Watergate-Obsessed Journalists Mourn the Loss of 'World's Most Famous Parking Garage'
The journalists at ABC and NBC on Monday couldn't manage to cover the revelation that the IRS lost two years-worth of Lois Lerner's e-mails. Yet, reporters on all three networks mourned the loss of a parking garage connected to the four decade-old Watergate scandal. Sunday CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor pronounced, "The world's most famous parking garage will be destroyed." [MP3 audio here.]
Glor explained that the county board in Arlington, Virginia "voted this weekend to demolish the garage where Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward met secretly with his Watergate source Deep Throat, Mark Felt." However, he reassured viewers that a "historical marker will remain." The story was also covered on Sunday's World News, Monday's Today show andCBS This Morning.
World News journalist Susan Saulny insisted that the parking garage was "immortalized here in the 1976 film All the President's Men." She lamented, "That same garage, holding an iconic place in the history of the fall of the President, soon to be torn down, making way for a new residential tower."
In contrast, only CBS on Monday covered the revelation that the IRS "lost" ex-head Lerner's e-mails. Norah O'Donnell wondered, "How did the IRS lose emails in the scandal targeting conservatives after the government spent millions to back up data?"
It's apparent that journalists would rather discuss a 42-year-old scandal than investigate one involving the current, Democratic, President.
Partial transcripts can be found below:
CBS TM
6/16/14
7:31
NORAH O'DONNELL: The Washington Post looks at the end of a piece of Watergate history. Officials in Arlington County, Virginia approved the demolition of the parking garage where Post reporter Bob Woodward met secretly with Mark Felt, also known as Deep Throat. The garage is making way for a residential tower and office building.
Today
6/16/14
8:04
NATALIE MORALES: A garage that played a role in the Watergate scandal that brought down President Nixon is facing demolition. The county board in Rosslyn, Virginia voted this weekend to let developers build an apartment tower and office building on that site. The garage is where the anonymous source known as deep throat met secretly with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward to relay information about White House attempts to obstruct an FBI investigation.
WN
6/15/14
6:17
DAVID MUIR: It was 40 years ago -- it will be 40 years ago, I should say, this summer, Richard Nixon resigning after the Watergate scandal. In that dark parking garage, famous in All the President's Men, where the mysterious Deep Throat leaked that information, that will be brought down too.
...
SUSAN SAULNY: ...Immortalized here in the 1976 film All the President's Men. That same garage, holding an iconic place in the history of the fall of the President, soon to be torn down, making way for a new residential tower. The end of an era, 40 years after Nixon left the White House in disgrace.
CBS EN
6/15/14
6:22
JEFF GLOR: The world's most famous parking garage will be destroyed. The county board in Arlington, Virginia, voted this weekend to demolish the garage where Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward met secretly with his Watergate source Deep Throat, Mark Felt. A historical marker will remain when the garage comes down in a few years time. This coming Tuesday marks the 42nd anniversary of the Watergate burglary.
— Scott Whitlock is Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Scott Whitlock on Twitter.
