and historic death in the Times’ Washington Bureau, according to the reporter and editor involved. One went on to law school, the other took a long vacation and no one bothered to follow up.

AP via Google:

... The New York Times let the hot tip fall through the cracks, the reporter and editor say after decades of silence about the August 1972 conversation. They say it’s unclear whether the Times pursued information that might have let it beat The Washington Post to the blockbuster story of political espionage, which was described in “All the President’s Men” and helped unravel Richard M. Nixon’s presidency.

“We missed out,” the now-retired editor, Robert H. Phelps, said in an interview Monday, after the Times published a story about the monumental miscue.

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http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20090525_the_new_york_times_watergate_blunder/?ln

[PCIntern]

1. so they say...

at the time, those of us who were activists thought...no, KNEW, that not only was Nixon involved, BUT there was a clear move by the powers-that-be to get rid of Nixon. the Dean testimony was designed to undermine knowing that the tapes would come out AND Maureen Dean herself was involved in all kinds of 'intersting' relationships around D.C.

It was much more complex...and the Times Effed-up and the Post was carefully fed information to bust exactly who they wanted to bust. No more no less.