SPIKE - Department of Journalism - University of Illinois

Role in other stories

Woodward's background

Deep Throat may have been Woodward's source for an earlier story that seems to have come from the White House

In response to the earlier clue that Woodward and Throat had been acquainted long before Watergate, students researched Woodward's background and the stories he produced for two newspapers.


		Bob Woodward may have been burned by a bad tip from Deep Throat before Watergate.

A native of Wheaton, Ill., Woodward graduated from Yale University in 1965, served five years in the U.S. Navy and got a job at the Montgomery County Sentinel, a weekly newspaper in Rockville, Md., a Washington suburb. Woodward worked there from October 1970 until October 1971.

He had a variety of stories, several of them involving District of Columbia police, but the stories provided no pattern that pointed to a high-level source in the White House.

However, his earlier reporting at the Post pointed to White House sources. An examination of all of the stories with Woodward's byline from October 1971 until the Watergate break-in shows that he broke a story about a federal grand jury investigation using only unnamed sources and another in which a document was leaked, six months before Watergate.

Woodward was a prolific producer from the start, writing lengthy stories that most often appeared on the front page or the front of the inside local section.

Woodward's role emerges as one studies his output. A general assignment reporter, he wrote summaries of newly released government reports that pertain to the Washington metropolitan area. He wrote about results of price control, police department applications for federal funds, police studies on drug use, and a Medicare and insurance payment crackdown on doctors.

Other stories were follow-ups to complaints of the sort that are called into the city desk: people living in a condemned building, policemen illegally parking their private cars, a charge that police beat a man they arrested, and job discrimination at a hospital. Woodward was the kind of reporter every editor seeks. Eager and thorough, he developed each story with extensive interviews.

Woodward apparently was not satisfied with his fast break from the starting gate. He was hungry for more action and produced stories on his own. Because they were stories with an unnamed federal source, it is a good bet that it was Throat.

Jan. 16: "Police Prober Accepted Loan," attributed to "sources close to the U.S. attorney's office."
Feb. 3: "Two Grand Juries Conducting Separate Investigations Into D.C. Police & Drugs," attributed only to "sources."
March 18: "Nixon Aide Given Ticket for Speeding," according to a "copy of the letter obtained."

      These stories carried more weight in judging the source of Woodward's information, because the students knew that Woodward used Throat more than once before Watergate. It was known by his editors that he had a useful source. Those stories then are more likely to have come from Throat, because after Woodward's Watergate stories, many Washington tipsters knew to take Watergate information to Woodward and Bernstein.

      The story by Woodward in January 1972 concerning the police investigator stated that the head of the D.C. police internal investigations unit had accepted a loan from a person he was supposed to be investigating. By quoting sources close to the U.S. attorney's office, Woodward seems to be eliminating the U.S. attorney's office.

      The Feb. 3 story was related to the police corruption story. Woodward had a report of a shake-up in command in the police department. A second adjacent story declared that two grand juries were conducting separate investigations into police corruption and major drug dealers, "it has been learned."

      "Sources say the probes may lead to the most sweeping criminal indictments in the city in recent years," according to the story.

      The next day, under a Woodward byline, the U.S. attorney's office refuted Woodward's story, stating there was no such investigation. Woodward came back in behalf of himself and inserted in the story that "reports surfaced" yesterday. But no such investigation was again written about in the Post. Had Throat led Woodward far out on a limb with misinformation?

      After the grand jury story, Woodward's published profile slipped. He was back on routine stories. But on March 18, a small story was buried in the second section. It was a laugher. Robert J. Brown, a Nixon aide, was ticketed and held by D.C. police on a traffic stop. John Dean's White House office arranged for Brown's release, according to the story. Brown then wrote a letter of outrage saying the policeman "should not be allowed to roam the streets with a badge and a gun." He sent the letter to John Ehrlichman and Dean, then the two top lawyers for Nixon. Woodward quoted from the letter without reporting how he got it.