Watergate scandal

=== Role of the media ===
The connection between the break-in and the re-election committee was highlighted by media coverage—in particular, investigative coverage by ''[[The Washington Post]]'', ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', and ''[[The New York Times]]''. The coverage dramatically increased publicity and consequent political and legal repercussions. Relying heavily upon [[anonymous sources]], ''Post'' reporters [[Bob Woodward]] and [[Carl Bernstein]] uncovered information suggesting that knowledge of the break-in, and attempts to cover it up, led deeply into the upper reaches of the Justice Department, FBI, CIA, and the White House. Woodward and Bernstein interviewed [[Judy Hoback Miller]], the bookkeeper for Nixon's re-election campaign, who revealed to them information about the mishandling of funds and records being destroyed.<ref>[http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/06/woodward-and-bernstein-downplay-deep-throat-125950.html "Woodward Downplays Deep Throat"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120619092918/http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/06/woodward-and-bernstein-downplay-deep-throat-125950.html |date=June 19, 2012 }}, ''Politico''. blog, June 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2015</ref><ref name="watergate_case_study_jm_perry_columbia_edu" />

[[File:Watergate garage with historic marker.jpg|thumb|Garage in Rosslyn where Woodward and Felt met. Also visible is the historical marker erected by the county to note its significance.]]

Chief among the ''Post's'' anonymous sources was an individual whom Woodward and Bernstein had nicknamed [[Deep Throat (Watergate)|Deep Throat]]; 33 years later, in 2005, the informant was identified as [[Mark Felt]], deputy director of the FBI during that period of the 1970s, something Woodward later confirmed. Felt met secretly with Woodward several times, telling him of Howard Hunt's involvement with the Watergate break-in, and that the White House staff regarded the stakes in Watergate as extremely high. Felt warned Woodward that the FBI wanted to know where he and other reporters were getting their information, as they were uncovering a wider web of crimes than the FBI first disclosed. All the secret meetings between Woodward and Felt took place at an underground parking garage in [[Rosslyn, Virginia|Rosslyn]] over a period from June 1972 to January 1973. Prior to resigning from the FBI on June 22, 1973, Felt also anonymously planted [[News leak|leaks]] about Watergate with [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]], ''[[The Washington Daily News]]'' and other publications.<ref name="watergate_case_study_jm_perry_columbia_edu" /><ref name="Holland">[http://www.pressherald.com/2012/02/19/the-profound-lies-of-deep-throat_2012-02-19/ "The profound lies of Deep Throat"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202043015/http://www.pressherald.com/2012/02/19/the-profound-lies-of-deep-throat_2012-02-19/ |date=February 2, 2017 }}, ''The Miami Herald'', republished in Portland Press Herald, February 14, 2012</ref>

During this early period, most of the media failed to understand the full implications of the scandal, and concentrated reporting on other topics related to the 1972 presidential election.<ref name="TimeWatergateCoverage">{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943934-1,00.html |title=Covering Watergate: Success and Backlash |date=July 8, 1974 |magazine=Time |access-date=July 24, 2011 |archive-date=June 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602032102/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943934-1,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Most outlets ignored or downplayed Woodward and Bernstein's scoops; the crosstown ''[[Washington Star-News]]'' and the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' even ran stories incorrectly discrediting the ''Post's'' articles. After the ''Post'' revealed that [[H.R. Haldeman]] had made payments from the secret fund, newspapers like the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' and ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]'' failed to publish the information, but did publish the White House's denial of the story the following day.<ref name="BoysontheBus">Crouse, Timothy (1973).''The Boys on the Bus'', Random House, p. 298</ref> The White House also sought to isolate the ''Post's'' coverage by tirelessly attacking that newspaper while declining to criticize other damaging stories about the scandal from the ''[[New York Times]]'' and [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]].<ref name="BoysontheBus" /><ref name="watergate_case_study_jm_perry_columbia_edu" />

After it was learned that one of the convicted burglars had written to Judge Sirica alleging a high-level cover-up, the media shifted its focus. ''Time'' magazine described Nixon as undergoing "daily hell and very little trust". The distrust between the press and the Nixon administration was mutual and greater than usual due to lingering dissatisfaction with events from the [[Vietnam War]]. At the same time, public distrust of the media was polled at more than 40%.<ref name=TimeWatergateCoverage />

Nixon and top administration officials discussed using government agencies to "get" (or retaliate against) those they perceived as hostile media organizations.<ref name=TimeWatergateCoverage /> Such actions had been taken before. At the request of Nixon's White House in 1969, the FBI tapped the phones of five reporters. In 1971, the White House requested an audit of the tax return of the editor of ''[[Newsday]]'', after he wrote a series of articles about the financial dealings of [[Charles Rebozo|Charles "Bebe" Rebozo]], a friend of Nixon.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,911434-3,00.html |title=The Nation: More Evidence: Huge Case for Judgment |date=July 29, 1974 |magazine=Time |access-date=July 24, 2011 |archive-date=May 21, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521074309/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,911434-3,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The administration and its supporters accused the media of making "wild accusations", putting too much emphasis on the story and of having a liberal bias against the administration.<ref name="watergate_case_study_jm_perry_columbia_edu" /><ref name=TimeWatergateCoverage /> Nixon said in a May 1974 interview with supporter [[Baruch Korff]] that if he had followed the liberal policies that he thought the media preferred, "Watergate would have been a blip."<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,942981-11,00.html |title=The Nixon Years: Down from the Mountaintop |date=August 19, 1974 |magazine=Time |access-date=July 24, 2011 |archive-date=May 21, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521074203/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,942981-11,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The media noted that most of the reporting turned out to be accurate; the competitive nature of the media guaranteed widespread coverage of the far-reaching political scandal.<ref name=TimeWatergateCoverage />