Bradlee: "We only made one mistake..." -Would the WP have survived today?

[Rose Siding]

"I knew the paper was on the right track," Bradlee said. The "quality of the source" and the soundness of his guidance made him sure of that, he said.

"We made only one mistake . . . and that had nothing to do with 'Deep Throat,' " Bradlee said, referring to an error in reporting grand jury testimony.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/31/AR2005053100655.html

It's front pg w/art- They were primed for this day. But I wonder....

Could it ever happen again? Imagine if it had broken today. "Only one mistake" (sort of, kind of, not really) did in Rather, his producers and the program, not to mention the WHOLE story about bush's service. Poof.

Could the media ever function this way again?

[MADem]

1. They would have been Newsweeked over that one mistake

...and the paper would be sold to Rev. Moon posthaste!

[deadparrot]

2. Nixon was a dick

in a thousand other areas, but compared to what we're faced with today, Watergate itself seems like small potatoes.

I can't help but think that if BushCo was caught doing something similar to Watergate today, it would be little more than a minor headline, if that.

[EVDebs]

3. It's all a charade. Felt isn't "Deep Throat" any more than Sen Bennett

Deep Throat - A few thoughts
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/07.03.97/scoop-9727.html

THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY of the Watergate break-in has passed, full of predictable recitations of a modern David and Goliath fable: Richard Nixon vs. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who had only their courage--and an anonymous do-gooder named "Deep Throat"--to rely on.
That's nice as far as it goes.

What's missing is an understanding of Deep Throat, Woodward's garage-lurking source who guided the reporters to some of their biggest leads. If he was just a concerned citizen, great. But if Deep Throat had his own agenda, then he used the Washington Post to shape the story for his own purposes and got away clean.

"I have told Woodward everything I know about the Watergate case, except the Mullen Company's tie to the CIA."--Robert F. Bennett, testifying before House Special Committee on Intelligence, July 2, 1974. Robert Bennett was the head of Robert R. Mullen and Co., a CIA front headquartered in the very same building as the CIA's Domestic Operations Division. The Mullen Co. did legitimate PR work; it also did PR for other CIA fronts and provided cover abroad for CIA operations. Bennett's most notable employee was Howard Hunt, a former chief of covert actions for the Domestic Operations Division of the CIA.

What gives? Was Robert F. Bennett the famous Deep Throat? Nah.
Most serious students of the case now consider Deep Throat a composite of several sources. Some of the cloak-and-dagger stuff is just goofy: for example, Woodward's signal to meet was given from his apartment balcony--which in reality faced an interior courtyard. Bennett was simply a Watergate figure who spun the case for himself successfully. Beyond the Post, CIA memos indicate Bennett also actively reframed the Watergate story away from the Mullen Co.'s CIA purposes for the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Star, Time, and Newsweek. So whatever happened to this Robert Bennett guy? Did he disappear, wind up in jail, or die creatively, like so many CIA operatives? Nope. Today, he's a U.S. senator, just like his father.

According to Roll Call, Bob Bennett, R-Utah, is now the eighth richest of the 535 members of Congress, with a personal fortune exceeding $30 million.

[pretzel4gore]

4. sally quinn's deep throat

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