People like to pigeonhole and say, Well, I'm a Washington insider, and you know, that's quite silly. What does that even mean?
I believe there's too little patience and context to many of the investigations I read or see on television.
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.
The legislator learns that when you talk a lot, you get in trouble. You have to listen a lot to make deals.
Because of Watergate in part, I am kind of a magnet for calls and information and suggestions.
Any suggestion that I'm writing about political operatives because I'm interested in political operatives misses the entire point.
I'm not going to name some of my colleagues who are very well-known for their television presentation, but they wouldn't know new information or how to report a story if it came up and bit them.
When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making.
Deep Throat did serve the public interest by providing the guidance and information to us.
I have written things that Republicans and Democrats and all kinds of figures have either hated or felt very uncomfortable about. Because in doing these long projects and books, you get close to the bone. And they're not calling me up and asking me for dinner.
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.
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.
Watergate is an immensely complicated scandal with a cast of characters as varied as a Tolstoy novel.
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.
When you practice reporting for as long as I have, you keep yourself at a distance from True Believers. Either conservatives or liberals or Democrats or Republicans.
Suppose Watergate had not been uncovered? I'd still be on the City Desk.
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.
Deep Throat was a very unfortunate name given to the source by the managing editor of The Washington Post.
The biggest rap on me is that I don't find a Watergate every couple of years. Well, Watergate was unique. It's not something Carl Bernstein, I, or the Washington Post caused.