Texas (UT) to Get Reporters' Watergate Papers

Associated Press ^ | 4-7-03 | KELLEY SHANNON

[deport]

Texas to Get Reporters' Watergate Papers

By KELLEY SHANNON, Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN, Texas - The Watergate papers of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein will be housed and made available for study at the University of Texas at Austin in a $5 million deal announced Monday.

The school said it is paying Woodward and Bernstein to archive the documents, enough to fill about 75 file boxes, at its Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center.

The center will preserve the papers, including notebooks, assorted pieces of paper and photographs. The vast majority will be available to the public within a year, said Thomas Staley, director of the Ransom center.

But documents naming "Deep Throat" will be kept secure at an undisclosed location in Washington until the source's death; the identities of possibly several dozen other sources will also remain confidential until their deaths.

Woodward and Bernstein will split the money, being donated by several foundations and individuals. "We're pleased, we're honored. This is a great institution," Bernstein said.

Woodward and Bernstein said a trustee will be chosen to eventually help release the identities. Details of how that will be done have not yet been worked out.

The two reporters said they did not discuss placing the documents with any other institution and are donating $500,000 to UT to establish a series of conferences on Watergate.

"From the beginning of the investigation, Woodward and Bernstein adhered to one rule: They threw away nothing and kept all notes and drafts of stories. The result is a meticulous record of the Watergate story from beginning to end," UT President Larry Faulkner said.

Faulkner and Staley were key in making the documents available to the public and yet still protecting the confidential sources, Woodward and Bernstein said.

"It really is new and different and gutsy on their part," Woodward said.

Woodward and Bernstein, then 29 and 28, were the first reporters to establish the connection between the Nixon White House and the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters in Washington's Watergate complex.

Their reporting over the following months won the Post a Pulitzer Prize for public service and led the reporters to write two books, "All the President's Men" and "The Final Days."

Nixon, faced with almost-certain impeachment for his role in covering up the break-in, resigned in August 1974. Forty government officials and members of Nixon's re-election committee were indicted and convicted on felony charges.

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On the Net:

UT libraries: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/

[WaveThatFlag]

(yawn)

Watergate? Wasn't that, like, 30 years ago?

[roderick]

In 2073 NPR will celebrate the 100th anniversary of watergate.

By 2098 NPR will miss one hundred chances to report the impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton.

[Atlas Sneezed]

I wonder if the $5m "deal" involves a token payment, but the high valuation for the tax purposes of the donors. Donate ownership of 10% of the papers each year for 10 years, and you get a sweet $250,000 per year tax deduction each.

[deport]

Even Woodward and Bernstein are donating $500,000 to establish a conferences..... Money and tax donations floating all over it seems....

[weegee]

The librarian at UT was on the air here in Houston. He was asked if there was much competition for these papers. No other institution wanted to pay for them.

Good to see that we paid "fair market value", sheesh.

[skeeter]

The punk Woodward has at least attempted other projects since 1972, but Carl Bernstein has turned a story about a third rate burglery into a sum total of a life's work.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Preach press ethics abroad, but practice them at home -Carl Bernstein's and Bob Woodward's windfall