Robert Smith And Robert Phelps, Ex-NYT Journalists, Say They Heard of Watergate First

New York Times:

The Watergate break-in eventually forced a presidential resignation and turned two Washington Post reporters into pop-culture heroes. But almost 37 years after the break-in, two former New York Times journalists have stepped forward to say that The Times had the scandal nearly in its grasp before The Post did -- and let it slip.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[andycan]

WATERGATE? KID STUFF!

Watergate is kid stuff compared to the countless infringements and alterations of the Constitution under Bush-Cheney.

The great shame is that no influential journalsits - even well-protected ones from important media - really dared speak up and critcize: Halliburton and Blackwater use of the gorvernment with Rumsfeld's help, total surveillance using the big telecoms, ubiquitous torture and its legalization, abductions of US citizens, genocide in Irak and Afghanistan, the stuffing of government with loyal Protestant fundamentalists, financial conniving that led to the world economic crisis, the gutting of social security to pay for wars of aggresion... acts so egregious they come right out of the imagination of a science-fiction writer.

Watergate is preppy nostalgia: it's today for the complacent and the comfortable.

[dhfsfc]

The New York Times -- An Establishment Tool for Over 35 Years!

[Wiseronenow]

"Nearly in it's grasp"??? Doesn't count, but more importantly, in some way this is suppose to matter NOW???

[RoadCrossingChicken]

My Uncle Leo goes fishing every weekend... he also likes to talk about "the one that got away..."

[Intelligentia]

I thought Forest Gump found out first. No?

[voltage356]

Was it the chicken or the egg that came first?

[dgscol]

How could the FBI turn against their president, who was attempting to plug leaks for the sake of national security? Nixon knew about "deep throat", but this is the first I have heard of Patrick Gray leaking.

Why didn't Nixon trust the FBI to plug leaks? Why did the FBI go the press, rather than consult with Congress about Nixon? Perhaps the top elements of the FBI were spooked by the strange death of Hoover.

[Wiseronenow]

Which reminds me of the recent controversy with the FBI and particularly the CIA and Cheney claiming they 'do not lie'. Yeah, right. That's the biz they are in,

[peterg76]

"nearly in their grasp" means they didn't have the story. But on the bright side, the New York Times was the first to find the Iraqi bio-terror labs.

[don]

They also had the scoop on warrantless wiretaps, and sat on it for about a year.

[lokipuck]

Yeah, they didn't want to be "political" right before an election. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

[kurtlockwood]

The NYT has much to answer and make up for allowing itself to be used by Judith Miller as a mouthpiece for BushCo. during the Iraq War build up.

Kurt Lockwood

[deeppeace]

Timing is everything.

[Gasparilla]

Nixon broke the law repeatedly. He discussed payoffs to buy the burgar's silence. He used the FBI and IRS to go after his enemies.

[timetorevolt]

NYT knew the story about the existence of WMD in Iraq was suspect..in particular Judit Miller...But they allowed the Bush administration to influnce their reporting. They regurgitated White House talking points about Iraq and they're doing the same thing now about Gitmo. They are afraid to call waterboarding torture because Bush and Co gave torture a new name, enhanced interrogation.

They had the opportunity to tell us the truth about the run up to war in Iraq..But they didn't. So, I no longer have respect for the NYT as I once did.

[lokipuck]

How the fudge is this rag still referred to as liberal media?"

[Cogs]

Have these guys heard anything about Teapot Dome?

[don]

Rumor has it that they've got a hot on a tip about the USS Maine down in Cuba.

[HamletsMill]

But the Washington Post is moving on it faster.

[probo]

Guess this is more proof that there is no liberal media as we've been sold for decades.

[Silver123]

Pathetic.

What else are they not bothering to investigate?

[Furby]

Everything. You'll probably find out in say ten years or so that the right has some sort of hand in orchestrating an Obama victory in 2008 because the Republicans didn't want do deal with the mess they had made. It'll come out of some garbage can full of shredded CD or a restored hard drive that new technology was able to reconstruct. You'll find out that the 911 events were known well ahead of time but that some private interests had something to gain from the destruction of the World Trade Centre. You'll find out that your government has knows for at least two decades that there will be no source of clean water in California by 2015. I'm sure the list is endless. Where have all the journalists gone?