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Boston Globe: Not All Would Put a Heroic Sheen on Thompson's Watergate Role (7/4/07) by Michael Kranish
Amid mainstream condemnation of investigative journalist Ken Silverstein for going undercover to expose lobbyist sleaze, Kranish points out how media pundits' praise conflates Republican candidate Fred Thompson with his "portrayal of a tough-talking prosecutor in the television series Law and Order—in the process obscuring his past as a former lobbyist and "a mole for the [Nixon] White House."The day before Senate Watergate Committee minority counsel Fred Thompson made the inquiry that launched him into the national spotlight—asking an aide to President Nixon whether there was a White House taping system—he telephoned Nixon's lawyer. Thompson tipped off the White House that the committee knew about the taping system and would be making the information public. In his all-but-forgotten Watergate memoir, At That Point in Time, Thompson said he acted with "no authority" in divulging the committee's knowledge of the tapes, which provided the evidence that led to Nixon's resignation. It was one of many Thompson leaks to the Nixon team.
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