Times Nearly Scooped Post on Watergate

Site of secret meeting gains historical marker

(NEWSER) - The most important parking garage in American history has joined the list of Washington DC-area tourist attractions. A historical marker has been placed in front of the suburban parking garage where Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward met the anonymous "Deep Throat," receiving information that brought the Watergate scandal to light and brought down the Nixon presidency. More»

But Bob Woodward says book omits key interview

(NEWSER) - 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. More»

From gossip to war, the press is too kind to its sources

(NEWSER) - In the past few days the New York Times and Washington Post broke three major stories with the help of leaks: John Edwards' readiness to declare paternity, Stanley McChrystal's blunt assessment of the Afghanistan war, and Barack Obama's intervention in the New York governor's race. For Post media columnist Howard Kurtz, they all raised questions of propriety and influence. "None acknowledged the elephant-in-the-room question of whose agenda was being advanced through these leaks," he writes. More»

(NEWSER) - Mark Felt's life inspires an appreciation of a heroic man, but also of the romance and significance of journalism, Hank Stuever writes in the Washington Post. In fact, you could say “that the idea of him had died already, a few years ago, when he allowed the world to know who he was,” Stuever writes. But Deep Throat lives on in the dreams of every young journalist, in “the swagger of it all.” More»

W. Mark Felt was secret source who helped expose Richard Nixon's abuses of power

(NEWSER) - The FBI agent who helped bring down Richard Nixon has died at his California home at the age of 95, the New York Times reports. W. Mark Felt was "Deep Throat"—the anonymous source who supplied crucial leads to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward about White House abuses of power, setting in motion the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's resignation. More»