The central dilemma in journalism is that you don't know what you don't know.
Bob Woodward
Watergate is an immensely complicated scandal with a cast of characters as varied as a Tolstoy novel.
There's hostility to lying, and there should be.
Newspapers that are truly independent, like The Washington Post, can still aggressively investigate anyone or anything with no holds barred.
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.
When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making.
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.
Clinton feels a profound alienation from the Washington culture here, and I happen to agree with him.
I think journalism gets measured by the quality of information it presents, not the drama or the pyrotechnics associated with us.
Deep Throat was a very unfortunate name given to the source by the managing editor of The Washington Post.
A reporter's ability to keep the bond of confidentiality often enables him to learn the hidden or secret aspects of government.
Way before Watergate, senior administration officials hid behind anonymity.
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.
If information is true, if it can be verified, and if it's really important, the newspaper needs to be willing to take the risk associated with using unidentified sources.
I gave my word that this source would not be identified unless he changed his mind. He has not.
Clinton... believes that the Washington Press Corps is so out of touch that it is absolutely inconceivable that reporters would understand the issues that people are really dealing with in their lives.
I have found people don't want to be told. That they can figure it out.
There are people who take rumors and embellish them in a way that can be devastating. And this pollution has to be eradicated by people in our business as best we can.
We're not going to have another Watergate in our lifetime. I'm sure.
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.
Nixon's attempts to order subversion of various departments was bound to come out in some form.
Deep Throat's information, and in my view, courage, allowed the newspaper to use what he knew and suspected.
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.
Any suggestion that I'm writing about political operatives because I'm interested in political operatives misses the entire point.
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.
The Washington Times wrote a story questioning the authenticity of some of the suggestions made about me in Silent Coup. But as a believer in the First Amendment, I believe they have more than a right to air their views.
Because of Watergate in part, I am kind of a magnet for calls and information and suggestions.
Some newspapers have a hands-off policy on favored politicians. But it's generally very small newspapers or local TV stations.
The legislator learns that when you talk a lot, you get in trouble. You have to listen a lot to make deals.
There is a garbage culture out there, where we pour garbage on people. Then the pollsters run around and take a poll and say, do you smell anything?
The source known as Deep Throat provided a kind of road map through the scandal. His one consistent message was that the Watergate burglary was just the tip of the iceberg.
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.
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.
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.
We need to police ourselves in the media.
Lawyers didn't seriously get involved in the Watergate stories until quite late, when we realized we were on to something.
The failure of the system to deal quickly was attributable to Nixon's lying, stonewalling and refusal to come clean. So it took 26 months for the final truth to be known.
Nixon's grand mistake was his failure to understand that Americans are forgiving, and if he had admitted error early and apologized to the country, he would have escaped.
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.
It would seem that the Watergate story from beginning to end could be used as a primer on the American political system.
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.
Suppose Watergate had not been uncovered? I'd still be on the City Desk.
The number of illegal activities were so large that one was bound to come out and lead to the uncovering of the others. Nixon was too willing to use the power of government to settle scores and get even with enemies.
If you interviewed 1,000 politicians and asked about whether the media's too soft or too hard, about 999 would say too hard.
I believe there's too little patience and context to many of the investigations I read or see on television.
The cloud of doubt that surrounds political figures tends to remain and never dissipate or be clarified.
Using these unnamed sources, if done properly, carefully and fairly, provides more accountability in government.
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.
It was accountability that Nixon feared.
Even now there is no evidence that anyone involved in the Nixon operation was going to threaten us.
