The Chicago Tribune scored a coup when it published a full transcript of the White House tapes during the Watergate scandal, contributing to Nixon’s downfall.
Clayton Kirkpatrick, editor-in-chief of the Chicago Tribune, tells the staff about President Richard M. Nixon’s tapes and the decision to print the transcripts in the City Room of Tribune Tower on April 30, 1974. On April 30, 1974, the Tribune’s jet landed at Meigs Field on the lakefront instead of Midway Airport on the Southwest Side so its cargo could be delivered to Tribune Tower more quickly.
Immediately after Nixon’s 1974 speech on the pending release of the tapes, the Tribune’s publisher, Stanton Cook, phoned Editor-in-Chief Clayton Kirkpatrick. The moment the Government Printing Office opened, Frank Starr, the Washington bureau chief, bought two copies of the 50 volumes of transcripts and rushed them to Dulles International Airport.
“All we did actually was mark the copy for the typesetters — capitalizations, paragraphs, that sort of thing,” Leslie added. “We didn’t change anything, additions or deletions.” Television spread the word of the Tribune’s coup, and the paper was swamped with requests for the 44-page special section. “It brought crowds of students whose comments caused librarian Charles Nair to dub the display the ‘Wailing Wall.’” In the bewailing of Nixon’s perfidy, the librarian heard echoes of Jews mourning their Jerusalem Temple.
“Report Nixon threatened to ‘fix’ Democrats’ lawyer,” an Associated Press headline proclaimed. “I wouldn’t want to be in Edward Bennett Williams’ position after the election,” was attributed to Nixon in the accompanying story. “Mr. Butterfield, are you aware of the instillation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?” he was asked.
He fired his counsel, John W. Dean, who alerted him to the impending scandal and was entrusted with keeping a lid on it.On what was known as the Saturday Night Massacre, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox. Richardson refused and resigned. Nixon ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox, and Ruckelshaus resigned.
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