All the President's Men - Watergate: A Story or a Compulsion?
National editor:
Let me tell what happened when I was having lunch today at the Sans Souci.
Rosenfeld:
Correction—when you were drinking your lunch at the bar of the Sans Souci.
National editor:
This White House guy, a good one, a pro, came up and asked, "What is this Watergate compulsion with you guys?
Rosenfeld:
Complusion? I think it's a story. This is not a compulsion.
National editor:
I said, "Well, we think its important." And he said, "If it's God damn so important, who in the hell are Woodward and Bernstein?
Rosenfeld:
Ask him what he's really saying—he means take the story away from Woodstein and give it to his people at the National Desk.
National editor:
Well, I've got some pretty experienced fellas sitting around, wouldn't you say so?
Rosenfeld:
Absolutely—and that's all they do, sit sit sit—every once in a while, they call up a Senator, some reporting.
National editor:
Well, what if your boys get it wrong?
Bradlee:
Then it's our asses, isn't it?
Simons:
And we'll all have to go to work for a living.
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