Fascinating. US intelligence officials and journalists co-operating to plump up their own profiles and feather their own nests – who’d have thought (it’s been going on so long)?
Rick Lawrence
1 year ago
Well, there’s a bubble well and truly burst. I have always been fascinated by this story and have probably watched the movie more than a few times and have continued to hold “Woodstein” and there utterances in high regard. So, I am rather disappointed and have to say I prefer the fictional version. For someone who has always believed in the truth, this is an alarming admission.
Malcolm Knott
1 year ago
Why are Watergate pieces always illustrated with photos of two actors rather than the actual journalists?
Art C
1 year ago
This is the most plausible explanation about Felt’s leaking. I’ve seen it alluded to once or twice, but never articulated as concisely as here. The “Woodward/Bernstein saving democracy” yarn was always transparent media self-congratulation.
Peter Scott
1 year ago
The Revelation that entirely discredited Woodward and Bernstein for me was something which occurred far more recently than the Watergate Scandal.
From 2015 – 2022 the Democratic Party machine fed the media with a dishonest tale of collusion between the Trump campaign of 2015-16 and Putin’s Kremlin.
This was investigated by Robert Mueller and his team of 14 top lawyers working for more than 2 years; lawyers all devoutly Democrat supporters; and they eventually admitted there was no scrap of evidence for this claim.
The hoax meanwhile was fostered by the DOJ and the CIA and the FBI, all working for the Washington DC Establishment and all terrified by the possiblity lhat a Trump presidency would be dynamic and efficient (it wasn’t) and would bring many crimes and malfeasences perpetrated in the prevous 20 years to light and to account; offences of which all were guilty.
Hence the hysterical Trump Derangement Syndrome gripping the media and all other enablers and bag-carriers of the Establishment.
In more recent days still, John Durham’s FBI investigation has shown that Hillary Clinton was behind the hoax and that she employed people (inc. the law firm Perkins Coe) to present fake evidence to lawcourts and therewith obtain permission to surveill the new president.
It does not really matter what you think of this affair; whether you believe the court lackeys of the MSM or Mrs Clinton OR Mr Trump.
My point is a different one.
Woodward and Bernstein came before the world 50 years ago as bright fearless seekers after truth who had heroically revealed it to us all. And that is what I, and most people, believed of them then and thereafter.
But the moment Trump and Co sought an investigation into the behaviour of the various government agencies colluding in this affair, these same two journalists worked tirelessly to stop any such enquiry being held. Fancy any journalists wanting more secrecy from government, not less!
So it turns out they were partisan all along. If a Republican commits an offence they are (rightly) after him like greyhounds. If a Democrat sins, they want it covered up!
Mel Shaw
1 year ago
You only have read the “All the President’s …” book to understand that it was the tapes that did for Nixon in the end. But the journalists certainly wrote a good story
LCarey Rowland
1 year ago
This uncovering of the reality behind the parking garage lends credence to the saying that truth is more boring than fiction.
jane baker
1 year ago
I was a teenager at the time and it seemed very boring,just names on the radio. Interesting that it wasn’t the chivalrous,shiny knights in armour thing after all. It never is. That saying..if the legend is more interesting than the truth,print the legend..comes to mind.
Dustshoe Richinrut
1 year ago
Interesting. I wonder how the Watergate story was reported in the Soviet media at the time.
Namib Oosterhuizen
1 year ago
Sorry, stopped reading the article after the second paragraph.
Poor Journalism!
“the serial high crimes and misdemeanours committed by President Donald Trump.”
You do, of course, mean to say: the alleged serial high crimes and misdemeanours committed by President Donald Trump, in case some of those reading may think that he has been found guilty of such.
Well said.
The parrot way in which Trump is automatically denounced by most academics and media persons, who never present evidence for their so sweeping dismissal of the man as something worse than Mussolini, to my mind rubbishes their claim to thoughtful intelligence.
Patrick Heren
1 year ago
I rewatched All The President’s Men the other day, for the first time in decades. One thing we journalists (and to be fair, most other people) fail to point out is that it is a rather dull film, as well as being unfair, mostly by omission, to many other journalists, whether working for the Post or other media outlets. I think the best way to describe it is as a “journalism procedural”.
Fascinating. US intelligence officials and journalists co-operating to plump up their own profiles and feather their own nests – who’d have thought (it’s been going on so long)?
Well, there’s a bubble well and truly burst. I have always been fascinated by this story and have probably watched the movie more than a few times and have continued to hold “Woodstein” and there utterances in high regard. So, I am rather disappointed and have to say I prefer the fictional version. For someone who has always believed in the truth, this is an alarming admission.
Why are Watergate pieces always illustrated with photos of two actors rather than the actual journalists?
This is the most plausible explanation about Felt’s leaking. I’ve seen it alluded to once or twice, but never articulated as concisely as here. The “Woodward/Bernstein saving democracy” yarn was always transparent media self-congratulation.
The Revelation that entirely discredited Woodward and Bernstein for me was something which occurred far more recently than the Watergate Scandal.
From 2015 – 2022 the Democratic Party machine fed the media with a dishonest tale of collusion between the Trump campaign of 2015-16 and Putin’s Kremlin.
This was investigated by Robert Mueller and his team of 14 top lawyers working for more than 2 years; lawyers all devoutly Democrat supporters; and they eventually admitted there was no scrap of evidence for this claim.
The hoax meanwhile was fostered by the DOJ and the CIA and the FBI, all working for the Washington DC Establishment and all terrified by the possiblity lhat a Trump presidency would be dynamic and efficient (it wasn’t) and would bring many crimes and malfeasences perpetrated in the prevous 20 years to light and to account; offences of which all were guilty.
Hence the hysterical Trump Derangement Syndrome gripping the media and all other enablers and bag-carriers of the Establishment.
In more recent days still, John Durham’s FBI investigation has shown that Hillary Clinton was behind the hoax and that she employed people (inc. the law firm Perkins Coe) to present fake evidence to lawcourts and therewith obtain permission to surveill the new president.
It does not really matter what you think of this affair; whether you believe the court lackeys of the MSM or Mrs Clinton OR Mr Trump.
My point is a different one.
Woodward and Bernstein came before the world 50 years ago as bright fearless seekers after truth who had heroically revealed it to us all. And that is what I, and most people, believed of them then and thereafter.
But the moment Trump and Co sought an investigation into the behaviour of the various government agencies colluding in this affair, these same two journalists worked tirelessly to stop any such enquiry being held. Fancy any journalists wanting more secrecy from government, not less!
So it turns out they were partisan all along. If a Republican commits an offence they are (rightly) after him like greyhounds. If a Democrat sins, they want it covered up!
You only have read the “All the President’s …” book to understand that it was the tapes that did for Nixon in the end. But the journalists certainly wrote a good story
This uncovering of the reality behind the parking garage lends credence to the saying that truth is more boring than fiction.
I was a teenager at the time and it seemed very boring,just names on the radio. Interesting that it wasn’t the chivalrous,shiny knights in armour thing after all. It never is. That saying..if the legend is more interesting than the truth,print the legend..comes to mind.
Interesting. I wonder how the Watergate story was reported in the Soviet media at the time.
Sorry, stopped reading the article after the second paragraph.
Poor Journalism!
“the serial high crimes and misdemeanours committed by President Donald Trump.”
You do, of course, mean to say: the alleged serial high crimes and misdemeanours committed by President Donald Trump, in case some of those reading may think that he has been found guilty of such.
Well said.
The parrot way in which Trump is automatically denounced by most academics and media persons, who never present evidence for their so sweeping dismissal of the man as something worse than Mussolini, to my mind rubbishes their claim to thoughtful intelligence.
I rewatched All The President’s Men the other day, for the first time in decades. One thing we journalists (and to be fair, most other people) fail to point out is that it is a rather dull film, as well as being unfair, mostly by omission, to many other journalists, whether working for the Post or other media outlets. I think the best way to describe it is as a “journalism procedural”.