If Woodward and Bernstein are ever caught having fabricated facts about Watergate and/or Deep Throat, then *everything* that they reported will be discredited.
A page I just read from a link I ran across on FR just now (I'll look it up) said that one of the editors or something at the Post thought that he probably made the smoking part up because he tried so hard to hide DT's identity and because they made such an over the top deal out of the smoking part.
If Woodward and Bernstein are ever caught having fabricated facts about Watergate and/or Deep Throat, then *everything* that they reported will be discredited.