Initial post on the topic here. Note to the sarcasm impaired: The purpose of these posts is to point out that the same actions getting lefty bloggers attacked as “scalp collectors” for “going too far” in investigating Jeff Gannon, a prostitute who gained access to the Bush White House and to classified information that helped build a case for war with Iraq, once were looked at as a requirement of the free press.

From watergate.info, the story that just didn’t seem quite right to a pair of obscure Washington Post repoters:

5 Held in Plot to Bug Democrats’ Office Here

By Alfred E. Lewis

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, June 18, 1972; Page A01

Five men, one of whom said he is a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, were arrested at 2:30 a.m. yesterday in what authorities described as an elaborate plot to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee here.

Three of the men were native-born Cubans and another was said to have trained Cuban exiles for guerrilla activity after the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

They were surprised at gunpoint by three plain-clothes officers of the metropolitan police department in a sixth floor office at the plush Watergate, 2600 Virginia Ave., NW, where the Democratic National Committee occupies the entire floor.

There was no immediate explanation as to why the five suspects would want to bug the Democratic National Committee offices or whether or not they were working for any other individuals or organizations.

If only Howie Kurtz was around back then to tell us all what a non-story this would turn out to be, and how inappropriate it was to be focusing so much attention on people’s private lives.

A.