ben bradley, the editor of the paper. there were surprisingly few people in the newsroom because we knew what was coming. and catherine actually said to the group of us, no gloating. >> how did that work out? >> and there was no need because my feeling was one of absolute total awe that it had come to this. finally, the country was going to be spared in an office and also recognition of the fact that those in the room had some real role in what was happening. but awe, total awe. and the fact that the system had worked. >> bob? >> i was sitting on the floor of howard simon's office. he was the managing editor watching this speech, and this was before the bezos era. it was the graham era. they handed out sandwiches that night. i remember the very bad bologna sandwich i was sitting there eating, and not only did catherine graham issue the no gloating rule, but ben bradley did. and he was kind of going around the newsroom slowly, not showing any emotion. and ben and i went to the elevator because we were going to go down to g

i called ben bradley

i mean, right after watergate ben bradley wrote the book "conversations with kennedy" and he was bragging about the fact that he got a call from the mayor saying mr. president with good luck and good luck from your friends in chicago, we're going to carry on while you're president. but the implication was that we stole it from you, jack and he was laughing about it with his friend at. washington post. but, you know, kennedy was not as good nor was nixon as bad as i think popular history tells us. host: i want to go back to the address that richard nixon gave to the american people. he likes delivering addresses. and in that moment on the red carpet, that was part of the ceremony. who orchestrated all of that? guest: it was his staff orchestrated it for him but with his approval. every step of the way of those last 48 hours, he did it the way he wanted to do it. like i said, he felt he had -- he didn't have to. he could have snuck out of town but he felt an obligation to do it publically, however painful it was, he wanted to make one last speech to the american people that morning. interes

as ben bradley said, you know you're about to call the attorney general of the united states a crook. there is never been a story like this before. >> and bradley said you had better be right. [laughter] >> so we would get coffee upstairs off the newsroom floor. dime in the machine, which is what coffee cost then. [laughter] and i literally felt a chill. literally, not figuratively . oh my god i said, this president is going to be impeached. he turned to me and said oh my god, you're right. incan never use that word this newspaper office ever, unless somebody thinks we have an agenda. that --red very early once that mitchell thing, that connection. let me tell one more mitchell story. what happened the next night. we wrote the story. house,usual, the white we call for comments. and the assistant press secretary, who we told him what the story was, and that john mitchell was in control of the secret funds come i wanted to know what the white house had to say about it. he said the sources of the washington post are a fountain of misinformation. i was his response. ouras always to make c

ben bradley told me one of his official sources was barry goldwater because he thought nixon had to go and was talking to "the washington post." >> this is from our facebook page. nixon did one thing no other president did. he took full responsibility for his actions. that is not something leaders do today. did he take full responsibility and did he fully apologize before his staff? >> as with many things about richard nixon, who was a shifty character, it is hard to answer definitively. he makes the argument in his memoirs and i think there is some truth in it that part of the reason he left was as a patriot he could not put the country through further turmoil and the terrible fall of 1974, an impeachment trial in the senate. all of his foreign-policy goals would have been shattered. there were too many important things happening in the country that after two years of watergate he had to leave, and he recognize that. the other part is he did not have political support anymore. he lost it completely. the third part is he was hoping if he left, he would not be tried for the crimes of th

ben bradley, the editor of the paper. there were surprise league fing people in the newsroom because we knew what was coming. and catherine actually said to the group of us, no gloating. >> how did that work out? >> and there was no need because my feeling was one of absolute total awe that it had come to this. finally, the country was going to be spared in an office and also recognition of the fact that those in the group had some real role in what was happening. but awe, total awe. and the fact that the system had worked. >> i was sitting on the floor of howard simon's office. he was the managing editor watching this and this was before the bezos era. it was the graham era. they handed out sandwiches that night. i remember the very bad bologna sandwich i was sitting there eating and not only did catherine graham issue the no glo gloating rule but so did brantly. and ben and i went to the elevator because we were going to go down to get something to eat and the elevator opens and there's sargent shriver who has somehow b

ben bradley, the editor of the paper. there were surprise league fing people in the newsroom because we knew what was coming. and catherine actually said to the group of us, no gloating. >> how did that work out? >> and there was no need because my feeling was one of absolute total awe that it had come to this. finally, the country was going to be spared in an office and also recognition of the fact that those in the group had some real role in what was happening. but awe, total awe. and the fact that the system had worked. >> i was sitting on the floor of howard simon's office. he was the managing editor watching this and this was before the bezos era. it was the graham era. they handed out sandwiches that night. i remember the very bad bologna sandwich i was sitting there eating and not only did catherine graham issue the no glo gloating rule but so did brantly. and ben and i went to the elevator because we were going to go down to get something to eat and the elevator opens and there's sargent shriver who has somehow b

the things, working for people, you discover, and some of editors at the "washington post," like ben bradley, who was tough and knew how to say, wearing going to put this in the paper, keep this out. but he was happy. he would make jokes. there was a spirit. was there any -- >> guest: nixon has very little sense of humor. he -- >> host: no joy? >> guest: i don't know. i listen -- there's some conversations i did not include because they weren't relevant but i'd ocautionly stop and listen to some. he had a lovely relationship with his daughters. i'm sure they were stunned when this stuff came out to see this other side of him. so i think there was joy in his family, and the same with his wife. he has a lovely relationship. the two conversations i lisped to there, most of that was taken out as personal -- >> host: we haven't seen, what -- only seen a third or half of what is available? because there are hundreds of hours for national security, for privacy reasons. >> guest: there's a treasure trove there. just like these sat there all these years with nobody bothering to flush this out to full

and i called ben bradley, and ben said, don't let the guy up. let me do something. hold off a minute. and he called me back in a few minutes and said, bernstein, you get the hell out of the building. that's the first thing. and i just called catherine graham, and she says, those are her notes, they're not your notes. and if anybody's going to go to jail, it's going to be her. >> that was fantastic. fantastic story. [ applause ] >> fantastic story. i think we are out of time now. but i want to thank all our three marvelous panelists and all of you for showing up. i wanted to make the following point. it kind of grows out of what doug just said a moment ago. i learned in 1974, i believe, that my phone was tapped by richard nixon. i knew that on two occasions my office at the state department, cbs, had an office at the state department, as did most of the reporters covering the department. that that office had twice been broken into. once i actually saw people running away, because they had seen me approaching. four or five times our income tax was audited. not a penny

and i called ben bradley, and ben said, don't let the guy up. let me do something. hold off a minute. and he called me back in a few minutes and said, bernstein, you get the hell out of the building. that's the first thing. and i just called catherine graham, and she says, those are her notes, they're not your notes. and if anybody's going to go to jail, it's going to be her. >> that was fantastic. fantastic story. [ applause ] >> fantastic story. i think we are out of time now. but i want to thank all our three marvelous panelists and all of you for showing up. i wanted to make the following point. it kind of grows out of what doug just said a moment ago. i learned in 1974, i believe, that my phone was tapped by richard nixon. i knew that on two occasions my office at the state department, cbs, had an office at the state department, as did most of the reporters covering the department. that that office had twice been broken into. once i actually saw people running away, because they had seen me approaching. four or five times our income tax was audited. not a penny

as ben bradley said, you are about to call the attorney general of the united states a crook. 's never been a story like this before. we were in there -- >> bradley said, you better be right. >> you'd better be right. so we would get coffee upstairs in a little vending machine room off a little newsroom floor. i put a dime in the machine, which is what coffee cost then. and i literally felt a chill go down my neck. and i turned to woodward and i said, oh, my god, this president is going to be impeached. and woodward turned to me and he said, oh, my god, you are right. we can never use that word in this newspaper office ever unless somebody think we have an agenda. it occurred very early that this -- once that mitchell thing, that connection -- let me tell one more mitchell story that what happened the next night. which was we wrote the story. as usual, the white house -- we called for a comment and the assistant press secretary, we told them what the story was, john mitchell controlled these secret funds, and we wanted to know what the white house had to say about it. he got ba

ben bradley, the ultimate editor was a -- carl is right. certainly probably the greatest editor of the last century, but it wasn't just for what he'd put in the paper but what he'd keep out of the paper. and there was a kind of patience and real quickly, tell the story about catherine graham who is the publisher and the owner in january '73 after carl and i had written this series of stories that essentially said, as carl points out, is a criminal enterprise in the nixon white house. one of the problems we had, most people did not believe it. it was thought inconceivable that nixon or the people had conducted this espionage and sabotage operation that there was all this illegal money. $700,000 in a safe in cash for undercover activities. at the time that was lots of money. and so catherine graham invited me up for lunch one day. it was a day when carl had to go to a funeral. and i remember walking in. she had supported the publication of these stories. we knew her a little bit. and she -- when we sat down, she started asking me questions ab

i called ben bradley up at home and told him what mitchell had said in response to the story and bradley said, he really said that? i said yeah. >> he said do you have good notes, i said yeah, i got my notes. it's all there. he said put it all in the paper but leave her tit out. [ applause ] >> which we did. the next day mrs. graham came around to me and said, carl, do you have any more messages for me? >> well, i think we can all go home now. that's pretty incredible. do we have a minute for one more question? right there. thanks. >> i'm going to turn the tables a little bit. i'm going to turn the table a little bit and say one of the probably most brilliant political moves in the last 20 years was embedding reporters in iraq and probably the biggest failure in journalism was to embed the reporters in iraq. i'm wondering what you all think about that and you think that the rise of social media and online media was because of the institutional reporters that were embedded and report what we all know now is that there's no wmds there. >> i don't think the question of wmds came up there. i

ben or anywhere near it. tam. >> last night clouds clashed again with police for the tenth straight night over the shooting of 18-year-old michael bran. abc news reporter tahman bradley is live with the latest. good morning, tahman. >> reporter: good morning, tam. the demonstrations were peaceful until around midnight when according to police, violent people threw bottles. >> come on. >> reporter: overnight authorities in ferguson again changed tactics trying to keep a lower profile hiding tactical units but peaceful demonstrations got out of hand. >> all media you need to return. >> reporter: officers drew their guns and made arrests. >> the agitators, the criminals embedded themselves and hid behind media. they began throwing bottles. they threw urine on officers and that's what caused officers to take action and begin to make arrests. >> reporter: an outside -- and outside ferguson yesterday afternoon there was this angry demonstration after another police shoot,. >> no justice, no peace. >> reporter: officers in saint louis shot and killed a 23-year-old black man they say was coming at them waveing a knife. >> officer's safety is the number one issue. if you're t