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Who is 'Deep Throat?'

Aired February 08, 2005 - 13:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it became known as the smoking gun tape. These infamous conversations revealed President Richard Nixon not only knew about, but participated in the Watergate cover-up, a complex Web of political scandals that brought down our 37th president. Now the word is out. The anonymous source who leaked the scandalous scoop is reportedly near death.
Jack Nelson remembers Watergate. He was an investigative reporter for "The L.A. Times." He joins us live from Washington with reaction. What do you think, Jack? Do you think it's true?

JACK NELSON, JOURNALIST: Well, I don't know whether it's true or not. You know John Dean is supposed to have said this, John dean who was the former White House official who finally spilled the beans on the whole Watergate break-in and testified on it. He has now said, actually in an op-ed piece that he wrote for the "L.A. Times," that he thinks it was somebody who is ill now and is going to die soon, because he was told that, he said, by someone who told him that Bob Woodward said that "Deep Throat" is ill.

As a matter of fact, Ben Bradley the executive editor -- former executive editor of "The Washington Post," who worked with Bob Woodward on the Watergate story, said that he's already written his obituary, at least he says he has. So -- but I don't know, I don't have any idea, really.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's go back to that time. Because you were working it, you were living it, you were writing the stories. 30 years ago. We're still fascinated -- who is Deep Throat? We may now finally know. But as we look at these pictures of you, take me back to the era -- this era in journalism. It was pretty awesome, wasn't it?

NELSON: Well, it was awesome. I mean, you woke up -- reporters in Washington woke up almost every morning wondering what's going to happen next because you had a -- you know, almost daily developments coming out after the original break-in the Watergate complex of the Democratic National Committee headquarters. And as a matter of fact, you know, I interviewed a guy who was across the street from the Watergate hotel and who listened in on the conversations that were taking place in the Democratic National Committee headquarters.

PHILLIPS: Was this the FBI agent?

NELSON: This was a former FBI agent, Al Bawlin (ph). And what happened was a lot of the other reporters were trying to get him to talk because it was known that he had been over there. And I went up to Connecticut, where he was, and talk to his lawyers and I said, look, this guy should tell his story and tell it one time only and make it a first-person story. So I did that, I went up and got his whole first-person story.

As a matter of fact, during that he said he felt John Mitchell probably knew what was going on, the attorney general, but we never used that because we didn't have the evidence. We just had that he thought it was. It later turned out that John Mitchell was among those involved.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. And another story you broke, Jeb Magruder. Interesting fellow, tell us about that.

NELSON: Well, Jeb Magruder -- I interviewed Jeb Magruder because I was told that he knew something and that I could talk to him off the record. So I did talk to him off the record and he lied to me. He lied through his teeth. And then later it came out that he was involved in the cover-up. So I did a story about it, you know, and said that he had lied in this interview with me earlier.

And I ran into him in front of the Federal City Club here in Washington. And he said, boy, I've got a bone to pick with you. And I said, what's that? He said, well, I was off the record and you quoted me. And I said, but you lied to me. He said, I lied to everybody. And you know, I figure if you lie to me, all...

PHILLIPS: All bets are off.

NELSON: All promises of confidentiality are off.

PHILLIPS: And I guess we should point out that Magruder has turned his life around. He's a reverend now, right?

NELSON: Well, he's a reverend. He became a minister and he became head of a big national commission on ethics, and he's really gone on the straight and narrow, I guess. I don't guess he lies anymore.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, let's get back to Deep Throat. You had a little tidbit. You actually know the history why we call Deep Throat Deep Throat. Tell us the story.

NELSON: Well, the reason was that Howard Simons, who was then the managing editor of "The Washington Post," would tell Ben Bradley that Woodward had these various disclosures from a source, you know, and he said, well, who is this? Said, well, it's Deep Throat. He said, well, who the hell is Deep Throat? He said, well, I just call him Deep Throat because it's all on deep background. You know, the difference between deep background and off the record is that if you give somebody information on deep background, you can use it but don't name the source. If it's off the record, supposedly you can't use it at all.

PHILLIPS: Outstanding. I wish I could pick up the paper and look at the follow-up, you know, by Jack Nelson on when this name is finally revealed. Knowing you and the way you worked, you'd get that name for us.

NELSON: Well, I'd try.

PHILLIPS: Jack Nelson, what a pleasure. I've always been a big admirer of you. Thanks for your time today.

NELSON: Thank you very much.

HARRIS: Well, we're pretty sure, Kyra, this guy here isn't Deep Throat. Let's take a look. No. Not Deep Throat. Definitely not.

PHILLIPS: But he does flip-flop.

HARRIS: Flipping a flap jack for a world record, one man's dramatic quest for fame. LIVE FROM pages Mrs. Butterworth after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Hey, you might want to hide the juice boxes. There's new research from the Centers for Disease Control which links sweet drinks, including fruit juice, with extra chubbiness in children. The report says drinks are a source of added sugar that heavier kids just don't need in their diet. The study points out better alternatives, including fresh fruit, water and milk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK, just -- just listen to the sound of it, OK? Is this the sound of a record breaking? Check it out. Dateline, the U.K, Dean Gould (ph) attempting to break the two-minute pancake flipping record today. The number to beat, 416. Listen. They keep telling me to go. I can't go. Listen to this thing. All right, he lives for this stuff. He holds the stamp-licking record, as well. Sure. But this game, it's all in the wrist. Find out if Dean reached the magic number of flips in the final dramatic minute after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Now look here, if you're just joining us, this is the final dramatic minute of Dean Gould's attempt to break the world pancake flipping record. Just two minutes to toss this flapjack, this cake, more than 416 times.

Waiting. Counting. Counting. Oh, technique is breaking down a little.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One forty-five, 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

HARRIS: OK, all right. The agony of defeat. The controversy lingers though over the count. The recount, the uber count. But Dean himself says he didn't make it, he didn't come close.

PHILLIPS: Poor guy. Oh, well, he's always got his stamp-licking record that we told you about, he can fall back on. Evidently, he doesn't even like pancakes. HARRIS: Oh, he doesn't.

PHILLIPS: No.

HARRIS: Oh, man, how did he decide to take that one on?

PHILLIPS: Omelet kind of guy.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Music legend Elton John, as Susan mentioned, he dropped by CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE" last night and brought his piano. And just in case you missed it, here's a sample.

(SINGING)

HARRIS: Sir Elton was Larry's guest for the entire show and sang three songs in all. Larry asked about the Lifetime Achievement Award for the Kennedy Center presented by President Bush after his criticism of the war in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "LARRY KING LIVE")

SIR ELTON JOHN, MUSICIAN: I had been a critic and I got a lot of press in England saying I was a hypocrite for going to America and accepting the award from President Bush. But this wasn't -- this was nothing to do with the government award. it was to do with an arts award.

And it would have been extremely rude of me not to have gone and shaken hands with your president no matter what my political views are. He's definitely entitled to his views. And I have to say he was incredibly charming. He was very welcoming, as was the first lady. And Condoleezza Rice, and everyone, was really, really charming to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And they can be.

Coming up now in our second hour of LIVE FROM...

PHILLIPS: Officialized version of the hunt for Osama bin Laden nets some real video that the U.S. government wanted to check out. See the controversial clip straight ahead. LIVE FROM's "hour of power" right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired February 8, 2005 - 13:38   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it became known as the smoking gun tape. These infamous conversations revealed President Richard Nixon not only knew about, but participated in the Watergate cover-up, a complex Web of political scandals that brought down our 37th president. Now the word is out. The anonymous source who leaked the scandalous scoop is reportedly near death.
Jack Nelson remembers Watergate. He was an investigative reporter for "The L.A. Times." He joins us live from Washington with reaction. What do you think, Jack? Do you think it's true?

JACK NELSON, JOURNALIST: Well, I don't know whether it's true or not. You know John Dean is supposed to have said this, John dean who was the former White House official who finally spilled the beans on the whole Watergate break-in and testified on it. He has now said, actually in an op-ed piece that he wrote for the "L.A. Times," that he thinks it was somebody who is ill now and is going to die soon, because he was told that, he said, by someone who told him that Bob Woodward said that "Deep Throat" is ill.

As a matter of fact, Ben Bradley the executive editor -- former executive editor of "The Washington Post," who worked with Bob Woodward on the Watergate story, said that he's already written his obituary, at least he says he has. So -- but I don't know, I don't have any idea, really.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's go back to that time. Because you were working it, you were living it, you were writing the stories. 30 years ago. We're still fascinated -- who is Deep Throat? We may now finally know. But as we look at these pictures of you, take me back to the era -- this era in journalism. It was pretty awesome, wasn't it?

NELSON: Well, it was awesome. I mean, you woke up -- reporters in Washington woke up almost every morning wondering what's going to happen next because you had a -- you know, almost daily developments coming out after the original break-in the Watergate complex of the Democratic National Committee headquarters. And as a matter of fact, you know, I interviewed a guy who was across the street from the Watergate hotel and who listened in on the conversations that were taking place in the Democratic National Committee headquarters.

PHILLIPS: Was this the FBI agent?

NELSON: This was a former FBI agent, Al Bawlin (ph). And what happened was a lot of the other reporters were trying to get him to talk because it was known that he had been over there. And I went up to Connecticut, where he was, and talk to his lawyers and I said, look, this guy should tell his story and tell it one time only and make it a first-person story. So I did that, I went up and got his whole first-person story.

As a matter of fact, during that he said he felt John Mitchell probably knew what was going on, the attorney general, but we never used that because we didn't have the evidence. We just had that he thought it was. It later turned out that John Mitchell was among those involved.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. And another story you broke, Jeb Magruder. Interesting fellow, tell us about that.

NELSON: Well, Jeb Magruder -- I interviewed Jeb Magruder because I was told that he knew something and that I could talk to him off the record. So I did talk to him off the record and he lied to me. He lied through his teeth. And then later it came out that he was involved in the cover-up. So I did a story about it, you know, and said that he had lied in this interview with me earlier.

And I ran into him in front of the Federal City Club here in Washington. And he said, boy, I've got a bone to pick with you. And I said, what's that? He said, well, I was off the record and you quoted me. And I said, but you lied to me. He said, I lied to everybody. And you know, I figure if you lie to me, all...

PHILLIPS: All bets are off.

NELSON: All promises of confidentiality are off.

PHILLIPS: And I guess we should point out that Magruder has turned his life around. He's a reverend now, right?

NELSON: Well, he's a reverend. He became a minister and he became head of a big national commission on ethics, and he's really gone on the straight and narrow, I guess. I don't guess he lies anymore.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, let's get back to Deep Throat. You had a little tidbit. You actually know the history why we call Deep Throat Deep Throat. Tell us the story.

NELSON: Well, the reason was that Howard Simons, who was then the managing editor of "The Washington Post," would tell Ben Bradley that Woodward had these various disclosures from a source, you know, and he said, well, who is this? Said, well, it's Deep Throat. He said, well, who the hell is Deep Throat? He said, well, I just call him Deep Throat because it's all on deep background. You know, the difference between deep background and off the record is that if you give somebody information on deep background, you can use it but don't name the source. If it's off the record, supposedly you can't use it at all.

PHILLIPS: Outstanding. I wish I could pick up the paper and look at the follow-up, you know, by Jack Nelson on when this name is finally revealed. Knowing you and the way you worked, you'd get that name for us.

NELSON: Well, I'd try.

PHILLIPS: Jack Nelson, what a pleasure. I've always been a big admirer of you. Thanks for your time today.

NELSON: Thank you very much.

HARRIS: Well, we're pretty sure, Kyra, this guy here isn't Deep Throat. Let's take a look. No. Not Deep Throat. Definitely not.

PHILLIPS: But he does flip-flop.

HARRIS: Flipping a flap jack for a world record, one man's dramatic quest for fame. LIVE FROM pages Mrs. Butterworth after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Hey, you might want to hide the juice boxes. There's new research from the Centers for Disease Control which links sweet drinks, including fruit juice, with extra chubbiness in children. The report says drinks are a source of added sugar that heavier kids just don't need in their diet. The study points out better alternatives, including fresh fruit, water and milk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK, just -- just listen to the sound of it, OK? Is this the sound of a record breaking? Check it out. Dateline, the U.K, Dean Gould (ph) attempting to break the two-minute pancake flipping record today. The number to beat, 416. Listen. They keep telling me to go. I can't go. Listen to this thing. All right, he lives for this stuff. He holds the stamp-licking record, as well. Sure. But this game, it's all in the wrist. Find out if Dean reached the magic number of flips in the final dramatic minute after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Now look here, if you're just joining us, this is the final dramatic minute of Dean Gould's attempt to break the world pancake flipping record. Just two minutes to toss this flapjack, this cake, more than 416 times.

Waiting. Counting. Counting. Oh, technique is breaking down a little.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One forty-five, 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

HARRIS: OK, all right. The agony of defeat. The controversy lingers though over the count. The recount, the uber count. But Dean himself says he didn't make it, he didn't come close.

PHILLIPS: Poor guy. Oh, well, he's always got his stamp-licking record that we told you about, he can fall back on. Evidently, he doesn't even like pancakes. HARRIS: Oh, he doesn't.

PHILLIPS: No.

HARRIS: Oh, man, how did he decide to take that one on?

PHILLIPS: Omelet kind of guy.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Music legend Elton John, as Susan mentioned, he dropped by CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE" last night and brought his piano. And just in case you missed it, here's a sample.

(SINGING)

HARRIS: Sir Elton was Larry's guest for the entire show and sang three songs in all. Larry asked about the Lifetime Achievement Award for the Kennedy Center presented by President Bush after his criticism of the war in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "LARRY KING LIVE")

SIR ELTON JOHN, MUSICIAN: I had been a critic and I got a lot of press in England saying I was a hypocrite for going to America and accepting the award from President Bush. But this wasn't -- this was nothing to do with the government award. it was to do with an arts award.

And it would have been extremely rude of me not to have gone and shaken hands with your president no matter what my political views are. He's definitely entitled to his views. And I have to say he was incredibly charming. He was very welcoming, as was the first lady. And Condoleezza Rice, and everyone, was really, really charming to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And they can be.

Coming up now in our second hour of LIVE FROM...

PHILLIPS: Officialized version of the hunt for Osama bin Laden nets some real video that the U.S. government wanted to check out. See the controversial clip straight ahead. LIVE FROM's "hour of power" right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com