Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything - How to tell the truth about lies (complete)

Episode Date: March 14, 2023

A remixed complete version of our two part Watergate series from last year:  Journalists may write the first draft of history but Hollywood prints the legends and the myths. The 1976 film All the President’s Men remains our most authoritative account of Watergate. The film is also responsible for the myth of Deep Throat. Your host follows the myth… from 1976 to the present.  Plus a reporter from the Washington Post newsroom who never made it into All the President’s Men yet did more to safeguard the free press and American democracy than Woodstein ever did.

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Episodes every other week at neverpo.st and wherever you find pods. This installment is called How to Tell the Truth About Lies. Journalists may write the first draft of history, but it is Hollywood who prints the legends and our enduring myths. In the movie All the President's Men, director Alan Pakula and producer-star Robert Redford show us how serious they take this responsibility from the very first scene. We see a security guard at the Watergate complex inspect was the actual security guard who came across that taped door on the night of June 17, 1972. He rips off the tape and calls the police, just like he did in real life. Open door at the Watergate office building.

Possible burglary. This leads to the arrests of the five burglars. Put your hands up! Woodward. Which then leads to reporter Bob Woodward getting a call from his editor at the Washington Post. Check the time of arraignment and get over there. Right. Therefore?

Which then leads to, you know. I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. The filmmakers built a detailed model of the Washington Post newsroom on the studio lot in Burbank, California. And they filled it with paper and trash shipped in from the actual newsroom in D.C. All in the name of accuracy. But this is window dressing. The film is fiction. Hollywood storytelling at its finest. Follow the money.

The most important line in the movie is fiction. Just follow the money. Reporter Bob Woodward has a high-level government source whom he meets with in an underground parking garage. This is Deep Throat. And in their first meeting, Deep Throat gives Woodford an instruction written for him by Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman. Just follow the money. After the meeting, Woodward goes back to the newsroom and shares this advice with his editor.

The money's the key to whatever this is. Says who? Deep Throat. Who? Oh, that's Woodward's garage freak, his source and the executive. Garage freak? Jesus, what kind of a crazy fucking story is this? Who did you say?

He's on Deep Background. I call him Deep Throat. Deep Background is a term used by government officials who want to disclose information with reporters, but without identification or attribution. Deep Throat is a sex act, and the name of an infamous X-rated movie that hit theaters the same month as the Watergate break-in.

Deep Throat X-rated movie that hit theaters the same month as the Watergate break-in. How much can you tell me about Deep Throat? How much do you need to know? In 1975, when All the President's Men was being filmed, Bob Woodward had only shared the name of his secret source with two people. Carl Bernstein, his fellow reporter, and Ben Bradley, their boss at the Washington Post. When it came to bringing Deep Throat to the screen, the filmmakers were on their own. I have to do this my way.

Hal Holbrook, the actor who portrays Deep Throat, initially tried to turn the part down. When his old friend Robert Redford offered it to him, he said, Bob, there's nothing here, he recalled. It's in the dark. There's hardly anything to the role. Nobody will see me. Redford then told him, I promise you something, Hal. People will remember this role more than any other in the film. Robert Redford was right. The three sequences in the underground

parking garage are the most memorable scenes in All the President's Men. As film critics and theorists have pointed out time and time again, these scenes are just mind-boggling. Everything about them, the way they're lit, the way they're shot, the dialogue, the sound, the deep throat sequences, they are for some of the greatest myths to emerge out of the social and political turmoil of the 60s and 70s. Myths about the power of the press and investigative reporting. Myths about the strength of American democracy where no one, not even the president, is above the law.

The myth that the system works. And the key to all of these myths is Deep Throat. I don't like newspapers. In his second appearance, Deep Throat confesses to Bob Woodward his true feelings about the press. I don't care for inexactitude and shallowness. We aren't told, though, why. If Deep Throat hates the press so much, why then is he meeting with a newspaper reporter in the dead of night?

This is a question that goes unanswered. It just hangs there in the dark. Along with a question Woodward does ask right before Deep Throat disappears into the shadows secretaries, lawyers, and bookkeepers Woodward and Bernstein hunt down want to talk to the press. They do so only because they are appalled at what is going on behind the scenes. They talk because they want to do what is right. But since Deep Throat is a top government official, the stakes are higher. Because if he talks, well, then he is betraying both his president and his sacred oath to secrecy.

When Hal Holbrook was asked how he dealt with the enigma at the heart of his character, he replied, he created a backstory for Deep Throat that was based on a question of morality. And Holbrook was by no means acting alone. He never went rogue or off script. William Goldman didn't just give Deep Throat the best line in the movie, he structured the entire film on Deep Throat's struggles with morality. Listen, I'm tired of your chicken shit games. I need to know what you know.

When Woodward meets with Deep Throat for the third and final time, he and Bernstein are stuck. Without Deep Throat's help, their investigation will end. Their story will die. The camera lingers on Deep Throat's face as he agonizes over what to do. And then he talks. It was a Halderman operation. First, he confirms what we already know,

that the break-in was an operation run by Nixon's chief of staff. But then... Get out your notebook. There's more. that the break-in was an operation run by Nixon's chief of staff. But then, he tells Woodward the truth about all of the lies. Cover-up had little to do with Watergate. It was mainly to protect the covert operations. It leads everywhere. FBI, CIA, and Justice. It's everywhere. FBI, CIA, and justice.

It's incredible. Your lies are in danger. Now that is some serious whistleblowing. And in the second part of this miniseries, we're going to return to these incredible allegations. But right now, I want to keep our focus on the why. The Deep Throat we see in All the President's Men has a motive. It's a motive that is emotionally powerful and structurally powerful.

And it's a motive that goes uncontested for 30 years. Because the identity of Deep Throat remained a secret for 30 years. Let's just get right to it. Who is Deep Throat? Well, first of all, we're not telling you. Scores of investigative journalists, documentarians, and private detectives tried to solve the mysteries of Deep Throat, but no one pulled it off. Except for Dick. One of Hollywood's final exploitations of the Watergate myth before Deep Throat outed himself in 2005 was the 1999 comedy Dick.

A lot bigger names than you have asked us who Deep Throat is, so I don't think we've revealed on a little tiny show like this one here. You know what I think. Woodward and Bernstein are portrayed by Will Ferrell and Bruce McCullough. I don't think there is any such person as Deep Throat. I think y'all just made it up. Yes, there is. Deep Throat. Don't say it!

He's trying to trick us! And they are amazing. Ever touch me! But the real star of Dick is Deep Throat. You know, this way we can get back into the stairs without having to go to the lobby. So nobody will ever see us until my mom. Arlene. You're a genius. Young Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams play Betsy. Arlene, you're a genius.

Young Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams play Betsy and Arlene, two 15-year-old girls who sneak out of the Watergate apartment Arlene lives in with her mom on the night of July 12, 1972, to mail a fan letter to Bobby Sherman. It's Arlene

who tapes the parking garage door open so they can sneak back in. Hold it. They also run into G. Gordon Liddy on the stairs. Wait a minute, I know you. Me too. And then, on a class trip to the White House the following day, they see him again. As far as you're concerned, I'm not even here.

Liddy alerts his cronies and the girls are brought into the West Wing. Hi, Bobby. They meet the president's dog. How are you doing, young ladies? And the president. Call me Dick. Hi, Dick. Hi.

How old are you? 15. Well, how would you two be interested in being official White House dog walkers? What do you think? At first, the girls are totally enamored with their behind-the-scenes view of the White House. Arlene even dreams of Dick. But then, they discover Nixon's secret taping system. Get down off of me, checkers! Get down off of me, you

piece of shit! I just don't want this whole fucking War Brigade business fighting me in the ass! You know the goddamn Jews are out to get me! There's a confrontation. We heard that tape! What'd you hear? You kicked checkers, and you're

prejudiced, and you have a potty mouth! You're a bad man! You stinking little idiots, get the hell out of here! We don't ever come back here again, okay? You don't mess with the big boys! Woodward. Later that night, the girls decide to prank call the Washington Post. Hello?

Hello. We, um, know things. What kind of things? Oh, we have a list of creeps. We got it at the White House. That's the committee to re-elect the president. It's to hold them in, and it has a list of names, and next to them are amounts of money, and then dates.

Can I meet you somewhere? There is an underground parking garage. Asked for a name, Betsy wrestles with what to say. Just give me a name so that when you call next time I'll know it's you. Her brother has just been busted for sneaking into a porn film. Deep throat! Yeah, that one. The big joke in this ludicrous retelling is that the girls are responsible for everything,

starting with the taping of the door at the Watergate complex to the resignation of Richard Nixon. You're Deep Throat? Yeah, we both are. How old are you? But the movie totally works, because Dick remains true to the myth of Deep Throat. You don't need to be s Throat. American democracy is strong because there are good people working behind the scenes. The system works. Dick also makes it clear why Woodward and Bernstein were so serious about keeping Deep Throat's identity a secret for as long as they possibly could.

A lot of people want to know who our source is on this. Really? We're going to be famous! But we've decided never to reveal your identity. For our own protection, huh? No. It's just too embarrassing. Dick's going down.

Hey! Dick is going down! And it was embarrassing. In 1972, Mark Felt was the number two man at the FBI. And at the same time time he was leaking details about Nixon's covert surveillance operations to Bob Woodward and others, he was personally authorizing illegal surveillance and harassment of innocent Americans. In 1980, he was even tried and convicted for these illegal operations. But it's even more embarrassing than that. On May 2nd, 1972,

six weeks before the Watergate break-in, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover died. And Nixon passed FBI number two man Mark Felt over, and instead appointed an outsider, Patrick Gray, as interim FBI director. This is why Mark Felt was leaking White House secrets to the press. He wanted Nixon to see that Patrick Gray was not up to the task of keeping his secrets safe. There was no moral struggle. Mark Felt leaked because he wanted Nixon to make him FBI number two man, number one. In 2005, when Mark Felt's family forced him to reveal his secret identity, Mark Felt was suffering from dementia. And in his Deep Throat book, The Secret Man, Bob Woodward uses this dementia to forever shield and protect the myth of Deep Throat. Because Mark Felt's mind is gone, he writes, Deep Throat's true motives can never be known.

There's a nickname for you at the paper. Deep Throat. I give you the guardian of the American dream, Mark Feltz. In 2017, Donald Trump fired FBI chief James Comey, who had just the year before turned the presidential election on its head with a late October investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. Hollywood decided it was time for another go at the myth. Mark Felt, the man who brought down the White House. Liam and Peter, can you talk about what characteristics of the real Mark Felt you

wanted to make sure really came through on screen? In press interviews, star Liam Neeson revealed his reverence for the myth of Deep Throat. Democracy works. That's what came out of the overall story of Watergate. Investigative journalism works. In fact, investigative journalism, I think, was invented then. And Peter is an ex-investigative journalist. No man, and certainly not the president, is above the law. He has to be accountable. Liam Neeson's Mark Felt is a heroic, selfless, dedicated, no-nonsense FBI man.

Dick! Sure, he's disappointed when Nixon calls to tell him he's not getting the top job. A new day. But he's patriotic. Yes. And job. A new day. But he's patriotic. Yes. And loyal. A fresh start. And ready to support the new boss.

As long as you keep the FBI first, you'll be able to count on me. His true loyalties, though, lie with the Bureau. Here's that Weather Underground file. You're embarrassing the FBI. In this film, Mark Felt okays illegal surveillance operations because they're necessary. These kids aren't messing around.

But that's it. The film goes to ridiculous lengths to isolate Deep Throat from the FBI's well-documented excesses. The FBI illegally, unconstitutionally, unreprehensibly bugged and taped... Mark Felt also leaked FBI secrets to Time magazine reporter Sandy Smith. Only in this telling, it's Mark Felt's FBI rival, Bill Sullivan, who is to blame.

Who did the wiretaps? Bill Sullivan. It became a rogue FBI operation. Sullivan drove it. Sullivan and the White House by themselves. How about you? What did you know? About everything else.

I knew every sordid little detail, but not this. In this version of the story, there is no mystery to Deep Throat's motives. So, one more time, what are we doing? You looking for a little help? Pay back? I want the FBI to lift the laundry to its job.

That's all I want. Mr. Woodward. Likewise, there's no mystery as to why Mark Felt meets with Bob Woodward in the underground parking garage. How high, how high does it go? We don't get to hear Liam Neeson say, follow the money, but he does deliver one of Hal Holbrook's other famous lines. Take out your notebook. There's more. When news of this film was announced, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein begged director Peter Lansman to change the name of his movie.

Calling Mark Felt the man who brought down the White House, they said, is not historically accurate. But as our brief tour through Hollywood's Watergate archive makes clear, the Deep Throat story was never about facts. Part 2. In the first part of this miniseries, we visited the Washington Post newsroom, the one Robert Redford and Alan Bakula recreated on a studio lot in Hollywood for their 1976 film All the Presidents Man. The filmmakers famously shipped in trash and paper from the actual newsroom in D.C.,

all in the name of truth and historical accuracy. But while there is a serious problem with this Hollywood recreation, a glaring omission, the filmmakers never once show us reporter Betty Metzger. And she was there. In fact, in March 1971, a year before Watergate, she broke a story that the FBI was illegally spying on and harassing thousands of innocent Americans. A story that editor-in-chief Ben Bradley and publisher Kathleen Graham published in spite of grave protests and dire threats from both the Nixon White House and J. Edgar Hoover. Now, Woodward and Bernstein don't mention Betty Metzger or her work in their book either, so I guess it makes sense that Redford and Pakula

didn't feel it was important to include her in their fake newsroom. But Betty Metzger was there, and she did more to safeguard American democracy and the free press than Woodstein ever did. Really, there is no contest. On March 8, 1971, a group calling itself the Citizens Committee to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania. The files they stole documented covert and illegal FBI operations aimed at civil rights groups and anti-war protesters. And a few weeks after the break-in,

they began mailing these documents to reporters. Betty Metzger was the first journalist to get these documents published. In her 2014 book, The Burglary, Betty Metzger reveals the names of the brave men and women who made up the Citizens Committee to investigate the FBI and their reasons for risking their lives and their liberty. But the burglary goes way beyond the break-in. Betty Metzger digs deep into FBI archives

and discovers how and why the Bureau was able to weather the disclosures and ensuing investigations. She also explains how the FBI is able to use its own intelligence failures, like 9-11, to insulate itself from reform and oversight. Really, The Burglary is one of the most important books in my library. I return to it time and time again. My only quibble is that Betty Metzger's too modest about her own bravery and convictions, and her own important role in the story. Without Betty Metzger, the FBI's secret counterintelligence co-intel programs never would have been exposed. Without Betty Metzger, the FBI Church Committee hearings never would have happened.

Today we are here to review the major findings of our full investigation of FBI domestic intelligence, including the COINTEL program and other programs aimed at domestic targets. In November of 1975, at the exact moment Robert Redford and Alan Pakula were wrapping their film in their fake newsroom in Hollywood, Idaho Senator Frank Church went on national TV and forced the FBI to publicly account for its illegal and immoral activities. King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. It was the church committee that revealed the suicide letter the FBI sent to Dr. Martin Luther King just before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. You are done. There is but one way out for you.

Now, if you had received such a letter, what would you have thought it meant? I have read that statement. I have heard the conclusions of your staff that it was a suicide. In his testimony, though, FBI Deputy Director James Adams refused to acknowledge the evidence. If you are done, there is but one way out for you. What does that mean? I have no idea. The Church Committee also revealed more than 2,000 FBI COINTELPRO operations

aimed at individuals whose only crime was an association with a civil rights, anti-war, or women's liberation cause. Many Americans who were not even suspected of crime were not only spied upon, but they were harassed, they were discredited, and at times, endangered. Nobel Prize winners will always get protection, but Joe Potatoes doesn't. This committee should focus on him too. During these hearings, Michigan Senator Philip Hart expressed his concern that ordinary Americans, or Joe Potatoes as he termed them, were even more at risk of being now by the Bureau as within bounds? But again, FBI man James Adams stood firm. He never once conceded that the Bureau's methods and techniques

were out of sync with what needed to be done to protect the country from dangerous subversives. In the total context of the program, the majority of the actions taken, even the department concluded, were lawful and legal, proper investigative activities. Now, the Church Committee investigated all three of America's intelligence agencies,

and there were shocking revelations about the CIA and the NSA as well, revelations we're going to come back to in a moment. But the FBI crimes that were first exposed by the media burglars and Betty Metzger and the Church Committee in 1975 were by far the most shocking revelations of them all. These were crimes that went way beyond everything that was revealed in the Watergate investigation. Senator Philip Hart best expressed how utterly mind-blowing these revelations were. been told for years by, among others, some of my own family, that this is exactly what the Bureau was doing all the time. And in my great wisdom and high office, I assured they were on pot. The film All the President's Men was the final installment in director Alan Pakula's so-called Paranoia trilogy.

Klute knows about me, doesn't he? Knows what about you? A trilogy that began with the 1971 film Clute, in which a powerful man uses secret recordings and murder to terrorize a sex worker. This was followed by his 1974 film The Parallax View, in which a reporter discovers a secret agency of psychopathic killers. Actually, there just ain't no buster. Listen, I'm tired of your chicken shit games.

I need to know what you know. Okay. Alan Pakula may have directed 1976's All the President's Men, but it was always producer-star Robert Redford's movie. In fact, both Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein credit Bob Redford with shaping their book before they even wrote it. It was Robert Redford who transformed their Washington Post investigation into secret government conspiracies into a story about how journalists tell the truth. But in order to fully appreciate this narrative turn, we need to ditch Bakula's paranoia framing.

Maybe there's another CIA inside the CIA. We're going to swap out Clute for Three Days of the Condor, the 1975 Sidney Pollack film Robert Redford starred in just before making All the President's Men. This way, we get a contemporaneous Hollywood retelling of the secret crimes, conspiracies, and lies that rocked America in the first half of the 1970s. It's a chronological trilogy of films I call the Cover-Up Trilogy. Ladies and gentlemen, my wife Kit and I would thank you very much for inviting us here

today. This Independence Day is very meaningful to me because sometimes I've been called too independent for my own good. Robert Redford says he chose Alan Pakula to direct all the President's Men because of the Parallax View, which came out this summer of Nixon's resignation. It is one of the most terrifying visions of America ever put on film. The movie begins with the assassination of an American senator atop the Space Needle in Seattle. We see two waiters with guns. One falls to his death, and the other slips away in the confusion.

Then the titles roll. Ladies and gentlemen, you've been invited here today for the official announcement. And then we get this amazing slow zoom into a courtroom of judges who share with us their findings from their official investigation. It is the conclusion of this committee that Senator Carroll was assassinated by Thomas Richard Linder. It is our further conclusion that he acted entirely alone. The committee wishes to emphasize that there is no evidence of any wider conspiracy. Three years later, reporter Joe Frady, who is played by Warren Beatty, gets a visit from his ex-girlfriend, a TV journalist who witnessed the assassination. Somebody's trying to kill me.

Oh, Jesus. She tells Joe that a number of other witnesses have recently turned up dead. These people were killed. And whoever killed them is going to try to kill me. But Joe doesn't believe her conspiracy theory. Until she turns up dead in the morgue. So Joe decides to investigate. He goes undercover and discovers a mysterious organization called the Parallax Corporation,

an outfit that uses newspaper advertisements and mail-in psychological tests to locate and hire contract killers and assassins. Congratulations, Richard. You had some very interesting scores on the first series of tests for Parallax. After sending in a test filled out by an actual sociopath, Joe gets an invitation to visit Parallax HQ. Welcome to the testing room of the Parallax Corporation's Division of Human Engineering. Joe is hooked up to a chair, and he's shown this experimental montage of images,

something straight out of the Manchurian candidate. But the Parallax Corporation doesn't need to brainwash its killers. Money suffices. We're prepared to offer you the most lucrative and rewarding work of your life. In a way, the Parallax Corporation is a deadlier and more competent iteration of Nixon's plumbers. But 1974 was also the year America learned about the CIA's deadly partnership with the mafia. So for many viewers, the Parallax Corporation was Hollywood's vision of a secret, government-sanctioned murder ink. Thank you. I am proud of you.

I am proud of you. I am proud of you. I am proud of you. I am proud of you. I am proud of you. I am proud of you. I am proud of you. I am proud of you. The movie ends with the assassination of a second independent senator. I see him! And to his horror, Joe discovers that he's not fooled the Parallax Corporation. They have, in fact, fooled him. This time, he's the fall guy.

The credits roll as the camera zooms out on another courtroom. And a judge tells us reporter Joe Frady acted alone. There is no evidence of a conspiracy after the release of the Parallax View, Senator Frank Church launched his investigation into America's secret intelligence agencies. The Church Committee investigated, the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA. The danger lies in the ability of the NSA to turn its awesome technology against domestic communications. It was these secret surveillance and data collection programs that frightened Frank Church most. But to his dismay, he discovered that Americans then, as now, had difficulties grasping the dangers these programs posed.

Now, why is this investigation important? I'll tell you why. Here he is on Meet the Press in August of 1975. If a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back. Please have the book I left on your desk analyzed and on the computer by four o'clock. Yes, sir. In September 1975, a month after Frank Church delivered that warning on TV, Hollywood presented audiences with its vision of America's secret intelligence capabilities.

A mystery that didn't sell has been translated into a very odd assortment of languages. Turkish, but not French. In Three Days of the Condor, Robert Redford's Joe Turner reads all the world's books and magazines for the CIA. He's part of a team scanning for potential threats and fresh ideas. His covert unit works out of a townhouse on New York's Upper East Side.

One day, when Joe's out getting lunch, the building is attacked. Everyone is murdered. After discovering the bodies, Joe calls headquarters from a payphone. This is Joe Turner. Listen, identification? What? I don't... What is your designation?

Condor. Through his research, Joe Turner discovered evidence of a secret CIA unit within the CIA, a unit tasked with gaming out an invasion of the Middle East for oil. That's why his unit was wiped out, and that's why he too is now a target. Joe is able to evade his killers and solve the mystery thanks to Faye Dunaway, who succumbs to Stockholm Syndrome after he commandeers her apartment. You don't have to help, you know. No, I'll help.

I always depend on the old spy fucker. In the novel that the movie's based on, Agent Condor kills the Max von Sydow assassin who's hunting him, proving to his superiors that he has what it takes to be a field agent in the corporation. An odd resonance with the parallax view. But this is not how the movie ends. He's with the company, why? I suspect it was about to become an embarrassment.

Yes, you are. In the film, the CIA chooses to protect their secrets by killing the agents in charge of the conspiracy. And in the final scene, Joe meets with Higgins, his handler in Times Square. Joe walks Higgins over to the New York Times building and informs him that he's just told them everything, the whole truth about the CIA's murderous conspiracy.

I told them a story. You play games, I told them a story. Oh, you. You poor dumb son of a bitch. You've done more damage than you know. I hope so. Now, listen closely to their final exchange. Hey, Turner.

How do you know they'll print it? You can take a walk, but how far if they don't print it? They'll print it. How do you know? This question is obviously a setup for Robert Redford's next movie, which followed Three Days of the Condor into theaters a mere six months later. Get out your notebook. There's more.

The final installment in our cover-up trilogy is 1976's All the President's Men. And this is also where we began, in the underground parking garage with reporter Bob Woodward and his anonymous Watergate source, Deep Throat. And as I promised in part one of this miniseries, we're going to give Deep Throat another listen. Only this time, let's focus on what he's telling us. Cover-up had little to do with Watergate. It was mainly to protect the covert operations. It leads everywhere. FBI, CIA, and Justice.

It's incredible. Deep Throat is telling us about a conspiracy. The CIA injustice is incredible. Deep Throat is telling us about a conspiracy. A conspiracy that's much bigger than Watergate. A conspiracy that involves the FBI, CIA, and covert operations. A conspiracy that leads everywhere. Your lies are in danger. Now, this is a revelation straight out of the parallax view.

And you know what else these two movies have in common? A fall guy. All the President's Men ends with a series of newspaper headlines, and the final one reads, Nixon Resigns. And then we cut to black. None of that stuff Deep Throat said about conspiracies ever got printed. How do I know?

Well, in 1977, a year after the massive critical and box office success of all the president's men, Carl Bernstein left the Washington Post and he published a huge expose on the CIA and the media in Rolling Stone. Bernstein revealed that during its investigation, the Church Committee discovered evidence

that some of America's most powerful media organizations regularly worked hand-in-glove with the CIA and other intelligence agencies. Officials from these agencies were able to convince Frank Church and other key members of the committee that a full inquiry or even limited public disclosure of the dimensions of the activities in aid, newspapers like the Washington Post and the New York Times provided the nation's intelligence community would do irreparable damage to America's covert capabilities, as well as to the reputations of hundreds of publishers, editors, and reporters.

1977 was also the year the CIA created its Office of Public Affairs, an office that promised to be more transparent about the agency's relationship with some of Hollywood's biggest studios, producers, and stars. You have been listening to Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything. This installment is called How to Tell the Truth About Lies, Part 2. This episode was written and produced by me, Benjamin Walker. You can find more information and links to some of the films and books I talk about in this series at theoryofeverythingpodcast.com. The Theory of Everything is a proud and founding member of Radiotopia from PRX, home to some of the world's best podcasts.

Find them all at radiotopia.fm. Radiotopia from PRX