len downey talks about accountability reporting. and in the nixon white house in the early years, i think they said, you know, it's not out there. they're not going to find out what we did or what we're doing. and then when the press started to find out, one of the celebrated horrors in the nixon white house was the 17 wiretaps against reporters and white house aides. they thought he was a national security threat. well, he was when he went on to be a columnist for the new york times. but not at that time. and if you go into why -- why they tapped his telephone, it was because he was hanging out with somebody that they thought was a national security threat, another reporter. >> when you were trying to explain the story, trying to understand the story, what was the biggest mistake you made? >> well, the biggest mistake was actually one of attribution. we said that held the fund that paid for all of these. the grand jurors and the prosecutors had never asked haldeman the question. that was the big mistake. >> and that was a real low

that day, carl and i were in the newsroom and bradley and len downey are saying, you've got to confirm it. and we weren't worried that he's being taken advantage of. he's over 90, dementia. they're saying, looks this is reality. we need to confirm it and disclose it. we did. happily, then people started checking and felt wrote another book with his lawyer and so forth. all the details are laid out. so there's not a mystery about this. quite frankly, if he had died before that happened or we were able to write the book "the secret man" to tell about that story, you would have had more doubters. >> did you go to him at any point in the process before it was disclosed and he acknowledged that he was deep throat to ask him to consider coming forward? >> yes. when we were writing "all the president's men" i called him up and said how about coming clean? click. i know what that meant. >> and who conceived the idea of how you would meet? >> he started out -- >> plant, flower and all that? >> he said open the drapes. i said now wait a minute. i'm maybe going to let the sun in. so i said this f