(Newser)
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Bob Woodward is not happy about a new book in which former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee appears to express doubt about the legend of "Deep Throat." Bradlee gave reporter Jeff Himmelman access to a box of old documents, and in it, Himmelman found an interview Bradlee had conducted for his memoir, but never used. "Did that potted [plant] incident ever happen? … and meeting in some garage. One meeting in the garage? Fifty meetings in the garage?" Bradlee wondered. "There’s a residual fear in my soul that that isn’t quite straight." The quote was published in an excerpt in New York yesterday.
Himmelman describes Woodward as being unusually flustered over the quote, begging him not to publish it. "Don't give fodder to the fuckers," he said. Himmelman saw his intensity as a sign that the story might not be quite right, and Bradlee agreed, standing by the quote. But Woodward tells Politico that Himmelman left out another interview he did with Bradlee in which he stood by Woodward, saying he didn't believe he'd embellished. "It’s almost like the way Nixon’s tapings did him in, Jeff’s own interview with Bradlee does him in," he says. Himmelman also uncovered evidence that Woodward and Carl Bernstein had illegally gotten information from a grand jury member; Bernstein's response: "Maybe they'll send us to jail after all."
