Cronkite, who has died aged 92, broadcast two extensive stories on Watergate in 1972.

Ben Bradlee, the former Washington Post editor, said today that a lot of “Washington people, people who followed national stories – a lot of them who had not decided that we were right changed their minds because of Walter”.

This is part of Bradlee’s comments in Newsweek:

“In October 1972, Cronkite devoted two segments, back to back, to the Watergate story. The first was 14 minutes, the second eight.

I think that second night was curtailed by CBS chairman William S. Paley because Paley was scared of it.

The fact that Cronkite did Watergate at all (let alone at that length) gave the story a kind of blessing, which is exactly what we needed—and exactly what The Washington Post lacked.

It was a political year, and everyone was saying, “Well, it’s just politics, and here’s the Post trying to screw Nixon.”

We were the second-biggest newspaper in the country trying to scramble for a good story—whereas Cronkite was the reigning dean of television journalists. When he did the Watergate story, everyone said, “My God, Cronkite’s with them.”

Barker was a Cuban-born CIA operative who became of the burglars arrested at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972.

AP says: “Barker’s stepdaughter, Kelly Andrad, says that he died Friday morning at his suburban Miami home after being taken to the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center the night before. He had suffered from cancer and heart problems but his exact cause of death was unclear.

“Barker was one of five men who broke into the Watergate building in Washington on the night of June 17, 1972. They were trying to plant a wiretap to gather information on Richard Nixon’s Democratic opponent in the upcoming presidential election, George McGovern.

Felt was Associate Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during the early period of Watergate. He started providing information and guidance to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward in 1972.

Referred to initially as “my friend” by Woodward, Felt was nicknamed Deep Throat, a reference to a pornographic movie of the time.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein met with Felt at his home last month. It was the first time Bernstein had met the most famous secret source in American political history.

• W. Mark Felt, Watergate Deep Throat, Dies at 95 – New York Times
• Watergate’s ‘Deep Throat’ dead at age 95 – The Press Democrat
• Mark Felt, ‘Deep Throat’ in Watergate reporting, dies – Chicago Tribune
• Caregiver describes Felt’s last moments – Press Democrat
• Mark Felt biography – Wikipedia

Drinan served as a member of the House Judiciary Committee that voted in favour of the Watergate articles of impeachment in 1974.

The 86-year-old was a five-term Democratic Party member for the Massachusetts Third District in the House of Representatives. A liberal member, Drinan was on the famous Nixon “enemies list”. In July 1973, he proposed an impeachment resolution, not on Watergate, but on the war in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Drinan was praised by Senator John Kerry as a “tenacious advocate for social justice”. Kerry was Drinan’s campaign manager in 1970, the year Drinan was elected to Congress.

Drinan was famous for wearing his Jesuit priest’s garb in Congress. His unofficial campaign slogan was “Our father, who art in Congress”. He left Congress at the 1980 elections, following an edict from Pope John Paul II that he should leave politics or the priesthood. He was succeeded by Barney Frank.

Drinan had been dean of the Boston College Law School. Over the past quarter-century, he taught legal ethics at Georgetown University.

• Congressman-priest Drinan dies (Boston Globe)
• Rev. Robert Drinan, Ex-Congressman, Dies at 86 (New York Times)
• Rev. Robert Drinan; Congressman, GU Law School Teacher (Washington Post)

Reports quoting Hunt’s sun, Austin, say that he died at a Miami hospital, following a bout with pneumonia.

Everette Howard Hunt was a former Central Intelligence Agency operative. Born in Hamburg, New York, on October 9, 1918, he worked as a war correspondent and screen writer before beginning a long career with the CIA from 1949-70. During this time he was involved with the organisation of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1962.

Hunt recruited four of the five Watergate burglars: Barker, Gonzalez, Martinez and Sturgis. All four men had previously worked with Hunt on the Bay of Pigs. Along with James McCord, they were arrested in the Watergate complex on the evening of June 17, 1972. Hunt was observing the burglary from a room in the Howard Johnson hotel opposite the Watergate complex. Hunt’s White House phone number was found in the address book of Bernard Barker.

Hunt spent 33 months in prison on burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping charges. He and the burglars pleased guilty to federal charges in January 1973.

Hunt was also responsible for organising the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, Lewis Fielding. Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, part of the group known as the “Watergate Plumbers”, broke into the office to gain information about Ellsberg, the Pentagon official who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1971.

Hunt’s first wife, Dorothy, died in a plane crash in Chicago on December 8, 1972. Investigators found $10,000 in $100 bills in Mrs. Hunt’s purse. The money was believed to be from pay-offs to the Watergate conspirators.

As the Watergate conspiracy unfolded, Hunt demanded money for his silence. His blackmail attempts were the subject of a taped conversation between White House counsel John Dean and President Nixon in March 1973. During the conversation, Dean tells Nixon that Hunt is demanding $72,000 for personal expenses and $50,000 for his legal fees. Nixon says: “If you need the money, I mean you could get the money… I mean it’s not easy, but it could be done.”

Hunt’s autobiography, “American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate and Beyond,” is scheduled for publication in March.

• Ex-Spy Crafted Watergate, Other Schemes (Washington Post)

Thirty-two years after he succeeded and then pardoned Richard Nixon, Ford was accorded considerable media coverage for his role in bringing the pain of Watergate to an end.

Ford was the oldest ever ex-president and the only man to assume the presidency without being elected.

Ford was appointed Vice-President in 1973, following the resignation of Spiro Agnew. He became President following Richard Nixon’s resignation on August 9, 1974. Attempting election in his own right, Ford was defeated by Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Ford’s most controversial decision as President was to grant a full pardon to Nixon on September 8, 1974.

One of the secretly recorded Oval Office tapes records Ford and Nixon discussing Watergate on May 1, 1973:

Ford was elected to the House of Representatives in 1948, serving for a time as House Minority Leader. He served on the Warren Commission investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy.

Ford’s wife, Betty, released a brief statement announcing his death:

“My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age. His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.”

President George W. Bush released this statement:

“Laura and I are greatly saddened by the passing of former President Gerald R. Ford.

“President Ford was a great American who gave many years of dedicated service to our country. On August 9, 1974, after a long career in the House of Representatives and service as Vice President, he assumed the Presidency in an hour of national turmoil and division. With his quiet integrity, common sense, and kind instincts, President Ford helped heal our land and restore public confidence in the Presidency.

“The American people will always admire Gerald Ford’s devotion to duty, his personal character, and the honorable conduct of his administration. We mourn the loss of such a leader, and our 38th President will always have a special place in our Nation’s memory. On behalf of all Americans, Laura and I offer our deepest sympathies to Betty Ford and all of President Ford’s family. Our thoughts and prayers will be with them in the hours and days ahead.”

• Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum
• Gerald Ford Quotes
• Gerald Ford Wikipedia entry
• New York Times reports Ford’s death
• Washington Post reports Ford’s death
• The Ford Presidency – Los Angeles Times editorial
• Ford Never Second-Guessed Nixon Pardon – Yahoo
• Closing The Chapter On Watergate Wasn’t Done Lightly – Bob Woodward
• Ford, Nixon Sustained Friendship For Decades – Bob Woodward

W. Mark Felt, 91, was second-in-command at the FBI in the early 1970s. His identity was revealed by Vanity Fair magazine, scooping the Washington Post.

The revelation was confirmed by Bob Woodward on the Washington Post’s website at 5.29pm Eastern time.

Felt’s family issued a statement which said: “The family believes my grandfather, Mark Felt Sr., is a great American hero who went well above and beyond the call of duty at much risk to himself to save his country from a horrible injustice. We all sincerely hope the country will see him this way as well.”

Felt suffered a stroke several years ago and lives with his daughter, Joan, in Santa Rosa. It appears he kept his Deep Throat identity a secret from his family until 2002. According to the family statement, Felt said: “I guess people used to think Deep Throat was a criminal, but now they think he was a hero.”

• Read the Vanity Fair article
• Read the Washington Post confirmation

May 31

• Deep Throat Revealed (PBS News Hour)
• Former FBI Official says he was Deep Throat (Detroit News)

June 1

• FBI’s No. 2 Was ‘Deep Throat’ (Washington Post)
• Deep Background: The Best Kept Secret in Washington Nearly Stayed That Way (Washington Post)
• Conflicted And Mum For Decades (Washington Post)
• The Illuminating Experience of Being Kept in the Dark (Washington Post)
• Contemporaries Have Mixed Views (Washington Post)
• All The News That’s Fit For Print (Washington Post)
• Would Deep Throat Be A Hero in 2005? (Washington Post)
• News Hour Panel Discusses Deep Throat Revelation (PBS)

June 2

• How Mark Felt Became Deep Throat: Bob Woodward (Washington Post)
• A 33-Year-Old Pledge Was Kept at a Price: The Post’s Lost Scoop (Washington Post)
• In the Prelude to Publication, Intrigue Worthy of Deep Throat (New York Times)
• Transcript of Woodward and Bernstein on Larry King Live (CNN)
• Revelation Ends Last Best Secret (Detroit News)
• Dan Rather Discusses Deep Throat with Larry King (CNN)
• The Lessons of Deep Throat (Washington Post)
• Ben Bradlee Reflects on Deep Throat and Watergate (PBS News Hour)

June 3

• Three Decades Later, ‘Woodstein’ Takes a Victory Lap (New York Times)
• Woodward and Bernstein, Dynamic Duo, Together Again (New York Times)
• Deep Silence on Redford Place (Washington Post)
• Tapes Show Nixon Suspect Felt (CNN)
• Bush, Deep Throat and the Press (Washington Post)
• The Secret that Didn’t Reach Washinton’s Lips – Sally Quinn (Washington Post)
• Woodward’s ‘Deep Throat’ Book on Tap for July Release (USA Today/Yahoo)
• Mark Shields and David Brooks Discuss Watergate (PBS News Hour)
• Beyond Deep Throat: The Cast of Watergate (NPR)

June 4

• Behind Deep Throat’s Clandestine Ways, A Cloak-and-Dagger Past (New York Times)

June 5

• Life Lessons From Watergate: David Brooks (New York Times)
• Classmates Bridge a Watergate Rift (New York Times)
• Notes From The Underground: Larry David (New York Times)
• Who Knew, and When Did They Know It? (Los Angeles Times)

June 7

• Watergate Weighs on Today’s White House (Los Angeles Times)
• ‘Throat’ the Bums Out (Wall Street Journal)

Other

• Teachers’ Lesson Plan (PBS News Hour)
• 2002: New Claim of Deep Throat’s Identity (The Guardian)

The claim is made in an article by John Dean, the former White House counsel to Richard Nixon, in an article in the Los Angeles Times. Dean was jailed for his part in Watergate. More recently, he is the author of Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush.

In the article, Dean claims: “Bob Woodward, a reporter on the team that covered the Watergate story, has advised his executive editor at the Washington Post that Throat is ill. And Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Post and one of the few people to whom Woodward confided his source’s identity, has publicly acknowledged that he has written Throat’s obituary.”

This is the text of the article from the Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2005.

Should We Jail Deep Throats …

by John W. Dean

I have little doubt that one of my former Nixon White House colleagues is history’s best-known anonymous source — Deep Throat. But I’ll be damned if I can figure out exactly which one.

We’ll all know one day very soon, however. Bob Woodward, a reporter on the team that covered the Watergate story, has advised his executive editor at the Washington Post that Throat is ill. And Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Post and one of the few people to whom Woodward confided his source’s identity, has publicly acknowledged that he has written Throat’s obituary.

When that posthumous profile reveals the secret name, it will be flash powder on the long-simmering debate about reporters’ use of anonymous sources — an issue much in the news lately because my former law school classmate, Thomas F. Hogan, now the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has been holding journalists in contempt of court for refusing to reveal their sources to a grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

I’m caught in the middle on this discussion. As a columnist, occasional freelancer and author of six nonfiction books, I use unidentified sources myself. In fact, I just used one. The source who informed me that Woodward leaked the news of Throat’s illness to the executive editor of the Post gave me that information either on “deep background” or “off the record” (I never could get the distinction of those rules straightened out). So I apologize to my source if this information was never meant to be public, but it is a tidbit too hot to keep sitting on.

I don’t like using unidentified sources and never was one. During my years at the White House, not to mention those at the Justice Department and on Capitol Hill, I never leaked information, although I was frequently approached. If I couldn’t say it on the record, I didn’t say it. And because I had no authority to speak on the record, I chose not to speak.

So what is to be made of those who clank jail keys to encourage reporters to reveal their sources?

Without confidential sources, much of what people need to know in a democracy would never be reported, so unless there is a higher reason, journalists must be able to protect such sources who are willing to impart such information. That said, no news person should agree to provide confidentiality unless it is essential to obtain information that the public should be told and there is no other way to obtain the information. A scoop per se does not justify a pledge of confidentiality.

A source may be using the reporter, while the reporter is using the source. Motives range from the noble whistle-blower who is morally offended by misconduct to the staffer who is floating a trial balloon to the low-end leaker who is seeking to gain advantage by sabotaging a competitor or foe.

Reporters and their sources (and the public) must remember that when journalists agree to keep a source confidential, they have entered into a contract. Indeed, reporters have been successfully sued for damages when they have breached their agreement. However, in most states, every contract has an implied warranty of good faith and fair dealing — meaning that neither a reporter nor a source can take unfair advantage of the other. This is important because insiders leak for an array of reasons, not always honorable, and may be using the reporter’s confidentiality to protect themselves if, say, they are releasing information obtained improperly. If the source tried to enforce confidentiality, or collect damages from the reporter, the attempt would fail because of implied warranty.

Finally, if the confidential information relates to criminal activity, the U.S. Supreme Court said in 1972 (in Branzburg vs. Hayes) that should a grand jury investigating the crime need the information, the journalist must turn it over — despite the freedom of the press guaranteed under the 1st Amendment.

No reporter can enter into an agreement that violates that law. Rather, an agreement of confidentiality is subject to it. The so-called news person’s privilege, just like the attorney-client privilege or a president’s executive privilege, is a qualified privilege. When a judge holds a reporter in contempt for violating the law, that judge is merely upholding the law of the land.

As for Deep Throat, well, we will all soon learn if Woodward has been protecting a criminal for three decades, or merely a source who gave him some good information and some bad information — when history’s greatest source was wrong — that Woodward has never corrected. (To pick just one of Throat’s many errors, I randomly opened “All the President’s Men,” scanned until I came to the passage in which Woodward reports Throat as giving him this: “Dean talked with Sen. [Howard] Baker after [the] Watergate committee [was] formed and Baker is in the bag completely, reporting back directly to the White House.” It never happened.)

I suspect that Throat’s identity may prove a cautionary tale for all news gatherers. Stay tuned.

Woods was supposedly responsible for the famous missing 18 and a half minutes from a White House tape recording.

In 1973, Woods testified that she had apparently made a mistake while working with the tape of the June 20, 1972 conversation between Nixon and H.R. Haldeman. This was three days after the Watergate break-in. Woods claimed she pressed the “record” button when she meant to press the “stop” button.

Woods initially denied erasing the tape but then changed her story. Haldeman’s notes of the conversation indicated that the missing section contained instructions from Nixon about a public relations strategy to distract attention from Watergate.

Woods subsequently demonstrated how the 18-minute erasure might have occurred. The improbable contortions where she attempted to show how her foot remained on the tape recorder’s remote control whilst she leaned across to answer the telephone were widely mocked.