最佳Watergate播客 (2024)

Prior episodes have shown that the Nixon Presidency, churlishly cynical though it may have been, was the victim of deceitful journalism by the Washington Post which cast it far more villainously than deserved. Was the harm of this journalism limited to this particular epoch? Unfortunately, no. This episode will show but a few examples of how this g…

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Ep. 33: Watergate Journalism, The Seeds of Our Discontent 29:28

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3y ago29:28

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Clearly the full and correct Watergate story was not reported by the Washington Post. Often a journalist simply gets a story wrong while acting in good faith. But if the Post was willfully deceitful in its Watergate reporting, not simply negligent, then the entire modern project of slashing “investigative” journalism is built on fraud. Is today’s p…

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Ep. 32: A Lid on Liddy 30:24

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G. Gordon Liddy, a lawyer, former FBI agent and chief operative in the White House Plumbers unit at the time, was a central focus for Watergate activity, even though he is correctly, and admittedly, seen as a dupe. But he was an honest man, incapable of insincerity, such that his 1980 memoir, Will, is know to be the most candid and honest of the Wa…

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Ep. 31: Baking Baker 39:23

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As impeachment was closing in on President Nixon, the CIA could, it seemed breathe a sigh of relief, as it had skillfully and luckily, with the unstinting help of the Washington Post, navigated rocky shoals. The Mullen cover contract (Ep. 3), Michael Stevens’ bombshell stories (Ep. 14), Lou Russell’s involvement (Ep. 15), the desk key found during …

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Ep. 30: Stranger Danger, Hiding Stevens and Russell 26:52

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As of late March 1973, it looked like all the pieces were falling in place for the CIA to avoid exposure of its role in the Watergate scandal and to hide the salacious information actually targeted. If Watergate continued to be viewed as a campaign fiasco, John Dean’s and Jeb Magruder’s testimony against their superiors in the White House would be …

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Ep. 29: Misrepresenting McCord's Misconduct 25:26

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James McCord is a highly intriguing character, if an opaque one. As we described earlier, John Mitchell had wanted a personal security officer, but Alfred Wong of the Secret Service, with thousands of retired agents in D.C., could only find McCord, a “retired” CIA agent with no personal security experience. So why did McCord’s friend Wong recommend…

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Ep. 28: Blacking Out Blackmail 23:56

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If the Washington Post was not intentionally covering up the “CIA defense” which we discussed in the last episode, it would blare a headline about it when it was later documented that Howard Hunt, the Watergate burglary supervisor, had earlier been planning it, correct? And if the prosecution believed that the CIA defense was truly “spurious,” why …

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Ep. 27: Covering Up the CIA Defense 20:55

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In a trial of profound public significance, it is particularly important that the media informing the public of the prosecution cover all impactful claims and defenses. In the first of two episodes on the trial and prosecution of the Watergate burglars, we will examine whether the Washington Post intentionally covered up the planned defense of burg…

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Ep. 26: Burying Baldwin 30:58

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History has paid little attention to Alfred Baldwin, the Watergate wiretap monitor, and his knowledge. That is most likely the result of the Washington Post feigning ignorance of his existence for the crucial first several months of the scandal. Was the Washington Post truly ignorant of his overhearings, which would have radically altered the narra…

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Ep. 25: Mullen and Company’s Covered Up Cover Contract 25:32

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All five burglars were involved in the ill-fated CIA-planned fiasco, the Bay of Pigs, and one supervisor, Howard Hunt, was a leader in that abortive Cuban invasion. Since at the time of Watergate, he worked not only part-time at the White House but also full-time at Mullen and Company, a D.C. public relations firm with known CIA ties, an important …

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Ep. 24: Burglary Information Gone Missing 27:21

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The Watergate burglary and arrests were noteworthy, but the scandal did not heat up or capture the public's attention for four months. So, why does it matter if the Washington Post's widely reprinted burglary arrest reporting was missing key details? What were those missing details, and were they of history-shaping effect? And if the Washington Pos…

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Ep. 23: Big Questions About Big Journalism 20:14

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It is not an overstatement to say that American history's most lauded reporting is the Washington Post's Watergate journalism. There is also no doubt as to its earthshaking impact, both impelling the country's only removal of a president, and also inspiring a new brand of journalism and journalists. How is it explained, then, that so many salient f…

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Ep. 22: The True Watergate Narrative, Part 2 16:12

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This second part of our discussion of The Narrative explains how otherwise odd, idiosyncratic evidence from The Mysteries of Watergate fits snugly into the revisionist narrative. This evidence, to the extent disclosed and analyzed correctly, would have explicated the motives of major actors, but in fact was not disclosed or well explained by conven…

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Ep. 21: The True Watergate Narrative, Part 1 24:38

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In this series we have shown solid proof solving specific, discrete Mysteries of Watergate. But humans understand morality through narratives: there is always a moral to the story. In this episode we will add to our series by showing how our specific proofs cohere in a satisfying overall Narrative, explaining what really happened in our country’s m…

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Ep. 20: Deep Throat and the Garage Meetings 22:22

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The character Deep Throat, who we now know was Mark Felt, the Associate Director of the FBI at the time of Watergate, is the most intriguing of Watergate characters regarding the journalism so crucial to understanding the scandal. This episode explores the motive and intent of this source when he meets with Woodward in their first all-night parking…

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Ep. 19: Analyzing the Evidence 24:23

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We have presented in the previous episodes solid evidence of hidden motives, veiled intentions and outright deceit, involving an intriguing cast of characters in the Watergate scandal. In this episode we will show how these strands of evidence of skullduggery are sensibly woven together to support a coherent narrative, out of what appears to be on …

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Ep. 18: Liddy, Watergate's Unguided Missile 28:23

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G. Gordon Liddy’s salience comes from his unmatched centrality to all major factions participating in this odd drama. He worked with the White House, the CIA Plumbers, the Cuban Watergate burglars, John Dean and Jeb Magruder, even John Mitchell and Attorney General Richard Kleindeinst. Moreover, while perhaps duped, Liddy is brutally honest and in …

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Ep. 17: Pennington 18:27

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If Martinez, Russell and Stevens form a triple play of CIA involvement in prostitute taping, Lee R. Pennington is a guilty plea to criminal coverup of deep CIA participation. This episode is packed with facts not contained in any major work on Watergate, facts verified by none other than the CIA. This episode should leave the listener with no doubt…

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Ep. 16: Martinez and the Key 30:52

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Watergate can only be explained by its target. Yet for the past 49 years the Washington Post and historians have not told us where in the office the burglars were, and what key evidence one burglar tried to get rid of. And who exactly was Eugenio Martinez? Would his identity tell us anything? And what role did mysterious cop Carl Shoffler play? Tun…

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Ep. 15: Lou Russell, the Sixth Burglar? 21:48

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Lou Russell is the most intriguing figure in a scandal full of intrigue. Perhaps much like Michael Stevens, his potential role could not have been spun by either the Washington Post or the Senate Watergate Committee in a way that avoided the CIA, and therefore the public has heard nothing about him. But Russell’s participation, if proven, implicate…

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Ep. 14: Michael Stevens, Bug Fabricator 27:16

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On the night of May 16-17, 1973, Bob Woodward had his most dramatic encounter with his normally cool source Deep Throat. Agitated, hurried, he warned the reporter that “Everyone’s life is in danger!” The dramatic scene is featured in the movie and book, All the President's Men, but never reported by the Washington Post. In the book, the reporters n…

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Ep. 13: James McCord, Cipher 28:21

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While most Watergate histories do not focus on James McCord, except for his dramatic letter to Judge Sirica at sentencing, this enigmatic, “retired“ CIA agent is an important character for those who wish to deeply understand the scandal. In fact, it is his superficial inscrutability that should have led analysts to use him as a Rosetta Stone to unr…

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Ep. 12: John Dean's Historical Blunder 15:39

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We know that the first wiretapping and burglary were fruitless. Why did the burglars go in a second time, against the wishes of both Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy? How does Richard Nixon's White House Counsel John Dean fit into this story? The resolution of this question, hidden until now, will explain much to solve The Mysteries of Watergate. __…

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Ep. 11: The Dog Who Did Not Bark; Jack Anderson and the CIA 19:37

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One of the lingering mysteries of Watergate is the foreknowledge, or lack of same, of the country’s most famed “muckraker,” syndicated columnist Jack Anderson. Anderson was known as a man with incredibly wide and deep sources at all levels of Washington, D.C. government scandals, and in 1972 won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the Nixon Admin…

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Ep. 10: White House Call Girl 25:21

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Sexual obsession throughout D.C.’s established institutions leads by labyrinthine path to Watergate. In this episode we meet the White House Call Girl who is a leading character in the drama, along with intelligence agencies looking for illicit sexual dirt. ________________________________________ Thank you for listening! For more information such …

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Ep. 09: The CIA and Sex 22:00

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Sex, drugs and wiretaps. These were the tools used by the CIA to perform social research experiments such MK-Ultra, Project BLUEBIRD and Project ARTICHOKE through its highly secretive Office of Security, which was the only department to report directly to the Director . Stranger than fiction, the truth about the CIA’s illegal experiments involving …

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Ep. 08: John Dean, Clever Counsel or Conflicted Quisling? 25:17

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John Dean, the shrewd young White House Counsel who was the main witness to the obstruction of justice which forced President Nixon’s resignation, has consistently cast himself as a Boy Scout assisting bad companions. But is there reason to believe that Dean himself had something to do with the Watergate break-ins, notwithstanding his denials? And …

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Ep. 07: Prosecution and Trial 24:53

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As the Watergate burglary trial approached in December, 1972, and January, 1973, both burglary supervisor Howard Hunt and Prosecutor Earl Silbert prepared for a trial that would feature the CIA, Mullen and Company, and charges of intended blackmail over racy phone calls. But why is it today that the public still does not know about any such allegat…

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Ep. 06: The Undetermined Target 25:00

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The target of the Watergate burglars has always been a matter of speculation and head-scratching. While many have focused on the knowledge of DNC Chairman Larry O’Brien, who may have possessed dark secrets of Nixon, or illegal “Fidelista” contributions to the DNC by Fidel Castro supporters, the truth is far more stunning, involving lascivious conve…

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Ep. 05: CIA Operations Under White House Cover 29:36

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When FBI Associate Director Mark Felt surveyed the aftermath of the Watergate burglary, he concluded that it had been "a White House operation, a CIA operation, or both." How could it have been “both”? No one has ever testified that the CIA had been involved. In this episode, we will examine whether the earlier burglary of the psychiatrist of Penta…

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Ep. 04: Howard Hunt, Man of Mystery 26:02

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Retired CIA agent Howard Hunt was hired as a part-time consultant by the White House in 1971 to help discredit Daniel Ellsberg, the leaker of the infamous Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg exposed the foolishness of the Vietnam War as part of his role handling “sensitive assignments” for the Nixon Administration. If, as speculated, Howard Hunt was also wor…

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Ep. 03: Mullen and Company 20:28

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Mullen and Company was a worldwide public relations firm specializing in clients who grew fruit in banana republics. Why would the firm hire “retired” CIA agent Howard Hunt as a copywriter? Was it to pen the praises of United Fruit bananas, or some other purpose? And why would it want this full-time employee to work part-time at the White House? Th…

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Ep. 02: Infiltrating the White House 25:14

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How do Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Papers, George Washington’s crushing of the Whiskey Rebellion, and Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation explain the mysterious motives behind the burglary of the DNC Headquarters? Be among the first to understand this little-understood Mystery of Watergate. ________________________________________ Thank…

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Ep. 01b: What's Past is Prologue 18:56

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What do a young widow from California, an alcoholic private detective, a civil rights leader, a CIA poisons doctor and a Washington, D.C. prostitution ring have to do with each other? Seemingly disconnected story lines find themselves woven together in the bizarre 1970s political scandal we call Watergate. ________________________________________ T…

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Ep. 01a: Big Questions from a Small Burglary 28:31

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Was Watergate just a “third-rate burglary” or something more insidious? And was the Washington Post investigative journalism depicting the scandal entirely accurate? In this episode we will put a steady gaze to the timing of Watergate and take a deep dive into these two interrelated topics: who was truly responsible for the June 17, 1972 burglary o…

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The Mysteries of Watergate: Trailer 5:10

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Watergate was the most impactful political scandal in American history, resulting in the only forcible removal of a U.S. President, Richard Nixon. After seemingly exhaustive investigative reporting by the Washington Post and dozens of books and movies on the scandal since, there are many questions left unanswered. Through this podcast series, The M…