The central dilemma in journalism is that you don't know what you don't know.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Clinton feels a profound alienation from the Washington culture here, and I happen to agree with him.
When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making.
Way before Watergate, senior administration officials hid behind anonymity.
The legislator learns that when you talk a lot, you get in trouble. You have to listen a lot to make deals.
I gave my word that this source would not be identified unless he changed his mind. He has not.
Because of Watergate in part, I am kind of a magnet for calls and information and suggestions.
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.
Some newspapers have a hands-off policy on favored politicians. But it's generally very small newspapers or local TV stations.
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 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.
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.
