Word: taping
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting of the Watergate matter and its endless sequels, from July 1972 to date; and the full-scale campaign by the Committee for the Reelection of the President later by then Vice President Spiro T. Agnew to subpoena "all documents, papers, letters, photographs, audio and visual tapes" and "all manuscripts, notes, tape recordings of communication," and "all drafts, copies and final drafts of stories, columns and/or reports" and "all writings and other forms of record, including drafts, reflecting or related to direct or indirect communications...
...continuing ironies of Watergate is that Richard Nixon has become increasingly entangled in the scandal largely through a needless and voluntary creation of his own: his secret system for recording nearly all of his official conversations. If his clandestine tape recorders had not been silently capturing his words and those of his most intimate aides, he probably would not now be in so imminent a danger of impeachment. If he is finally forced out of office, it may well be largely due to those telltale tapes. Nearly forgotten in the endless struggles over access to those recordings is the question...
...common-sense question intrudes: Would Nixon speak in total candor, knowing that his words were being preserved on tape? There is every indication that he did. Some investigators who have heard many of the tapes have said that they were appalled by the degrading conversation-talk that they did not expect to hear at a presidential level. "I wish I had not heard it," sighed one listener. Part of the offensiveness lies in Nixon's well-known private penchant for locker room language. What is less well known and more bothersome are the bitter and sometimes savage epithets...
Some former Nixon associates offer a plausible theory to explain why the tapes were kept available in the White House as the Watergate scandal unfolded and before the public was aware of the recording setup. If any member of the cover-up conspiracy were to make any false accusations about a talk with the President, Nixon could contend he had taped that conversation because he had felt it was especially important. Then he could produce the tape and destroy the credibility of the witness...
There is no clear indication yet of how damaging the tapes will prove to be for Nixon. Certainly his general reluctance to yield them to investigators has created widespread suspicion that they hurt rather than help his cause. So, too, has the report of a group of technical experts that part of one tape was deliberately erased. That conclusion is expected to be confirmed and strengthened when the panel presents its full scientific analysis, probably this week, to Federal Judge John Sirica in Washington. So far, two other tapes have been declared to be "nonexistent" by the White House. Never...