What a mess of a family. But the good news is that she has put a crimp in the pockets of Woodward and Bernstein.
I heard that Bernstein and Woodward got $5 million for their watergate notes.
From Rush - he is reading an article here:
We're getting close to the thing about this that somewhat irritates me, because we got checkbook journalism going on here. The media is out there talking about how high and mighty and ethical everything was in this story, and we ultimately got checkbook journalism going on here. But that's only half of the thing, if even that, that irritates me. "J. Todd Foster, managing editor of The News-Virginian of Waynesboro, said that in 2003, after being frustrated in their efforts to persuade Mr. Woodward to cooperate, the Felt family had come to him."
So the Felt family is trying to get Woodward, hey, you know, you wouldn't be a millionaire if it weren't for our dad. Nobody would know who you are if it weren't for our dad. Can you give us a dime? And Woodward said screw you. So the Felt family is out there, well, gee whiz, our guy is the real "hero" here, and so they're shopping their book story around, and people won't give them any money, Vanity Fair won't give them any money, I mean, a hundred grand.
But they want money to pay off the bills. I mean, they want a million dollars or some such thing, and still no mention of Bernstein in this story and I'm halfway through it. So anyway, J. Todd Foster said the Felt family had come to him, "about six months after he had approached them on his own hunch that Mr. Felt was Deep Throat - to propose a collaboration. At the time, Mr. Foster was a contributor to People, which he said considered but rejected an article because the Felts wanted payment." So everything is screwing this Felt guy.
They're hoisting him up here as a giant hero but they're watching his family starve at the same time. While everybody else is making millions on this, the Felt family is practically homeless. It's a good thing they don't live in Laguna Beach or they would be homeless. Mr. Foster, managing editor of The News-Virginian, said, "This was always about the money, and they were very up front with me." Oh, no, no, no. This guy is a hero, his family is interested in the historical record. Deep Throat himself said, "Follow the money."
"Mr. Foster and the Felt family then took the project to ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins. But Judith Regan, said that a possible book had collapsed because of serious concerns that Mr. Felt was no longer of sound mind. She probably told him, "The guy is nuts, I can't trust what he's going to write."